Page 38 of Homesick

“Hi, Sheila,” I say with a warm smile.

“How was your weekend, sweetie?”

I pause before answering. My weekend involved a lot of drama and that drama happened to involve her son. “It was fine. Kind of uneventful,” I answer with a shrug.

Sheila must be able to tell I’m lying by the way she slumps against the bar. “Hmm, that’s odd. Blake seemed to have the complete opposite to say.”

I despise the way my body instantly perks up at the mention of his name. I’m over caring, but it’s not something I can switch on and off. If that was the case, I would’ve done so years ago.

“What did he tell you?” I press. I was hoping to avoid Blake talk. However, I’m talking to his mom, so it’s not my best plan.

“He just told me how you two finally got to catch up this weekend.”

Yeah, we caught up all right. After our little moment by the fire, Ashley kept me preoccupied by the fire, telling me sweet stories about some of the kids she works with as a guidance counselor at the local elementary school. I tried my best to listen, but Blake was chopping wood nearby and every time he slammed the axe down, my stomach swirled in an unfriendly way.

“Yeah, it was nice.”

Sheila looks at me like she can tell there’s more to the story, but she drops it anyway. “Before I forget, I wanted to let you know we’re getting really good feedback about the new website. Also, I talked to Bob about doing some paid ads on social media and he said that would be great. He’s really impressed with the improvements you’ve made around here.”

After a weird weekend, I’m grateful to hear there are still some things I am doing right. Seeing the impact I’ve made on this small business in such a short time is a great feeling.

At my old job, completing projects or accomplishing goals never felt fulfilling. This is different because I’m doing work I like and getting to see the effects in action. I was lucky if I even had the chance to speak to a client at my old corporate gig.

“That’s great! I’m going to run that ad for our wing night this week so hopefully that’ll bring in more business.”

The Rustic Inn did a great job at bringing in business on the weekends, but that momentum usually fell off during the week. My goal is to attract more consistent business and tap into a different customer base.

Sure, this place is a bar, but they also have great food and a lot of people don’t know that. Some families are hesitant to bring their kids to a place that has been coined as a dive bar for the longest time. I know if we’re able to attract more families, that will be a huge help.

Sheila hangs out for a little longer and we go over my social media content plan and some updates that need to be made to the website. After a while, she leaves me to my work, and I enjoy the silence of a slow Monday afternoon in the bar. Hopefully it won’t be like that for much longer, though.

I must lose track of time because I’m pulled out of my work daze when my phone starts vibrating on the bar. I see Emma’s caller I.D. pop up and I immediately pick up. “Hey Em, what’s up?”

“What’s up? I haven’t heard from you all weekend and that’s all you have to say?”

I press my free hand into my forehead and mentally chide myself about forgetting to give her an update about my date with Adam. Or lack thereof. “Oh shit, I forgot to call you afterwards.”

“It’s fine. I figured you did.”

“Okay, good.”

There’s a slight pause before she starts talking again. “Well, tell me about it now!”

“Well, he was a total ass,” I explain before diving into the entire story. I tell her every single detail down to the sticky floors.

“What a jerk,” she huffs into the other side of the phone. “On the bright side, at least you found out he was an ass early on.”

“Yes, very true,” I agree with a nervous laugh. I’m not looking forward to telling her how I spent the rest of Saturday evening.

I’m tempted to keep the whole Blake thing to myself, but it’s exhausting constantly battling with everything in my own mind. Also, Emma is my best friend. If there’s anyone that I can talk to about this stuff, it is her. I need to quit internalizing everything.

“There’s actually something else that happened Saturday night,” I admit before looking around the bar to see if anyone is around. I shimmy off my bar stool and head out to the porch to continue our conversation.

“I’m listening.”

“When I went back to the farm, Blake was there and we sort of hung out all night. It was honestly going really well until things got heated.”

I tell her everything that happened between us the last two days and don’t leave out one single detail. By the end of my story, I’m relieved to finally get everything off my chest.

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