Page 65 of Love Rewritten

Again?

First Logan says this isn't just once. Now Roes says it's happening again. Does everyone know something I don't?

Rose grabs her purse and storms through the bar, disappearing out the front door. Meredith tips her head back, eyes squeezing shut, and shoots Dallas a hostile look before she takes off toward Rose. I send her a sympathetic look as she passes, but she just shakes her head.

Dallas’s jaw clenches again so much that his ears twitch with the movement. Surely, he knew this was going to cause some problems, further problems, especially with Rose.

He stands and heads back to the bar, taking a seat on one of the empty stools. Logan and I wait, watching him order another drink. Even from here, I can see the whites of his knuckles on his clenched fist.

“I feel like I'm missing something here. Has he done this before?” I turn back to Logan, who sits with his arms crossed, elbows leaning on the table.

“Kind of. He’s been pretty dedicated to his sobriety since Cole passed. After a few weeks, that is. It didn't happen immediately.”

I twist my brows together. “What do you mean?”

“He never told you?”

My jaw ticks to the side and I shake my head. “Told me what?” I ask in a flat tone.

He adjusts in his seat as if preparing to tell me some big story. “He was a mess for a while after Cole died in more ways than one. Who wouldn’t be though?” He pauses, watching as Dallas takes his drink from the bartender. But rather than returning to the table, Dallas stays seated at the bar, sipping his drink this time rather than chugging it. His head is hung low. So, Logan continues. “He went down a dark hole of drinking. He used to drink like most college kids, get drunk at random parties throughout the year. Normal stuff. And then Cole died, and he got really bad. Like, black-out drunk almost every night, binge drinking for like two weeks. He plummeted fast. Almost got kicked off the baseball team. Almost lost his job.”

“Oh.” It’s the only thing I can say, the only word that falls out of my mouth, which just sounds plain stupid right now.

“He chose that path. He knew what he was doing.” Logan shakes his head slowly as if he’s replaying the memories. “I got so fed up with it that I almost moved out, but something clicked and I knew if I left, he’d likely only let himself get worse. I knew it wasn't my job to fix him or change his habits. I knew that had to be his decision. But I told him, and myself, that I wouldn’t leave him hanging like that. So, I stayed, encouraging him to tone down the drinking. It took almost a month for him to jump on the sober bandwagon. I wasn’t the one encouraging him to go fully sober. He actually did that himself. I’m not sure how. He just … decided one day. I had already gotten rid of all the alcohol in the apartment when I noticed it becoming a problem. We successfully kept it out of the apartment for a few months until I accidentally brought some home one night. I panicked when I woke up in the morning, but he said he was fine. It didn’t bother him. I still got rid of it just in case. I guess I wasn’t convinced he was over it.”

“But there’s an entire cabinet of liquor in the kitchen,” I say, wondering when things changed.

His chin dips a little. “At the beginning of this last semester, I brought another bottle home after getting drunk at a party, but I forgot about it for a few days. Dallas never touched it. I asked him about it when I remembered it, but he said he was fine. I was a bit hesitant, but I decided to trust him.” Logan checks his watch. "Until today, he'd been sober for a year and uh," he pauses to do the math, "fifty-four days."

"You've kept track?"

He shrugs. "I was concerned about him. And that's a big deal even if he chooses to ignore it."

"Wait, so I was around on his one year sober mark." Logan nods. "Did you guys do anything to celebrate?"

Logan barely shakes his head. "He said he didn't even want to acknowledge it. He's not proud of that time in his life. So, I just let him be." He pauses and runs his hands down his face. “We’re going to have to empty that cabinet when we get home.”

I watch Dallas take a sip of his drink. He spins the glass on the counter, his eyes staring straight into the liquid. I’m still unsure of what to say here. I hadn’t ever pegged Dallas for a binge drinker. He certainly seemed sure of himself and his sobriety, well, until tonight, I guess.

“How has he managed to stay a bartender after that?”

“Honestly, that’s still a mystery to me. My best guess is he’s too good of a guy to drink on the job. He’d only drink after work and then show up hungover. Aubrey never mentioned anything to me about him actually being drunk at work. Just that he’d get drunk back at her apartment after. I think that’s when their whole friends-with-benefits thing started.”

I blink fast as my head whips back to Logan. “Wait, what?” My heart suddenly pounds in my ears louder than the terrible singer on the stage.

Logan groans and covers his face with both hands. He mumbles behind them, “He never told you that, did he?”

I let out a single, irritated breathy laugh. “Nope.” My jaw tightens as I look back at him. Great. Now I’m sad and mad. Dallas just keeps sipping his drink, completely unaware of the conversation back here.

Logan grumbles again. “Sorry.” His face is twisted together when he lowers his hands.

“Don’t be. I just wish Dallas would have been honest with me about that sooner.Muchsooner.” That might explain why Aubrey seems to have such a problem with me even though we've never has a single conversation before. I turn my attention to Dallas for a moment longer. “Should we stop him from drinking?”

When I look back at Logan, he looks more stressed than I’ve ever seen him. Logan doesn’t get stressed, just annoyed. He’s good at letting things run off his back. But this? He’s stressed about this.

He runs a hand through his short black hair. “Yes, but I don’t want him to lash out in public.” He looks at me. “Or at you. And after not drinking for so long, I don’t know how quickly the alcohol is going to hit him, or how hard.”

“So, what now?”

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