Page 114 of Things We Hide from the Light
Naomi introduced Stef.
“What’ll it be? Shots? Liquor? Wine?”
“Shots,” Sloane said.
“Wine?” Naomi asked.
“Definitely wine,” Stef agreed.
Joel’s gray eyes came to me. “I’ll have water.”
“Booooooo!” Naomi and Sloane said together.
Stef frowned at me. “Do you have a head injury?”
“I’ll get started on those drinks. Try not to punch anyone in the meantime,” Joel cautioned mostly me.
“You’re not drinking,” Sloane said.
“Water is a drink.”
“What Sloane means is why are you hydrating instead of being irresponsible and ordering adult beverages?” Naomi said.
“One of us has to drive,” I pointed out.
“One of us has a sexy as hell fiancé ready and waiting to pick up our charmingly intoxicated selves,” Naomi explained.
“Knox didn’t give you shit about coming back here?” I asked.
The last and, well, only time we’d been here had been the day I arrived in town. Knox and Naomi were in the midst of a breakup that neither knucklehead actually wanted. I’d whisked Naomi away from her shift at Honky Tonk and brought her here to the diviest of dive bars.
Sloane had joined us and the day almost ended in a bar fight when some of the dumber, drunker patrons thought they had an actual chance with us.
“That’s why Stef’s here,” Naomi explained.
“He made me promise to send an update every thirty minutes,” Stef said, holding up his phone.
“Is he still mad at me?” I asked, trying to sound like I didn’t care.
“He will be if he finds out you were planning on leaving town without telling any of us,” Naomi said.
This was why I didn’t have friends. Relationships of all kinds were too sticky. Everyone felt they had a right to tell you what you were doing was wrong and give you instructions on how to fix it to their liking.
“I wasn’t leaving town. I was going to move back to the motel andthenleave town.”
“As your friend, I can’t in good conscience let you get a roach-borne disease when there’s a perfectly nice, clean apartment available to you,” Naomi insisted.
“I’d rather live with roaches than next door to Nash.”
Joel returned with our drinks. Two shots of God knows what for Sloane, two wineglasses filled to the brim, and a water with a lemon garnish.
Sloane made grabby hands at the shots.
“Thanks, Joel,” I said as he set the water down in front of me.
“You doin’ okay?” he asked me.
“I’m fine.”
