4
I have never seen anythingmore unattractive in my life as I stand in front of the mirror in the spare bedroom looking at myself. The jeans I’m wearing are covered in horse shit and dust. My hair is tangled all over the bun I have it up in. My face has dirt all over it making me look like I’ve crawled in mud all day. My legs and arms are so sore. I don’t think I’ve worked so hard in all of my life.
After putting Molly up, Megan put me to work. She told me she was going to give me easy work today. If mucking stalls and feeding hungry animals is the easy work, I’m worried my time here will be worse than driving back home and facing the things I’m running from. I sigh taking my hair down from my bun.
Megan peaks her head in the door and says, “You did good today for someone not used to this kind of life.”
I turn to face her and say, “I am going to be so sore tomorrow.” I halfway laugh. “Where are we going tonight? I don’t have clothes.” I tell her.
She waves me off, “Get cleaned up and come in my room. I’m sure there’s something in my closet that will fit you. We are going to Hilltop! It’s a bar in town. Shower is available. Towels are in the cabinet under the sink. You can use my shampoo and conditioner in there. Hurry before Collin gets in. He hogs all the hot water.” She rolls her eyes at the thought of her annoying brother and leaves me.
Opening the door to the bathroom, I first notice how clean it is. It looks exactly like I’d picture a farmhouse bathroom to look like. Pictures of horses and cows decorate the walls and there is only a single sink, toilet and tub-shower combo with a shower curtain covered in horses, as well. I quickly strip out of my clothes and look around for a laundry basket to put them in. Opening the closet door, I see a hamper to throw my clothes in while walking over to the shower and turn it on.
Stepping into the shower I stand and let the warm water hit me for a few minutes. Dirt rolls off me and the water going down the drain quickly turns to mud. I take in a deep breath and exhale, letting the weight of the work today leave my tired muscles as I focus on getting cleaned up.
The sound of the bathroom door opening makes me jump and I pull the curtain back to where only my head peaks out keeping my body covered.
My heartrate speeds up and my eyes widen when I see Collin stepping inside. He has earphones in his ears loud enough that I can hear the music, which means he can’t hear the water going in the shower. He doesn’t notice me because he is too busy staring into his phone. Walking over to the toilet, he starts to unbutton his jeans to sit. I gasp. Oh no. He’s about to take a shit! I yell at him, but he keeps his phone in his hands scrolling on it. He eases himself down on the toilet and I start to panic. Looking around the shower, I pick up the bottle of shampoo and throw it at him.
He jumps and looks up.
His eyes widen, “Oh. My. God.” He screams and jumps up pulling his pants up quick. Megan comes running in and she covers her mouth, “Collin!” she screeches at him, “What the actual fuck, dude?” she says, eyeing him.
He stands away from me but puts his hands over his eyes too. “I didn’t see anything.” He screams. “I just need to take a shit. I had my air pods in my ears.” He’s so embarrassed. Megan and I look at each other and start laughing.
“Sorry.” She mouths to me, and she grabs her brother by the shirt and pulls him out of the bathroom and closes the door.
Note to self: Next time, lock the door.
***
I feel like a new womanafter my shower. Wrapping my hair in a towel, I pull another one around my body securing it under my arms, I look in the mirror and smile. You can do this. Opening the door, I head to Megan’s room.
She is sitting in front of her makeup mirror, and she turns as she hears me step in, “Here are some skinny jeans. Those boot cuts you wore today fit you perfectly.” She says throwing me her jeans. “How do you feel about crop tops?” she asks me.
“What happened to rough and tough, Meg?” I laugh. She’s acting girly, nothing like the girl I have seen today. She smirks and says, “A girl can be both tough and a lady.” She reaches into her closet, “Plus, it keeps the boys guessing which one they are going to get. They know better than to mess with you that way.” she tosses a crop top to me.
“This is short.” I look over it with widening eyes.
“That’s the point.” She smiles. “We need you to forget about the shitty past couple of days you’ve had. Let loose tonight and just have fun. Let the people of Maple help you feel loved!” she smiles going back to her makeup chair picking up her mascara.
“Megan?” I say in almost a whisper.
She looks up at me through the mirror, “Huh?”
“Thank you for being a friend. I don’t have any girlfriends back at home. They all left me once they got married or had babies. It’s nice having someone who is helping me get through this time.” I smile at her.
“I’ve got your back girl.” She gives me a soft smile.
I turn to walk out the door and stop, turning back to her, “Oh, can I use some of your makeup and maybe a hair dryer?” I gesture to my face and hair.
