Page 90 of Fly with Me

Olive chuckled. “I feel like there are so many jokes I could make, but they’re all tired, so I’ll abstain.”

Suzanne smirked. “Thank God.”

“What do you want, Joni?”

“Any beer. Not picky.”

“Got it.”

While she was waiting for the beers, Derek appeared beside her. “Suzanne’s bi and single,” he said.

“Oh?”

“And hot.”

“These are all objectively true facts.” She focused on liquor bottles lined up behind the bar.

“So?” Derek’s tone was suggestive.

“So what?”

“Is a fake girlfriend going to stand in the way of you hanging out with Suzanne?”

“Just because two women fuck women and are in the same place doesn’t mean they’ll fuck each other.” Olive tapped her fingers on the bar with the rhythm of the song.

Derek gave a quirk of the head in Suzanne’s direction. “Olive, two months ago you’d have been all over a woman like Suzanne. Hot teacher energy.”

“Joni said she was a guidance counselor.”

“Whatever. The point is that you were saying there’s no harm in this thing with Stella because you’re not interested in anyone else.”

“I’m not interested in anyone else.”

“Because of Stel-la.” He drew out her name as if Olive didn’t know who he was talking about. He exhaled. “Stel-la is in the way of you getting a perfectly good orgasm from that smokin’ woman over there. I’m not saying you should marry her, just go and fool around. Break the Lindsay cycle.”

“Alyson and I are doing fine, thank you.”

Derek took Joni’s bottle from the bartender, leaving Suzanne’s for Olive. Olive pushed through the crowd back to their table. “I’ve got your Raging Bitch.”

Suzanne lowered her voice into a conspiratorial half whisper. “But where’s my beer?”

They all laughed.

“That was pathetic.” Joni smacked her sister on the shoulder.

“Yeah, pathetic,” Derek agreed, but he wasn’t looking at Suzanne; he wasn’t even looking at Olive. No, his eyes were on a blond woman at the bar, sipping what Olive knew to be a vodka tonic—always very light on the tonic.

Lindsay.

Chapter 31

Derek tugged on Olive’s arm, redirecting her focus to Suzanne. “Just ignore Lindsay.”

Olive sucked down a few more swallows of her drink. “She showed up here because she won’t leave me alone. Shouldn’t I let her say what she needs to say? Preferably not at work.”

Derek seemed to be measuring Olive’s expression, and uncharacteristically, Olive couldn’t read his thoughts. Before Stella, Derek had been worried Olive would jump back into bed with Lindsay again. Now, he was worried Stella would break her heart. She wasn’t sure where that left his anxiety over her love life at the moment, but at the very least, he seemed torn.

“If she needs closure, I’m going to give it to her. I’m sick of this shit.”