A Toast to the Good Times - By Liz Reinhardt Page 0,49
temper shake Incredible Hulk style.
How could I have been so dense to not see any of this coming?
How, only a few days ago, was Mila just my roommate?
“Yeah, the nerd-fest is this January, maybe, or something? Reggie is going to do this whole big production when he asks her. He’s got big plans, I guess.” Tyler is eager to move on to topics that have more to do with him, and he thinks he’s being suave by meshing conversation about Mila into them. “So, Mila came out here with you? Are you guys together? Or is she tending bar for you? I thought she worked in a bookstore or something.”
“She works in a library,” I mutter, starting to walk away from him and over to her, determined to get my romance on before some semi-famous DJ with the keys to the nerd romance that will make her dreams come true swoops in and steals my thunder. Two can play at this game. I can Google and order nerd-fest tickets as well as the next guy can.
Tyler grabs my arm. “Hey, man, so, can we get together? Maybe talk about the bar? That money is just sitting in my bank account. I know we went through some shit, and that was stupid as hell on my end. Bros before hoes is definitely the moral of the story for me, man. So, what are you thinking?”
All kinds of things come to mind. Things that have to do with split lips and black eyes and revenge so sweet, I can smell the open wounds.
But I don’t go there.
I’m not at the point where the Grinch’s heart grew two sizes and he carved roast beast or anything. But I am probably at the point where he turned the damn sled around and decided to leave Mount Crumpit.
But I’m still a goddamn grinch.
I grab Tyler by the freshly ironed collar and pull him close enough that my dad can’t overhear me threatening customers on his premises.
“I wouldn’t piss to put your money out if it was on fire, Tyler. As far as I’m concerned you’re a lying sack of shit who’s not worth wasting my damn breath on. And, to be honest, I don’t give a shit that you slept with Heather. You helped me dodge a huge bullet. But I’m about to change things. I’m about to make everything right with the right girl. And the last thing I’d goddamn want is some waste of space like you making things difficult for me. Fuck off and don’t come bothering me again.”
I let go of his shirt, and Tyler presses the hair out of his eyes and calls to me. “C’mon, Landry! You didn’t even hear me out.”
But I’m not in the mood to hear him or anyone else out.
The thing is, Reggie is a pretty good guy. So is Henry, much as it kills me to say it. They both knew Mila was amazing, was worth going after, when I was still slowly pulling my head of out my ass.
It took seeing her in that red dress to see her in a new light, to make all of my feelings click into place. And that makes me feel shallow as hell.
But it doesn’t change the solid fact that what I feel right now is real, and it doesn’t make me want to be with her any less.
When I saw her outside the bar just a few hours back, it felt like the Christmas miracle she kept joking that I should watch out for. She is, no doubt, the girl Toni told me to keep my eyes open for. She’s that one person I might be able to have a real connection to, the kind Rusty and Karen kind of glowed with when they were together.
But she wasn’t sure about us. She backed away before we even started, and now Henry’s got her in his arms and Reggie’s got some big plans to sweep her off her feet.
What did Toni tell her? The only stories that girl has are shitty ones where I’m concerned.
I watch her for a little bit longer, but I don’t go any closer. I feel someone next to me, and prepare to tell Tyler to fuck off again, but it’s Dad.
“That the girl your mother called me to rave about before?”
The action at the bar has slowed to a crawl, but I’m still shocked he’s standing here next to me. My father never, ever leaves his station behind the bar.