Page 50 of Moonshot

“Hey, this seat taken?”

My head tilts up to see a pretty redhead with big green eyes sliding onto the stool next to me before I can utter a word to indicate the contrary. “No, it’s all yours.” She appears young. Maybe she attends college here?

“What can I get you, Tilly?” the bartender asks as he slides a napkin in her direction. Guess she’s at least twenty-one.

“A cosmo and his number.”

Caught off guard at this brazen young woman’s comment, I gaze back over to see her grinning at me as she retrieves something from her purse.Hell, she was talking about me.

“Tilly, is it?”

“Yeah. My mother was psycho. Who names a beautiful baby girl Matilda? I’ve been going by Tilly since I could talk. Gotta light?”

I notice the cigarette between her outstretched fingers and recoil. Smoking is not a quality I can usually get past. And if she’s lighting up the moment she’s sat down, I suspect she’s not the type to limit it to my absence. “No, sorry.”

“You’re new here.”

“Not really. New to the bar, maybe. But I’ve been to this town plenty.”

Reaching for my glass of pale ale, I suddenly feel her hand skating over the tattoo on my left arm.

“It’s nice. You got any others?” Again with the coy smile.

“Maybe.” She’s cute. A little more forward than I like. But, just get your rocks off for the night, Mick. You never have to come back to this bar. “How ’bout you?”

I barely finish my sentence before I notice Tilly’s on her feet, pulling the plunging V neck of her shirt down, exposing her tits with a poorly drawn tattoo that travels across both of her breasts that reads, Worth the Wait.

“Tilly, here’s your drink. Stop flashing your tits at everyone,” the bartender, who’s obviously been privy to her antics in the past, interrupts. “And you know you can’t light up in here.”

Tilly gives the bartender a glare before continuing. “So, if you’ve been to this town plenty. Where are you from?”

“Near Richmond. Just here for the night on business.”

Tilly takes a long sip of her drink, and as she places it on the bar top, she scoots her chair closer to mine. “Well, it just so happens I’m free for the night.”

Her aggressiveness coupled with the flashing of her classy tattoo has me thinking even just one night is one too many with this girl. My decision is barely made before I see a striking brunette glide through the door to the bar. A familiar striking brunette. As our eyes meet, she saunters over and sits on the vacant stool to my right.

“Hey, Mick.”

I’m suddenly filled with rage. I should’ve made for the door once Tilly’s boobs came out, but this has closed the lid on this evening.

“Oh, come on. Don’t be rude. It’s not like you.”

“No, that’s more your speed, Paula.”

“Speaking of rude…” I hear off to my left. Tilly’s leaning over the bar to get a better glimpse of my ex-girlfriend. Great. Can’t think of a worse place I could be right now. Watching my kids lose another game in the last inning or a root canal might be preferred options.

“Where’s Brett?” I ask, irritated and just intoxicated enough not to give a shit what comes out of my mouth right now.

“What? Oh, we didn’t last six months. I’m sorry for that, Mick. You were always the better man. We’d just been together so long, and I needed to live a little. You were so serious, driven.”

Turning on my stool, I look at her deadpan. “I understand we were still young and finding our way, Paula. But it was the way you did it. We were friends before we were together. I deserved a little more than that.” Feeling a little self-conscious at having this conversation in a public place after all of these years, I turn to see Tilly watching us both while popping beer nuts into her mouth like she’s got front row seats for the latest thriller.

“You’re right, Micky. I’ve had a lot of regrets about the way we handled that.”

“We?” I practically shout. “Not we, you. I could’ve sucker-punched Brett in the face in the fucking library where I found the two of you. But I waited until we could speak privately, and you acted like I was the unreasonable one in the situation.”

“I guess I meant more to you than I thought. If you’re that torn up about it after all these years.” Again with that fucking shrug of the shoulders. Jesus. She’s so infuriating. What did I ever see in her besides a pretty shell? “Well, it’s water under the bridge now.”

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