Page 130 of Swallow Your Sorries

She’s one table over. Her back’s to me but I have a clear view of the older Korean man sitting across from her.

“You’re eighteen now,” he says, studying her, but the tilt of her head tells me that she probably isn’t looking back at him.

“I’m glad you remembered.”

Does her father regularly forget her birthdays? I know Jarett probably didn’t remember my birth month, much less the year.

“Are those my gifts?”

“How could I forget? You sent over a very specific list.”

Rin’s laugh is as fake and cold as ice as she accepts the identical bags and peers inside, seemingly satisfied. “Isn’t that what courtship is all about? Clear and open communication?”

Courtship???

I peer into the bags and catch a peek between the tissue papers. They’re two mini purses, designer of course, and identical except for the colours. One’s a minty green, the other a pretty periwinkle.

“I’m glad you reconsidered. With the season coming up next year, I wanted to make sure I got your attention first.”

Season? What the…

Wait, this old man isn’t Rin’s father or uncle. He’scourtingher! Before herseason!

The world, this blue-blooded world,theirworld blurs before my eyes.

Why on earth would an eighteen-year-old need to worry about getting married in this day and age? And why the hell would she consider it with a man who can’t be shy of forty-five?

“And you have it. Keep bidding, so I keep it.”

Before the man who’s grinning devilishly can respond, his phone rings and he pardons himself to the small lounge area near the bathrooms. And Rin pardons herself altogether, bags in tow as she books it toward the restaurant’s exit.

I follow her clicking heels onto the street and halfway toward the curb before tapping on her shoulder.

When her terrified face whips around I almost feel…sorry for her, but then she peers into my phone’s camera that’s been recording her entire interaction in the cafe and she knows she’s fucked. Because I’ve just found out the reason why she’s been sending Beaussip so much information.

She’s broke and she’ll do anything to keep it a secret. Like helping me get my revenge on Gant.

***

“Elle!”

Rin barely banks the corner after our little chat before Aria is calling my name, a Deveaurex bag tucked under one arm as she waves me over to the liquor store with the other.

Now that I can see the store’s signage up close, I realize it looks familiar because I’ve been here before. With Jarett. Only a handful of times, but I’d recognize the fading signage anywhere. I stare up at the drunken animals, laughing, dancing and drinking from a fountain. Above their heads,The Watering Holeis sprawled in a big vintage script. The cartoon itself looks like it was drawn in the fifties. I remember hating that sign. Hating those smiling animals because no one inside the Watering Hole was that jolly. Well, not for long. They were, however, just as unpredictable as wild animals.

I peer through the glass and eye the short rows of liquor, but it’s the bar attached to the back I’m looking for. It’s just as I remember it, small and tucked away into a corner. Only the locals really know it exists.

I knew about it since I was six.

But the three stools lining the grimy bar are empty.

Jarett isn’t here.

He isn’t here.

“Where did you go?” Aria asks, falling into step beside me.

“Where did you go?” I quip back because I’d checked before following Rin out. “You weren’t at the counter.”

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