Chapter 33
For every girl with a broken heart, there’s a friend waiting with shots of moonshine.
Sophia
I rush from the brewery to my car. Flynn isn’t chasing after me. He’s not fighting for me. With him, I thought I had found my home. He obviously doesn’t feel the same way.
I need to get out of here before I break down and end up blubbering in my car. Someone’s bound to notice me and report back to Flynn. No way is he finding out how he devastated me.
I reach for my keys and realize I don’t have my keys, my purse, or my phone. “Stupid pirates!”
“I don’t know why you’re giving pirates a bad rap, but here’s your purse.” Chloe shoves my purse at me, and I scream.
“Holy shit. You scared the mermaid out of me.” I clutch my chest until my heart rate returns to normal. “What are you doing in here?”
“I think you mean what are we doing in here.”
At her words, I twist to look in the backseat. Chloe, Nova, and Maya wave at me.
“Where’s Paisley?”
“I’m here.”
I glance down and notice she’s lying on the floor.
“What are you doing down there?”
“Apparently, I’m being punished for not agreeing to this Flynn scheme.”
“It wasn’t a scheme,” Nova claims.
“It wasn’t?”
“No,” Maya insists. “It was supposed to be romantic.”
“Sorry to burst your bubble but there was nothing romantic about my conversation with the man who shall forthwith be referred to as Asshole Number 1.”
“Who’s Asshole Number 2?” Paisley asks, and Chloe tugs on her hair. “What? It’s a legitimate question. You don’t start numbering assholes unless there’s more than one.”
“She has a point,” Maya says.
“Asshole Number 2 is Weston, aka the big brother who continues to try and rule my life. I’m thirty not thirteen. I don’t need my big brother to storm in and save me from bullies.”
“You never needed him to save you from bullies. You had us at your back.” Chloe flexes her bicep.
“As much as I’m enjoying this enlightening conversation, can I get up now?” Paisley asks.
“Shotgun!” Chloe shouts before climbing over the seat to the front.
“You couldn’t have used the door?” Paisley asks as she wipes non-existent dust from her clothes.
“There’s no need to call shotgun. We’re not going anywhere,” I claim.
Maya giggles, and I shoot her a glare. She holds up her hands in defense. “Sorry. But you have to admit it’s funny how you think you can avoid us.”
“I want to be alone.”
“In your dreams,” Chloe sings as Nova, Maya, and Paisley laugh.
“Fine,” I huff. “You can join me at my parents’ house for cookies and milk.”
I don’t want to run to my mom but where else do I have to go? Flynn’s house is out. My apartment has no bathroom. And I’d probably murder Weston if I went to his place.
“Your mom isn’t home,” Chloe claims.
I narrow my eyes on her. “How do you know?”
She wiggles her phone at me. “She texted to let me know she’ll meet us at Bootlegger. ”
“Did she text before or after you ordered her to meet us at the bar?”
Chloe shrugs. “Does it matter?”
“I don’t want to drown my sorrows.”
“Good, since you tend to remove your clothes when you’re wasted,” Nova says. “Weston would lose his mind.”
“As would Flynn,” Maya adds.
“I don’t give a shit what Asshole Number 1 would do. He’s no longer a consideration in my life.”
“Why is Flynn now referred to as Asshole Number 1?” Paisley asks and Maya pinches her. “Ouch! What? She’s going to tell us eventually. Personally, I prefer her to explain it now. I don’t speak Drunk Sophia.”
“Since Drunk Sophia tends to explain with charades, no one speaks Drunk Sophia,” Nova says.
“One time!” I wave my index finger at her. “One time I decided to explain with charades and you won’t let it go.”
Chloe giggles. “It’s too hilarious to forget. You fell down while hopping on one foot.”
“And then decided it was your pants fault and began to strip,” Paisley continues.
“But she forgot to remove her shoes.” I can barely understand Maya through her laughing, but I don’t need to. I’ve heard the story before. Hell, I lived it.
“And ended up jumping up and down while screaming at her shoes while her pants were around her ankles,” Nova finishes.
I give them the finger but they’re laughing too hard to notice.
“All right! All right!” I clap my hands to get their attention. “You’ve had your fun. Can you please get out of my car?”
Chloe wipes tears of mirth from her eyes. “I’m serious. Your mom is meeting us at Bootlegger.”
“Great,” I mutter as I dig my car keys out of my purse. “I get to tell my sad story to my mom. It’s what every little girl dreams of.”
“Or you can tell us now,” Maya pushes.
“Fine. You want to know. I’ll tell you. I love Flynn, but he doesn’t think I’m worth fighting for.”
“Explain,” Paisley orders.
“My brother – Asshole Number 2 – gave Flynn an ultimatum. Me or him?”
Maya gasps. “No.”
“And Flynn chose Weston over you?” Nova shakes her head. “Harsh.”
“He didn’t choose anyone. The idiot’s been avoiding both of us for the past week.”
“Good.” Nova smiles.
Is she crazy? Chloe’s normally the crazy one of my friends. I can’t handle two crazies in our group. “What’s good about it?”
