Page 27 of The Pretenders of Copper County
“N-no. Reed’s not my boyfriend. He’s…” I broke off with a head shake. The story was too wild to be believed anyway. “I only met him today. And I thought he was into me, but he wasn’t really.” I sighed. “He wanted something very different than I thought.”
“I bet I know exactly what he wanted,” the third woman said bitterly. She tucked a strand of auburn hair behind her ear, her eyes red-rimmed but fierce. “Same thing men always want. You’re adorable, sweetheart, and men are pigs.”
“Uh… thank you. Areyoualright?” I asked.
The blonde woman leaned over to pat her friend’shand. “Amber’s having trouble with her old man, Knuckles,” she confided, aiming a dark look at the bikers’ table.
Following her glance, I adjusted my glasses and immediately spotted an older gentleman with long gray hair who wore a black leather vest over his naked chest. His vest had the word “Knuckles” embroidered right on the front like a name tag, which was cool. He also had a very young lady in a very small top practically perched on his lap, which was… not.
“I see.” I winced and reached over to grip Amber’s other hand. I pushed my plate toward her. “French fry?”
Amber laughed, but it sounded watery. “No, thanks. In fact, I think we might need shots. Cheri, can you?—?”
The older woman stood. “On it.”
She returned a moment later with a bottle of Fireball and four empty glasses. “It’s my night off, but I work here,” she said by way of explanation as she set a shot glass in front of each of us.
“Oh. Wow. Thank you. But I’ve already had two beers…” I gestured toward my half-empty glass. “Or, um, two and a half, if I’m being honest. And I don’t drink, as a general rule, so…”
“You do tonight.” Cheri filled my little glass to the top.
I resisted the urge to peek over my shoulder at Reed, though I could sense his disapproval and frustration radiating across the room.
“Because we deserve to be appreciated for who we are, not shit on ’cause we’re not who they want us to be,” the blonde lady proclaimed, raising her glass in a toast.
“Because some men—” Amber lifted her own glass. “—are bossy, mistrusting know-it-alls, and I say fuck ’em.”
And if that wasn’t the truth, I didn’t know what was, so I followed Amber’s lead and gulped the whole shot atonce.
“Six months.”Amber brushed away a tear. “I gave that asshole six months of my life. I thought we were committed. I thought it was love.”
I shook my head sadly, and the movement almost made me fall out of the chair. I’d started to notice that the chairs were really wobbly two shots ago, but I didn’t want to say anything about it in case that was rude.
I also refused to look over my shoulder, though I knew Reed was still there because from time to time, I could feel a pair of green lasers burning a hole in my sweater.
“What did Mr. Knuckles do?” I demanded. I was trying to whisper, too, but by the way Cheri and Gina—the blonde lady—jumped, I wasn’t sure I’d succeeded.
Amber’s lip quivered. “He saw me chatting with a customer at the salon where I work. I was only trying to sell the guy hair product! I wasn’t even flirting!” She sniffled. “Or… okay, maybe I was, a little, but when you act interested, guys buy more, you know? I maybe did that thing where I pulled my top down a tiny bit?”
“That’s a thing?” I wondered, worrying at the cuffs of my sweater.
“Sure,” Gina said. “Show some skin and men go cross-eyed. But only an asshole thinks that means you’re giving free samples.”
Cheri and Amber agreed vehemently, so I nodded, too, as though I’d ever attempted to show skin or give anyone a free sample of anything but a nicely aged Gouda.
“I thought… I guess I thought Knuckles might be alittlejealous,” Amber went on. “But jealousy can be a good thing?—”
I frowned. “Can it?”
“Oh, hell yeah,” Cheri said. “Spices things up. Makes a man confront his feels, too. You should try it.”
Huh.
I pointedly didn’t glance back at Reed as I filed this information away. Reed was bossy and unkind, and I was definitely not interested in him… much.
The wires in my brain needed to uncross themselves immediately.
“But when Knuckles saw me talking to that guy, he accused me of cheating on him. As if I ever would! I tried to explain tonight, but he totally ignored me. And then thatwomancame over to him, and he… he…” Amber broke off with a sob. “I don’t know how to make him understand.”
