the bar.
Taryn laughs. “Manny! We’re sorry. Come back.”
Laura cuts her glance sideways to me. “So… what about this guy you were here with?”
“His name is Brendan Clark and I’ve been in love with him since college. There. I said it.” I haven’t talked about Brendan with anyone. Not one single person since Corinne. I exhale, swiping one hand across my cheek. “Can I have a napkin, Manny?”
“Sure.” He rushes to the stack and hands one to me.
“Thank you. I haven’t seen him since back then. I'm sorry. I thought I was all done crying. Apparently I'm not. It's just that, last night he walked in here like a gift from heaven. He flirted with me and didn't remember me from before and thank God because we got into a horrible fight back then. So he asked to help me clean and he was late. But then he showed, right Manny?”
Manny nods and the girls glance at him.
“He helped me clean up the booths. The chairs are up because he put them there.”
We all look around, knowing the man who put up these chairs, nearly died last night. I take a deep breath. “And voila. The universe proceeded to give me the biggest fucking-never-gonna-happen ever. Gunshot. Surgery. Girlfriend at his hospital bedside. The works.”
Taryn winces. “Girlfriend at his bedside? Oh no…how awkward.”
“I walked into the room and there she was holding his hand.”
Manny closes his eyes and the girls make sounds like the wind is knocked out of them.
“She’s gorgeous. Elegant. An older woman. Taller than me in every way. I felt like I was a barefoot redneck with no teeth, holding a dead chicken, next to her.” I wave my near-empty glass in the air. “So, yeah. If awkward means: heart dragged down to hell and stepped on by forty laughing demons… then yeah, it was awkward.”
Taryn is staring ahead. I can see her face in the mirror against the backbar wall trying to process what I’ve yet to understand, myself. “He just walked in… by accident?”
“There are no accidents,” Laura mumbles.
Ruefully, I smile. “I was thinking the same thing. But then we both almost died, so there’s that.”
Laura taps her pint glass with a single fingernail over and over. “That’s bullshit. Let’s go. Get up. Come on.” She jumps off the barstool and starts sliding on her bracelets; she means business.
Chapter Three
Annie
They’ve got a plan and I’m not into it.
Taryn follows and jerks her head to Manny.
“We’re not going to the hospital.” I watch them pick up their bags while Manny pulls his keys from his pocket.
Taryn grabs my recovered, money-filled bag from where it sits in front of me. The leather rubs against my arms. I watch it, but I stay put. Then she picks up his jacket. That gets my attention. “Perfect excuse to see him. We’re going to the hospital. He needs his phone, doesn’t he?”
I smooth down my hair. “What if he doesn’t want to see me? What if his girlfriend slaps my face? What if she’s really an alien and she’s trapped him in a pod?”
“Never know until you find out.” Laura throws up her arms, bracelets jangling. “Oh, I can’t wait to lay eyes on the guy who’s got Annie smoothing down her hair five times in a row when not a piece is out of place!”
Embarrassed, I smile. I shouldn’t go. I know I shouldn’t go. “I really don’t think this is a good idea.”
“You’ve just said the beginning of every great thing that ever happened.” Taryn throws both her palms up like she’s checking for rain.
I hop off the barstool, still smoothing my hair. “Can you hand me my bag so I can stop doing this?” Taryn swings it to me and I catch with a dip of my knees. “Yikes. Okay. Let’s go.” We start for the door.
Manny opens the register. “We should clear this out first.”
His voice turns me. I catch site of his face and stop walking. “No, don’t do it, Manny.”
With a handful of quarters weighing down one arm, he turns. “Do what?”
Tilting my head, I walk over, holding his eyes like I understand. He stares at me as I put my hands on the bar and get very still. “Don’t blame yourself. Please just don’t. This is all on me.”
His arm drops and a few quarters slide to freedom, tiny clinks hitting the ground below, bouncing through the rubber mat. “I had a bad feeling last night.”
“I know you did. I didn’t listen. This is not