She throws back her head in a laugh, “Yes but tomorrow we go shopping for you some clothes and your own shit.” She gets up to hand me her hair dryer. I nod and walk out of the room with a pep in my step.
Staring at myself in the mirror in the spare bedroom, I feel like myself again. The skinny jeans fit perfectly, and I have them paired with some of Megan’s boots. The crop top she gave me actually makes my boobs look great, considering I am a part of the itty-bitty titty community. My hair is down and in loose curls and I put just a small amount of makeup on, focusing more on my eyes making them not look as puffy from crying as much as I did yesterday.
“Let’s go!” Collin hollers from the bottom of the stairs. I roll my eyes and grab my wallet, stick my phone in it, and walk out of the room.
“You know I actually begged my parents to return him when he was born?” Megan snarls walking out of her room.
I giggle. “He’s coming with us?” I ask confused.
“Someone’s got to be the D.D.” she winks. “He’s six months away from twenty-one and even though the folks there wouldn’t say a word, I use it to my advantage.” She shrugs.
“If he’s almost twenty-one, how old are you?” I ask her.
She grins, “Twenty-four. Almost twenty-five.”
I nod and we make our way down the stairs.
“Ivy, I am so sorry!” Collin says still looking embarrassed.
I smile, “I’m just glad you didn’t stink up the place.” Patting him on the shoulder. Megan bends over in a hoarse laugh. Collin looks at me with wide eyes as we walk past him.
“Where are you kids going tonight?” Margaret asks from the kitchen table while writing in a notebook.
“Hilltop.” Megan says leaning down to kiss Margaret’s cheek. “Don’t worry, we won’t be out late, and I have the foal alert on to alert me if Molly starts foaling. I’m still waiting on her to wax so it may be a few more days.” She pats her grandma”s shoulder.
I smile at her, and she smiles back, “Enjoy yourself tonight, Honey. You need to remember who you are.” She goes back to writing.
Collin walks over and kisses his grandma bye on the cheek and the three of us walk out of the door and to his truck. It is an older square body dark green single cab Chevrolet. Collin jumps in the driver’s side, Megan slides in to the middle and I climb in the passenger side. “My Give a Damn’s Busted” by Jo Dee Messina starts playing on the radio and Collin goes to turn it, “Touch it and you die!” Megan says, grabbing his hand and turning it up. “Ivy, this is the motto for tonight.” She screams, “IVY’S GIVE A DAMN IS BUSTED” She nudges me, making me giggle away the tears prickling at my eyes.
Heading back into town, businesses are closed for the night and the streetlights are lit up along main street. We pass Maple Town Hall and it’s a beautiful red brick building with Maple trees all out front. Up on the left the sign for the bar is brightly lit, with a large parking lot and a good-sized building in the middle of it. The neon pink open sign is lit up and you can hear music coming from the inside.
“Tonight, you’re going to let loose and forget that piece of shit ever existed.” Megan says grabbing my hand and walking us towards the door. Collin gets to the door first and holds it open for us, “Such a gentleman.” I smirk at him, and he salutes me.
The smell of cigar smoke hits me as soon as I walk through the door. A large bar is along the entire back wall looking almost identical to the bar from Coyote Ugly. Collin walks off from us walking to a group of guys that he noticed. A huge dance floor takes up the middle and it is lined with round tables and four pool tables to the side.
I follow Megan up to the bar, “Hey Joey!” she yells at the older long-bearded guy behind the bar. “This is my girl, Ivy. She’s new here but whatever she gets put it on my tab.” She winks at him, and he nods.
I grab her shoulder and turn her towards me, “No way, I can’t let you pay for all my shit. I feel like I been mooching off of you as it is.” I say to her with wide eyes.
She waves me off, “Don’t worry about it, besides come tomorrow, you’ll hate me again anyways. You have more stalls to clean.” She laughs at me looking not so happy about my chores I will be doing now.
“What can I get you ladies?” Joey, the bartender asks us.
“Michelob Ultra.” Megan says to him, and he nods picking up a bottle and twisting the top off handing it to her.
“And you, Miss?” he asks turning to face me.
“Umm,” I stare looking at all the options listed on the wall. Stephen never allowed me to drink. He always told me it would ruin our image and we needed a clean image. I look back at Megan and give an “I don’t know” look.
She nods as if understanding, “Give her the same.” She tells him and he grabs me a bottle, twists off the top, and hands it to me. We thank him and I follow Megan as she walks to a table with empty seats. Sitting down and taking a sip of her drink, she turns to me, asking, “Have you never drank before?”
