Chapter 13
Serena
The groan that escapes me hurts my head. It’s pounding, my mouth is dry, my back aches, and I’m freezing. My eyes are gritty when I open them, and my ribs hurt from crying. But I’m okay.
Having spent the night on the floor, I’m stiff as a board, but I had my mini-breakdown, and now I’m…okay.
Hauling my sore body up by using the sofa as leverage, the first thing I do is head to the shower. It’s hot, soothing, and makes me feel like I wasn’t run over by the past truck full of horrible memories and something resembling normal.
Whatever that is.
Dried and dressed in my comfiest pjs, intending to do what I wanted to last night and watch movies in bed with food and lots of drink—hey, it’s five o’clock somewhere, right?
—I head to the kitchen to prep, noticing it is 10 AM.
My phone ringing pulls my attention away from the busy work of making enough snacks to keep me fed all day.
Rooting around in my bag, I pull it out and answer when I see it’s my mom.
“Hi.”
“Hi, baby. Everything okay?”
“Yep, all good.” I say the lie with a straight face. I mean, I am good. Now. I wasn’t a few hours ago. It seems I have become the master of compartmentalizing my shit, but I’ve been doing it for twelve years, so it makes sense.
“About the job, how did it go?”
Her casual tone makes me hold onto my snicker. She is so obvious. “It was fine.”
“Fine?”
“Yeah, good. I made a new friend. She’s nice.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful,” she says, sounding relieved. “Are you happy with it?”
“If you mean, am I going back on Monday, then the answer is yes. It’s a good job, and maybe you’re right.
It’s time I got my head on straight and thought about my future.
” I can’t help the ‘yapping’ my hand does as I spin her this tale, just to keep her happy and off my case.
Although, in all fairness, it probably isn’t a lie.
Sure, Logan sucks, but everyone else seems nice.
Except for the other asshole with his name on the door, but hopefully, I won’t have many interactions with him.
“Fantastic. I know Quen was glad you accepted his offer.”
Again, I try not to laugh. She is the world’s best spinner. She can turn anything around to suit her purposes. I love her to bits, but she missed her calling as a politician.
“So if you’re staying there, I’ve popped something into your account to see you through to the end of the month.
It’s a loan!” she exclaims loudly before I can tell her to fuck off.
“I expect every cent back. But you’re going from weekly pay to waiting to be paid monthly, and that’s a difficult transition, so please don’t argue with me. ”
I can almost see her with her fingers crossed, chewing her lip as she waits for my answer.
“Thanks,” I say, knowing she’s right. “And I’ll pay you back as soon as I can.” I leave it at that. There’s no need for fanfare.
“Okay, good. I’ll speak to you again soon, baby. Be good.”
“You too, Mom.”
She hangs up, and I immediately go to my banking app to see what she deposited.
“Huh, that’s a lot.” If I’d been expecting anything less, I would be a fool.
Straight away, I move half of it to my empty savings account so that I actually have money to pay her back at the end of the month, thus clearing half the balance I owe her in one fell swoop.
The rest, I desperately need. I like a roof over my head and food in my kitchen.
Speaking of which, I have some to get back to.
Before I can reach the smorgasbord of treats and snacks, my phone goes again. I haven’t been this popular in a while.
“Rue,” I say, answering it. “What’s up?” I didn’t expect a phone call so soon—or at all. A text, maybe when she had nothing better to do, was my expectation.
“Are you free tonight?”
Contemplating her question, I feel like a bit of a loser.
Yeah, I do. And most other nights. It’s not that I don’t have friends, I do, but they all stayed in college and got great jobs and moved away.
The last time I saw any of them was about six weeks ago when Mary came home for the weekend.
We partied hard and promised to do it again soon, but these things don’t happen.
With being a temp, I don’t stay anywhere long enough to make new friends, and maybe that’s part of the reason why I like it.
Trust is hard for me, but Rue is different.
“Yep. You have something in mind?”
“My friends and I are heading out for drinks. I want you to come too and meet them.”
Hesitating, that’s a whole different ball game. If it had been her and me, I’d have snatched her hand off. “How many are going?”
“There’s Tiff, Suz, and Macy, plus me and you.”
Okay, three new people. Surely that won’t be so bad.
“Sure, sounds fun. What time and where?” Shoving my anxiety aside, I know I need to do this.
It’ll be good for me to get out of my head for a couple of hours after last night.
Movies and food are a good plan, but being out with people is better, having a drink and hopefully a laugh.
“Belmont’s. Seven o’clock. You’ll love the girls. They’re a riot.”
“I’m more concerned they won’t like me,” I blurt out, and then feel like a huge douche.
She snorts. “Don’t be an idiot. They’ll love you. They’re easy-going and a lot of fun.”
“Okay,” I reply lamely. “I’ll hold you to that.”
“See you later.”
“Yep.”
We hang up, and I take a few moments for that phone call to sink in. Out with new people. Shit. Fuck. What did I just agree to?
Sighing and wishing I could back out but knowing I will never live it down with Rue, I cross quickly over to my closet and yank it open, staring at the pitiful offerings.
Rooting through the entire cupboard twice, I finally land on a pair of tight blue jeans, low rise that will show off the angel wings tattoo I have on my lower back, and a black bustier that shows off the girls nicely.
Belmont’s is a nice place, but not too fancy that they won’t accept me in jeans.
I haul out my black stilettos from the back of the closet floor and hold them up for inspection.
They pass muster, so I head back to the shower to wash my hair, wanting to make an effort for my new friend and her friends.
Having spent way more time than I expected prettying myself up, I fluff out my hair, pleased with the end result.
My blonde locks are in waves down my back, I look good, and most importantly, I feel great.
Last night was a blip in my journey, and while I won’t say it’ll never happen again, it was a thing, and now it’s over for a while.
I’ll make sure of it. I don’t want that shit descending on me again anytime soon.
Not when I have a new job, a new friend, and some kind of verve that I haven’t felt in a while.
Stuffing my phone, keys, and bank card into my small black clutch, I head out the door, pulling it shut behind me and then checking that the lock has snapped into place before I leave to jump into the waiting cab outside.
I’m no fool. This will cost me a stupid amount of money to head a short way into the hub of the city's bar district, but I’m not walking it in these heels, and I’m too pretty for the bus tonight.
A few minutes later, and an eye watering amount spent, I climb out of the cab outside Belmont’s Bar & Grill.
It’s more bar than grill, which is what most people go for, but I hear the food is excellent in the small restaurant, which is half the size of the bar area.
Shoving the door open, grateful to be getting in from the cold winter night, my stomach clenches into a knot when I see it is already buzzing.
Still, it’s not packed, so I easily spot Rue, absolutely gorgeous in a tight white dress with her hair loose around her shoulders.
How she gets away with wearing so much white is a mystery, but it works for her big time.
She sees me and waves. Pointing to the bar, I make my way over to grab a vodka tonic first before walking steadily to her table.
Two of her friends are already there, Tiff and Suz, and I’m told that Macy will be along shortly because she is always late.
Shy but determined, I fall happily into their conversation, parking my ass on a high stool and giggling at Tiff’s dramatic recount of her breakup with her latest beau.