Say You Love Me(28)

“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.”

“Sally,” she chided me again, but this time we both started laughing. The bartender handed us over our drinks and we slid onto the two bar stools 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 Cody 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 Cody. 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, 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.”

“Sally,” 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.”

“Sally.”

“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 TJ? Letting him tell you sweet nothings and kissing your neck?” I made a face.

“TJ 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.”

“Sally!” 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 Cody for this long. What have I been thinking? It’s never going to happen. He’s just not interested in me in that way.”

“Cody 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.”

“Sally, 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 Cody off as 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 Cody 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.