Page 89 of Push & Pull

Simone continued to stare into the whiskey that had barely been touched by her captivating lips. “I was supposed to meet an old lover here. She reached out to me, asking if we could meet up and make amends. She says she misses me.” Simone pulled the straw out of her glass and watched the liquid twinkle in the light.

“Is that a bad thing? Sounds like she screwed up pretty badly if you’re not sure about meeting her.”

“I don’t think it was her fault,” Simone lamented, “but it could have repercussions on how I feel about her.”

“What do you feel about this girl?”

“What’s it to you?” The straw plunked back into the drink as Simone lowered both arms to the bartop and turned toward Petra, who kept a respectful distance. “I’m a stranger in a bar.”

They held eye contact long enough for Petra to realize that Simone wasn’t playing around.When I said I wanted to start over, she took it seriously.Starting over from scratch. Two strangers in a bar. Two people with no history.

That week they shared traveling up the east coast no longer existed. Every one of Petra’s foibles didn’t exist in Simone’s world. Nor did Petra know Simone’s twisted history.

“Call me curious, I guess.” Petra grinned at her Coke as she thought of her next few words. “I see a beautiful woman looking lonely in a bar, and I want to know her story.”

“You do this all the time? Come on to beautiful women like me?”

“All the time? Nah.” Petra opened her body language, inviting Simone to indulge in whatever instincts now infiltrated her mind. “Guess you could say you caught my eye when I walked in. I’m drawn to certain women.”

“Sitting at bars alone, waiting for someone.”

“For all I know, you were waiting for me.”

Simone snorted. “Is that some cheesy pickup line?”

“Why? Is it working?”

A shake of the head almost made Petra believe she had Simone where she wanted her. “You kind of remind me of her. Very charming. Cute. Outgoing and friendly.”

“So youdothink I’m cute.”

“Anything I say, you’ll twist around, huh?”

Petra didn’t take the bait for a lazy fight. “Who cares about this other woman? If she’s not here yet, then it clearly was fate that you and I meet.”

“Do you actually believe in fate?”

As someone whowasplaying with cheesy pickup lines, Petra had not been prepared for that. “You actually wanna know? Or was that a rhetorical question?”

“Guess I want to know.”

“Hm. I dunno. Fate, destiny, meant to be, even coincidence… at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. Maybe some higher power is orchestrating our lives for us, but I also like to think a chunk of free will is involved. I mean, it was my will to come over here to talk to you. It was your will to respond.”

“To be fair, you didn’t give me much choice.”

Petra didn’t use her straw to sip her drink. “What about you? What do you believe?”

“I don’t know, either, but I do know that sometimes it really does feel like fate that you met somebody special. Someone who gets you on a level you never anticipated.”

“I hear both of those words in there.”

“What words?”

“Somebody. Someone. Which is it?”

A weak smile tickled the air between them. “Someone.”

Once that sweet feeling settled over Petra, she extended her hand to Simone. “My name’s Petra. Before you ask, yes, I’m Greek. Technically. My mom and I were born here.”