Chapter 15
Food might not solve our problems, but we're gonna try again just to be sure
Amelia
I’m too busy for the next week to dwell on…things.
With five siblings under the legal driving age, someone always needs to go somewhere. Someone’s always hungry, there are fights to break up, and a million loads of laundry to do. Mom and Dad don’t need my help, but I know they appreciate it.
One of the dance teachers is dealing with a foot injury, so I’ve been helping out at the studio. And I took over most of Stephanie’s maid of honor responsibilities because she doesn’t seem to give a shit about any of them.
Which is why Bean and I are sitting in a booth at Mickey’s again, eating buffalo wings and planning the bachelorette party.
“We can just hang out here. As long as you, me, and Haven are together, I don’t really care what we do,” Bean says as she dips a wing in ranch.
Since Haven’s not twenty-one yet, our options are a little more limited. We usually end up here, or at the bowling alley Haven’s family owns. But as much as I love both places, I want Bean’s party to be more than just a normal night out in our small town.
Before I open my mouth to say as much, Bean shakes her head and huffs. “Okay, I can’t take it anymore. What the hell happened with you and the guy at work? I don’t need dirty deets, just… You’re hurting, and I hate seeing you like this.”
“There’s nothing to tell right now. Your wedding is in a week, there’s way more important things to worry about than my love life.”
She rolls her eyes and snorts. “No, there’s not. You showed up here a week early. Drunk and crying. Because of a man. That’s not a thing you do.”
I give in. Mostly. “It wasn’t just a crush.
I fell for him. I fell hard. He… He’s older than me.
A lot. But I didn’t care about that. I figured it would never go anywhere.
And then one night, it did. It was amazing and I thought it was the start of something real between us, but he regretted it instantly.
That look in his eyes, and hearing him say it was a mistake…
” I take a stuttered breath and blink back tears, willing them not to fall.
I refuse to cry about Alex anymore if I can help it. “It broke me. So I ran.”
“Well then, he sucks and we hate him. Did you quit? You quit, right?”
“Yeah. I can’t go back there. I can’t see him again, Bean.”
“Please tell me you weren’t drunk when you sent in your resignation letter.”
“No. I was drunk when I wrote it, but checked it over in the morning during the short window of time when I was mostly sober. Well, kind of sober… a little sober.”
“Damn, Min. I’m sorry. What the fuck? He definitely doesn’t deserve you.” She shakes her head and takes a long sip of her margarita.
“I thought maybe he was the one, you know? I wanted him to be. I wanted him to be so fucking much.”
She moves to sit on the same side as me and wraps her arms around me. I drop my head to her shoulder.
“Maybe he’ll pull his head out of his ass and grovel.”
“Not sure I’d forgive him, though,” I mutter. And he’d have to find me first. I never thought a glitch would work out in my favor, but thankfully, there’s nothing in my employee file that’ll help him.
We order nachos and more drinks. When a pool table opens up, we claim it just before Haven walks through the door. She stops to talk to Dolly for a few seconds and waves at her new neighbors on her way to us.
“Ooooh, nachos! I’m starving!” She grabs a few off the plate and shoves them in her mouth. “I’ve got mushrooms and pickles coming.”
“Surprising,” Bean deadpans.
Haven grins. “Anything I can dip in the dill ranch is happening tonight.”
I motion toward the booth across the restaurant with my head. “Do you want to go say hi to your neighbors?”
“Uh, maybe later.” Haven’s cheeks turn pink. “Come on, finish this game, I want to play the winner.”
Bean and I smirk at each other. I don’t think I’ve ever known Haven to blush before Dax moved in next door to her, but she did a whole lot of it last Saturday at the Barbecue Bash. And he couldn’t take his eyes off her all day.
Bending over the table, Bean sinks the winning shot. “Then rack ‘em up.”
“Fucking hell,” Haven says when Bean beats her ten minutes later. “At least I can drown my sorrows in dill ranch.”
Dolly stops next to our little table and starts moving baskets off her tray. “That you can, sweetie. I need to drop some off to your neighbors, that boy might like it just as much as you do. Poor guy didn’t think to dunk a few mushrooms in it until they were gone.”
“That’s illegal. I’ll take the ranch over. I need to harass them a little anyway.” Haven piles the ranch cups on top of her mushrooms. “I’ll be back to get my ass kicked some more.”
“She so likes that guy!” Bean declares. Dax’s face lights up as Haven walks across the room.
I start setting up for our next game. “It’s cute. And he seems like a giant teddy bear, which might be exactly what she needs.”
Haven wanders back a little while later and blushes every time she looks toward Dax. Which is often. We shoot some more pool and move on to darts for an hour or so before Haven heads home.
Calvin’s been out doing shit with his buddies all week, and will probably continue to do so up until he’s supposed to show up at the altar, but this is the first time Bean’s had the chance to do the same since the barbecue.
I realize that while having girls’ night here is great, we need to step it up for the bachelorette party.
My brain starts planning bigger while Bean and I finish one last basket of fries.
Bean’s phone dings. “Shit,” she says, reading the text.
“What’s up?”
“I have to pick my dad up from the airport tomorrow.”
“I thought he wasn’t coming in until closer to the wedding.”
“He wasn’t, but he’s all kinds of messed up right now, and I think he just needs to get away.” Her fingers fly across the screen as she responds to him.
“What do you mean?”
“I think his secretary got a new job or something. I’m not totally sure what happened, but he sounded depressed when I talked to him the other day.”
I haven’t met Bean’s dad, which is kind of wild because he lives in New York. But our schedules never coordinated during her visits there.
“That sucks.”
“I told him he should fight to keep her. I hope he does. He’s not the same without her. He’s been mopey and cranky. Kind of like you,” she says, sticking her tongue out at me. I roll my eyes and throw a fry at her.
She’s not wrong, though.