Page 73 of Anything Goes

I was glad to see that we were on better terms. Of course, I was sure that a lot of that was because we were out of town and didn’t have to deal with our problems back home. But I was grateful to know where Alauni’s head was at, and now that I knew what she expected from me, I was more than ready to deliver. Handling Maxine was my first order of business once we made it back.

I shouldn’t have put it off in the first place.

When we made it to the small burger joint, I was pleasantly surprised by the aroma that filled the air. Bacon, onions, beef…it all lingered around, making my stomach growl.

“What are you going to get?” Alauni asked, sitting down and scooting her chair under the table.

I stared at the menu, trying to decide what I wanted to stuff my face with. Everything looked so damn good. The burger options seemed unlimited. Single, double, triple…my eyes were definitely a lot bigger than my stomach at the moment.

“I don’t know. There’s just so much to choose from. Have you decided?”

“Yeah, I’m going to get the double stack with pepper jack cheese, extra pickles, bacon and onion. Oh, and curly fries.”

“That sounds good. I’ll get the same thing.”

Suddenly, her eyes lit up like a kid in a candy store. “They have strawberry daiquiris. I’m getting one of those too.”

“Be careful. I think their daiquiris might be a little stronger than most. At places like this, it's all about the alcohol.”

“Well, I’m down for it. I don’t have anywhere to be tonight but our hotel room, and you know how I get down when I’m wasted…anything goes.”

I paused for a moment, my mind traveling back to our heavily intoxicated nights. Shit definitely got real. Nodding, I said, “You got a point. Get as many daiquiris as you want.”

As soon as the waiter made it over, we went ahead and placed our food orders. Moments later, Alauni received a video call from Layne.

“Hey, baby, what are you doing?”

“I just finished my homework. Meemaw is making me some cookies.”

“Oh, really? What kind?”

“Chocolate chip, duh.”

Alauni laughed, causing me to laugh too.

“Who is that?” Layne asked. “Are you with Daddy?”

“Um…no baby. I’m actually with a coworker. I had to take one of my athletes to visit a college campus, remember?”

“Oh, yeah.”

I could hear the sadness in her voice. Clearly, she wasn’t too excited about her mother not being with her father.

“What’s wrong, baby?”

“I was just hoping that you and Daddy were together. I thought that maybe you weren’t being mean to him anymore.”

Alauni sighed. “I know it seems like I’m being mean to him, but I’m really not.”

“Yes, you are. You won't talk to him. That's being mean.”

Squeezing her eyes shut, Alauni lowered her head, but she didn’t keep it down too long. “I know that you’re not happy about the way things are, but like I told you before, your father and I will work it out.”

“When?”

“Soon.”

“How soon?”