Drunk on Love(45)

She didn’t do it.

“I hope you do,” she said instead.

She watched him walk away, then went back into the Barrel.

“Excuse my language, but what the fuck are you doing here?” Sydney asked her when she sat back down at the bar.

“He kissed me,” she said.

Sydney raised her eyebrows.

“And?”

“And nothing. Just . . . nothing.” Margot sighed. “A perfectly nice, nothing kiss.”

Sydney looked at her.

“And are you sure that nothing wasn’t because of you-know-who?”

Margot stared down at the bar, and then back up.

“It wasn’t about him in the way you mean. It’s not like I’m saving myself for him, or anything like that. But . . . I knew immediately, as soon as he kissed me, that it would be good with him. That it would be great with him. That first kiss, it was . . . My whole body responded to him. And so when I know it can be like that, why waste my time with a kiss that feels like nothing? Why waste Matt’s time when I felt nothing?”

Sydney pursed her lips.

“I don’t think Matt would have thought his time was wasted.”

Margot pursed her lips right back.

“And doesn’t that make it worse?”

“Point taken.” Sydney lifted her hands in surrender. “Oh well. You tried.”

Margot dropped her head to the bar.

“Yeah. I tried,” she said. God damn it.

She pulled herself upright and shrugged.

“Okay. I’m going to walk home now.”

Sydney shook her head.

“Oh no you’re not. Not with that look on your face. Stay here while we close up. I’ll drive you home when I’m done here.”

Margot sat back down.

“Only if you promise not to make fun of me for all of this.”

“I promise,” Sydney said immediately.

“Okay,” Margot said. Sydney started to walk away.

“He’s not dating Avery,” she said as she stared down at the bar.

Sydney stopped and turned back to Margot.

“He told you that? Please don’t tell me you asked him.”

Margot’s eyes shot back up to Sydney’s.

“No. My God, no. Of course not. And no, he didn’t tell me. Avery did. When I had breakfast with her to talk about the party.”

Sydney counted on her fingers. Margot knew what was coming.

“You had breakfast with her on Thursday, yes? Last Thursday?”

Margot sighed.

“Yes.”

“Mmm,” Sydney said. “So how did it take you this long to tell me that Avery Jensen made a point to tell you that she wasn’t dating your little fling turned employee?”

Margot tugged her hair up into a bun.

“First, don’t call him mine. Second, she didn’t make a point to tell me, it wasn’t out of nowhere; it was in the context of me hiring his mom’s boyfriend to do landscaping. She told me they’ve been friends since high school. Third, I was going to say some bullshit about how I haven’t seen you since last Monday so that’s why I haven’t told you, but I know exactly what you’d say to that, so I’m not even going to bother, and I’ll say the real reason, which is that I didn’t want you to think I cared that much.”

Sydney raised her eyebrows.

“But you do. Don’t you?”

Margot didn’t say anything for a while.

“Yeah,” she said finally. “I do.”

Sydney took a step away.

“Be right back.”

In a few minutes, she walked up, a paper bag in her hand.

“I was right—we did have more of that ice cream you liked in the back. Let’s go.”

Margot looked up at her.

“I love you so much.”

Sydney dropped an arm around her shoulder.

“Yeah. I know.”





Eleven


LUKE WOKE UP SUNDAY morning and checked his phone. A text from Craig? That was a surprise. Craig had been his mentor at work; they’d always gotten along well, but Craig had seemed as shocked and disappointed as everyone else when Luke had quit. He’d been pretty sure he’d never hear from him again.

    CRAIG

Thought you might be interested in this news. Let me know if you want to chat about this. We miss you around here.



Luke clicked on the link Craig had sent him and laughed when he saw the headline. Oh, they’d pledged $10 million toward diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts? And had hired a brand-new chief diversity officer? Right. Of course they had.

He flinched when his phone rang. Craig couldn’t be calling him to talk about this, could he? Did he want Luke to talk to the press, to parade him around in the way they’d done before, this time as a Black former employee who had just loved his time there and didn’t experience discrimination at all?

Oh, it was just his mom. Luke was so grateful he immediately picked up.

“Luke! Pete and I are going to that sale and auction you and I always used to go to today. Want to join us? Maybe you and Avery could come along? That is, if you two didn’t have other plans today.”

This is what picking up the phone got him. And he didn’t have to work today at Noble, so he couldn’t wiggle out of this that way.