“It means he loves you both.”
I slam a fist on my chest. “But he didn’t fight for me. He didn’t declare to the world he couldn’t live without me. He crept away and hid from all his problems. I’m surprised he didn’t run away.”
“Flynn has no other family,” Paisley says. “I imagine losing his best friend, whom he considers a brother, would be a blow.”
Tears well in my eyes again. “But I could be his family. I could give him children.”
Chloe pats my hand. “He’ll realize how much you can give to him and how much he loves you.”
I rub my eyes to stop the tears from escaping. I’m not falling apart where other people can witness it.
“I don’t know if it’ll be enough. He put me through hell this week. He ghosted me. We lived in the same house, but I hadn’t seen him once since we were at the police station. Being ignored by the man you love hurts worse than descending through the nine circles of hell.”
“But he didn’t break up with you. Give him some time,” Maya urges.
“The romantic strikes again,” I mumble.
“Can I return to work now?” Paisley asks. “We got the truth out of her, and she’s cried. Mission accomplished.”
“Maya slap Paisley,” Chloe orders. “Our mission is not accomplished. Our mission is to cheer Sophia up.”
“You said our mission was to find out why Sophia has a stick up her ass.” Paisley grimaces. “Sorry, Sophia. I didn’t say those words.”
“And now our mission has changed.” Chloe points to the road. “Drive.”
I notice Flynn standing near the entrance to the brewery. Yep. Time to get out of here.
“I can’t believe I’m here,” I grumble as I walk into Bootlegger.
“Sloane!” Chloe greets the bartender. “A round of shots.”
I groan. “I can’t drink. I’m driving.”
“Don’t worry, dear,” Mom says as she steps toward me. I hadn’t even noticed her. “Dad is picking us up.”
“Six shots, Sloane!” Chloe shouts. “Try to say that fast.”
Sloane fills six shot glasses with moonshine, and Chloe hands them out. She holds up her glass. “To smugglers, bootleggers, rumrunners…”
“And the mermaids who hate them!” I shout before downing my shot.
“Oh my,” Mom mutters. “It’s worse than I thought.”
I narrow my eyes at her. “What do you mean? Worse than you thought? What did you think? What do you know?” I gasp. “Does the whole town know?” I groan. “I’m going to have to move away again, aren’t I? I can’t go back to Atlanta. I burned my bridges there when I called Shane a lying asshole before yelling at my boss for supporting the patriarchy.”
“Smash the patriarchy!” Paisley shouts.
My jaw drops open. Paisley doesn’t shout or yell.
“What?” she asks as she pushes her glasses up her nose. “I support causes.”
“She even went to D.C. for a march,” Nova explains as she refills our shot glasses.
“Why don’t I know about this?”
Everyone ignores me as they raise their glasses.
“Long live mermaids!” Nova toasts and I down my shot.
The second shot goes down much easier than the first. Moonshine isn’t so bad once you’re used to it. Chloe slings her arm around my shoulders and leads me toward the stage.
“Where are we going? I want another shot.” Or twenty. Anything to help me forget how Flynn stood frozen in the room when I confessed I loved him. How he didn’t move an inch when I ran away. How he didn’t fight for me.
“I’d fight for him, you know,” I say. “I’d slay Flynn’s dragons for him. Should I track down his dad and have him assassinated?”
Mom swipes the shot glass from my hand. “No more shots for you.”
“But I want more moonshine. Moonshine is home. I missed home when I was away. And now I need to leave again.”
“You are not going anywhere.”
Chloe drags me forward. “Except to the stage to sing.”
“Sing? I don’t sing.” I notice the set-up on the stage. “Oh, look! Karaoke. What song shall I sing?”
I wave to Sloane. “Do you have the ten-minute version of All Too Well ?”
“You are not singing breakup songs,” Chloe orders.
“Why not? I lost the man I love today.”
“You did not lose Flynn today,” Mom insists.
“Yes, I did.” I bob my head and nearly lose my balance. I grab hold of the microphone stand to steady myself. “Weston told Flynn he had to choose between me or him. Guess who he chose? Spoiler alert. It wasn’t me. Because I’m not worth fighting for.”
Mom marches to me and grasps my hand. “You listen to me, daughter of mine. You are worth fighting for. You’re worth everything. You’re my beautiful, smart, talented, stubborn daughter.”
“Flynn doesn’t agree. I was supposed to return home from Atlanta mega successful. He would take one look at me and realize I’m not his little sister.”
Mom squeezes my hands. “You can’t give up on Flynn. He lost his family when he was a teenager and Weston became his family. He needs time to realize he won’t lose Weston. He’ll gain an entire new family.”
“You really think so?”
“I know so.” She kisses my forehead before releasing me and jumping off the stage. “Now play something upbeat.”
The speakers switch on and a piano intro plays.
“I Will Survive!” I announce the song although every woman over the age of fifteen knows it.
It’s a lie. I don’t know how I’ll survive when the man my heart latched onto at eleven doesn’t want me.