Page 27 of Back for More

She winces, like I slapped her, and those tea-brown eyes go ice cold. “To get to what’s mine. Forget the beer. I gotta go.”

She doesn’t go. I grab two bottles from the fridge as we pass back through the kitchen and hand her one, fully expecting her to refuse a Budweiser. Then I change the music from the Stones to The National—something broody and not sexy. I take a seat on my sofa and gesture toward the armchairs, like I don’t really care if she takes a seat or leaves, with or without her beer.

We sit here, silently drinking and staring at each other for a couple of minutes. It’s not even awkward, but it’s not exactly comfortable either. It’s just…strangely right.

Finally, she makes some kind of low humming sound and says, “So, have you heard from your mother at all lately?”

In the past, when she’d ask me that question, there was always sort of a mocking tone in her voice. But not now. Now she looks at me like she’s hoping I’ll say yes.

“She still sends us both birthday and Christmas cards every year.”

“From Europe?”

“Yes.”

“Still no return address?”

“Correct.”

“And you’re still not mad at her?”

“I never said I wasn’t mad at her.”

She grins and licks her lips. “Right.” She straightens her back, holds her beer bottle between her knees, and reaches behind her head to adjust her ponytail. She watches me watch as the fabric of her T-shirt stretches tighter across her breasts. When I blink and look away, she asks, “Are you still friends with Neal and Alecia?”

Neal’s my buddy from school who ended up marrying Lily’s former best friend. Or maybe she’s still her best friend—I don’t know how girl friendships work, but they haven’t seen each other in years, as far as I know.

“Yeah. Course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

She grips the neck of the bottle and rests her elbows on her thighs, leaning forward. “How are they?”

“Good. They have two little kids, you know.”

“Of course I know that. I just kind of lost touch with Leesh about half a year ago because we’ve both been so busy. You haven’t mentioned that I’m back to them, have you?”

“Haven’t talked to Neal in over a week, and I doubt I’d bring it up. Why? You gonna call Leesh?”

“Of course,” she says earnestly. “Tonight, probably. Yeah. Tonight. I just… She’s not mad at me, is she?”

“Why don’t you ask her?”

“Why can’t you just be slightly less of a dick and answer my question?”

“Why can’t you treat me like I’m your boss all of the time?”

“Maybe I would if you’d act more like a boss and less like a dick. Just tell me—I need to know how to approach her.”

“Does it really matter how you approach her now that you’re back? You kind of dropped the ball as a friend. Were you really too busy being an actress to show up for their wedding or the baby showers?”

“They didn’t have a wedding—they eloped!”

“They had a banquet thing for close friends and family eventually, once her parents calmed down.”

“For your information, Alecia and I had a little two-person Facetime celebration after they eloped. I sent them wedding presents. She told me not to come to the wedding banquet or the baby showers, or to come back for the births, because she knew it would be…difficult…for me to come back and see…my dad.”

Interesting.“I did not know that.”

“Trust me, there’s a lot you don’t know.”