Page 64 of Next in Line
“And I’ll have a Coors bottle,” Miles adds, then looks at me expectantly.
I bite my lip, unsure why he’s staring at me like that. Does he know? Does he suspect something’s going on because his best friend just pulled out my stool for me?
“You want Chardonnay?” Sam asks out of nowhere. “They have good wine here.”
My head jerks from side to side. “I hate wine.”
He frowns back at me, and I internally kick myself because a glass of Chardonnay does sound delicious. The waitress stares impatiently at me to make my decision, so I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. “I’ll have a Guinness.” Both Sam’s and Miles’s faces contort in confusion.
“You hate beer, Megan,” Miles states knowingly.
“Not anymore!” I exclaim, feeling my shoulders tense. “Sterling has me converted. He crafts his own beer sometimes.” That part is actually true, so I’m grateful that at least one thing coming out of my mouth tonight isn’t a total lie.
Miles shrugs, and I can feel Sam staring at me from across the table, but I refuse to look at him. The waitress heads off for our drinks, and the four of us sit there—girls on one side, boys on the other—as though we’re on a flipping double date.
Miles and Sam start talking about their classic car expansion plans for Tire Depot when my phone dings inside my purse. When I pull it out, I unlock it and find a text from Sterling.
Sterling: I miss you, baby. I need to see you…soon.
My heart thunders in my chest when Kate leans over. “Who’s the text from?” she asks.
I jerk my phone away so she can’t see it. “No one,” I reply instantly.
She eyes me suspiciously. “Stop lying. It’s fromhim,isn’t it?”
I roll my eyes, annoyed that she always seems to know everything. Leaning in closely, I whisper, “Yes, it’s from Sterling. He says he wants to see me.”
Kate’s lip curls up in disgust. “Why?”
I shrug. “He said he misses me.”
Kate barks out a laugh. “Does he want you back?”
My eyes go wide as I look over to see if Miles and Sam overheard anything. Thankfully, they’re still engrossed in shop talk, so I lean in and hiss, “Lower your voice, okay? I don’t know what he wants, but I have a feeling that could be it.”
Kate averts her eyes to look at Sam. Pointing her finger back and forth between the two of us, she says, “This makes sense to me.” Then she points at my phone. “That doesn’t make sense to me.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask with wide, pleading eyes as I wave my phone at her. “This is what I’m working toward. This is why I’ve been in Boulder for the past few weeks acting like some sort of woman of the woods.”
She takes a long sip of her drink, grabbing an ice cube and crunching it loudly with obvious agitation. At the same time, Sam peers over at me with a tiny hint of a smile that I think is obvious only to me, but I look over to see that Kate witnessed it too.
She leans in and whispers in my ear. “Sexual chemistry with just one look, Meggie-Bear.”
“Shut up, Kate,” I whisper and resist the urge to push her off her stool.
The drinks arrive, and I nearly gag when I take a sip of the Guinness. It’s thick like mud, and I can’t believe people actually drink this shit. Sam stares at me over the top of his beer with a furrow to his brow. I’m afraid he’s going to call me out on my drink, so out of nowhere, I blurt out, “I don’t eat the butt ends of a loaf of bread because when we were kids, Miles told me they were human butts.”
Kate sputters out a laugh, spraying her drink all over the table. “Excuse me?” she asks, wiping the dribble off her chin.
“Yep,” I confirm with a jerky head nod. “I can’t eat them because all I think of are butts. It’s illogical because clearly, I know how bread is made and that it in no way requires human flesh as an ingredient, but every time I get a new loaf of bread, the first thing I do is throw away the butt ends so I don’t have to look at them.”
Miles blinks back at me like I’m a moron, and Sam is trying his hardest not to laugh, which only makes him look even sexier.
Kate is no help as she giggles uncontrollably next to me. “Here Meg, I think you should try this.” She slides her drink over to me.
I lean down and take a fortifying sip, hoping like heck it will calm my nerves. Why am I being such a spaz right now? The story of the time I smeared Dippity-do hair gel all over our family dog and told Miles he was really sweaty is on the tip of my tongue…and that’s not even a good story!
My eyes connect with Sam, and he seems completely confused by my actions. He can just join the club because I am confused too.
