Chapter 10 #2
“I know, I sound pathetic.” I opened my eyes and looked at her.
“This is what your brother has done to me.” I put my hands up in the air and then clutched my heart.
“Oh, broken heart of mine, how will I ever live and love another again? Parker Brookstone has stolen you away from me and I fear you may never be mine again.” I shook my head melodramatically and fell back into the chair behind me.
Mila just stood there, watching me with a semi-concerned expression, and I knew she was wondering if she’d made a mistake by bringing up her plan in the first place.
It wasn’t working out well. If anything, the added friendship Parker and I now had was threatening to tear me in two.
I didn’t want to be his confidante and best friend.
I wanted to be his lover and the love of his life.
“This is the bar all the hot guys go to?” I looked at Mila with a discouraged face as we walked into Random’s, the bar Mila had been building up for the last hour.
“Yes.” She gave me a weak smile and I watched her face turn toward the bar and the two middle-aged, balding men who were sitting there drinking beers. “Maybe we’re early.”
“It’s nine thirty.” I gave her a look. “When do the hotties come out?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Ten thirty?”
“Uh, okay.” I sighed, my spirit sinking. “Exactly who told you this was the happening place for single women?”
“Yelp,” Mila admitted sheepishly.
“Yelp!” I groaned. “You know the bar owner probably posted some fake reviews to attract suckers like us.” I shook my head and looked around the bar once again.
“And it looks like it only worked on us.” Except for us and the two middle-aged men at the bar, there was a big, bulky, tattooed guy sitting with a really skinny girl who looked like she was high on drugs.
The bar was dark, dirty, and dingy, and I was confident that I would be spending no time dancing on the bar top this evening, or any other evening here.
“Let’s just get one drink and we can go somewhere else,” Mila said encouragingly as she walked toward the bar. “Maybe the first drink will make us feel better.”
“Of course alcohol will make us feel better. The question is, do we want to feel better in this dump?”
“Lara.” Mila looked at me with widened eyes as we both realized that the bartender had heard me.
“You ladies want a drink?” He looked over at me and barely bat an eyelid.
“Sure,” I said and reached into my purse to grab some money, feeling slightly embarrassed that he’d heard me. What if he turned out to be the bar owner? It wasn’t his fault that he ran a dumpy bar. I mean, he was trying to gain new clientele, it seemed, if his fake Yelp reviews were to be believed.
“What do you want?” he said again, looking bored. The expression on his face almost made me turn back around.
“We’ll get two vodka sprites, please,” Mila said. “Ketel One, if you have it.”
“Ketel what?” the bartender asked, looking confused.
“Ketel One Vodka?” Mila said hesitantly. “It’s, um, a brand.”
“I have Smirnoff.”
“That’s fine,” she said quickly, and I sighed. “This is going to be a long night,” I whispered to her. “I might have been happier lying in bed, crying my eyes out.”
“Lara, that’s not funny,” Mila chided me, but I could see the smile in her eyes. “I promise the next bar will be much better.”
“Uh-huh, don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“I keep my promises.” She looked hurt.
“You said this place would be swarming with hotties and the only thing I think it’s swarming with is hep B and C.”
“Lara,” she chided me again, but this time we both started laughing.
The bartender handed us our drinks and we slid onto the two barstools in front of us.
I saw the two middle-aged men giving us the once-over and I gave one of them a scornful look.
As if! To my shock, the guy stuck his tongue out of his mouth and flicked it against his lips.
I looked away from him quickly and then at Mila.
I am going to kill you, I mouthed to her before taking a huge gulp of my drink. “And it will be a painful death. A very, very painful death.”
“Sorry.” She grinned and downed her drink. “Not too painful, I hope.”
“As painful as Parker was the other night with his blue balls,” I said with a straight face, and then we both started laughing.
I wasn’t sure why I found it so funny. I still felt humiliated and rejected, but Mila had been right.
It was better for me to be out of the house, where I didn’t have to spend my time feeling sorry for myself and crying over Parker.
At least now I could commiserate and have some laughs as well.
“Hey, so where do you think you want to go next?” Mila chugged down the last drops of her drink quickly and gave me a quick glance.
“Home,” I said quickly. Even though I was enjoying our time out together, I still wanted to be that miserable person in bed, watching sad romantic movies and feeling sorry for myself as I gained ten pounds stuffing my face with candy and ice cream.
“You can’t go home.” Mila glared at me. “We’re already out.”
“Yeah, we’re out, but I don’t want to be out anymore.”
“Lara,” she whined.
“Mila, Mila, Mila, Mila.” I said her name over and over again and she glared at me.
“You can be so annoying.”
“Not as annoying as you can be.”
“You need another drink.”
“Like I need a lobotomy?” I asked with a small smile. “No thanks.”
“Lara.”
“Just stop. I don’t want another drink and I don’t want to go to another crappy bar,” I whined, getting into my baby-girl act. “I just wanna go home.”
“I promise the next bar will be a lot better.”
“What’s a lot better?” I cocked my head to one side and raised an eyebrow at her.
“Come and you will see.”
“Why are you doing this to me? I just want to go home and sleep and drown my sorrows.”
“You can drown your sorrows here with me.”
“Wouldn’t you rather be home with Ryker, letting him tell you sweet nothings and kissing your neck?” I made a face.
“Ryker doesn’t whisper sweet nothings, so no. And I promised this night to you, so really you should be happy.”
“Yay, you promised pitiful me a night out.”
“You’re not pitiful.”
“Uh-huh. I totally am pitiful.” I made a face at her. “I’m going to start dating. I’ve decided.”
“What do you mean?” Mila gave me a look.
“I’m going to join an online dating service, or two or three.” I shrugged. “I just need to get out there and meet someone new. Or someone who is interested in doing me.”
“Lara!” Mila made a face at me. “Come on now.”
“What?” I looked at her and made a face back at her. “I don’t want to be a single loser forever.”
“You’re not a single loser.”
“I am. I’m a loser. I can’t believe I’ve been trying to get Parker for this long. What have I been thinking? It’s never going to happen. He’s just not interested in me in that way.”
“Parker is an idiot. We both know that. He doesn’t know what he wants.”
“I’m not waiting around for him anymore.” I shook my head. “I’m done being the girl that every other girl calls a fool.”
“No one is calling you a fool.”
“Not anymore, because I’m moving on.”
“Lara, you’re being emotional.”
“Well, duh. I mean, who wouldn’t be in this situation?”
“I know.” She nodded. “And I support you. Just don’t write Parker off yet.”
“He’s already written me off.” I rolled my eyes.
“We don’t know that. Just give him a chance.
No matter how many awesome guys you meet who want to sweep you off of your feet.
There could be many other reasons why Parker went funny the other night.
You know guys are weird, and my brother is the weirdest of them all.
He probably doesn’t even know what he wants.
Maybe he’s just trying to figure out what he’s doing and what he wants. ”
“Mila, let’s just go.” I groaned. “This is making me more depressed. I don’t even want to think about it anymore. I just want to forget him.”
“Fine, but to another bar, okay? Let’s just try one more.”
“Fine.” I sighed loudly and looked around me.
“I doubt it could be worse than this.” We stood up and I did a little shimmy as we walked out.
As we reached the door, I turned back around and saw the bartender and the two older guys staring at me.
I did a pirouette and then raised my hands in the air.
“Peace out, y’all,” I shouted into the bar and then exited, Mila following behind me and shaking her head as she laughed.