I gulp, “Wine here and there at home when I was alone.” I pause before finishing. “Stephen never wanted me to drink. He always told me it made our image look bad and we didn’t need to lower our standards.” I sigh before saying my last thought. “It was always easier to let him do what he wanted than to argue. There was no winning an argument with him.” I take a bigger sip of my beer than I had intended. To my surprise, I actually like it.
Megan huffs, “Your first mistake, Ivy, was letting him get away with being a prick.” She takes another sip of her drink.
“You need another one.” She says pointing to my already almost empty beer. Before I have time to argue, she’s making her way over to the bar grabbing us more drinks.
I’m going to regret all of this in the morning, but after four beers, I feel more myself than I have in years. Megan ordered a plate of loaded nachos when she went back the second time to get us more drinks. I think she was afraid I was going to be sick.
“I haven’t been this relaxed in a while.” I tell her diving into the plate of nachos in front of me. She laughs and says, “Maybe I should have gotten you a plate for yourself.” I grin at her.
The dance floor gets crowded as “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” comes on the surround sound and people make their way crowding the dance floor. All of a sudden, everyone starts line dancing. I am mesmerized by the way they all move.
“Let’s go dance!” I say jumping up from my seat and looking at Megan.
“Oh, no. I don’t dance.” she says sternly. “You go ahead, have fun!” she says gesturing to the floor. I take another sip of my beer and run off to the floor jumping into the line and moving right along with them. Another sense of déjà vu comes over me again. I shake off the feeling in my gut and start rocking my hips back and forth and dancing along with everyone to the music. I mess up a few times and giggle at myself. Everyone else does it with such ease. I look up and Megan is whooping and hollering at me, being my biggest hype girl. I laugh and stick my tongue out at her and keep dancing, feeling freer than I have in years.
The song comes to an end and people start to exit the dance floor. I see Collin and another guy walk over and sit down at the table Megan and I were sitting at. The guy sitting with them looks closer to my age and he’s tall. His chestnut brown hair is cut short, and his muscles are busting out of his green button up shirt. I walk back to our table. “City girl has moves,” Collin says throwing his hands up and rocking back in his chair mimicking me dancing. I pop him on the head, and he holds his hands blocking me.
“Hey!” he says to me, and I grin walking to my seat and sit down.
“Logan,” Megan says to the other guy at the table, “This is Ivy, she’s new in town and new hired help on the farm.”
His green eyes look me over and nods tipping his beer to me and then taking a sip, “You ever worked on a farm before?” he asks me.
“Not util today. Megan had me mucking stalls all day.” I take a sip of my drink.
He laughs as if what I said was naive and puts his beer down with a thump so loud, I jump. “I thought I told you we needed a man for help?” He says to Megan to avoid looking my way.
“Excuse me?” I say before Megan has a chance to answer.
“You’ve done did it now.” Collin says looking amused.
“You heard me, little girl. You don’t look like you could throw even one bale of hay much less a trailer full. Are you able to wrangle a calf if you need to? My guess is no.” he says eyeing me strongly.
“Children,” Megan says sternly, “Enough! Grandma was happy about the decision and her decision is final. Ivy has had a rough few days. She could use a change of scenery.” She says eyeing Logan.
He huffs and I turn to him, “Wait, please don’t tell me I have to work with you.”
He grins looking at me from the corner of his eye.
“Every day, seven days a week, Sweetheart.” He snarls.
“My name is not Sweetheart.” I growl at him.
He smirks, “Honey, I don’t care what your name is as long as you can hold your own weight out there.”
He takes one of my nachos and pops it into his mouth.
“Say please.” I say and it catches him off guard.
“What?” he asks confused.
“You took one of my nachos and didn’t even say please.” I point my finger at him.
“Dude, she’s weird about food. Just do it.” Collin says to Logan.
I eye Collin, “Don’t you even fucking start.” I point my finger at him and then back to Logan. Collin throws his hands up in surrender.
Logan smirks and takes another nacho putting it in his mouth, grinning from ear to ear.
Without another thought, I pick up my beer and pour it all over the top of his head.
“What the fuck?!” he says growling at me.
“You didn’t say please.” I answer smiling at him, pleased with myself and sitting back down in my seat.
Megan and Collin both start cackling. Collin looks like he is about to fall out of his seat. “I told you man, she’s weird about her food.” Collin hands Logan a napkin.
“You will pay for this tomorrow.” Logan states rubbing the napkin across his face.
I lean in towards him and grin, “Bring it on.” Easing a nacho into my mouth while smirking back at him.