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“No.” She laughs, reaching out and steadying me.
I frown at the stool, realizing it’s me wobbling it.
“I’m saying, Iknowyou can’t handle your drink.” She rolls her eyes as I prepare to argue. “You’ve never been able to.”
I snap my mouth shut, and she gives me a pointed look. I fixate on her face as she carries on talking. Such perfect eyebrows. They begin to blur as I blink.
“… Only times you’ve drank like this are when you scratched your dad’s car when you were nineteen and didn’t know how to tell him, and when your sister had that awful sex tape thing.”
“Ssh.” I bat my finger against my lip clumsily. “I don’t want to talk about that shit.”
She sighs. “You’re worth so much more than him. You know that, right?”
“I know.” I slump miserably over the bar, cradling my glass. I frown at the water in it and then search side to side. My gin is gone even though I hadn’t finished it. “Ugh,” I groan, pressing one hand against my forehead. “I’ll be fine tomorrow. It’s just… I woke up this morning and everything was fine. And now…” I drop my hand and shrug, my head spinning.
“It’s not Henry, is it?” Halliday asks, knowing me so well.
I shake my head. “No… Yes… No… It’s this case I’m working on. It’s tough, and… this stuff with Henry… I always know.” My voice pitches as I search Halliday’s eyes for answers. “I always know. In my gut. If I missed Henry being married, what else have I missed? What if I don’t win this time?” My voice drops as a lead weight settles in my stomach.
“Listen.” She swivels on her stool so she’s facing me head-on. “They don’t call you ‘Havers the Handler’ for nothing. You’ve got this. You’ve always got this. There is nothing wrong with your intuition. The universe is working with you, I’ve told you this.”
I snort, and her face softens as she reaches for my hand and squeezes it.
“You were just distracted. Sex and hormones can interfere with our vibration, making us confused, even if the partner is wrong for us. Orgasms… they can be intense, on more than just our physical body.”
“I don’t… I doubt that’s what happened,” I mutter as I think about my sex life with Henry. Sure, I came. But not every time.And only when I touched myself at the same time as we… I swallow the rising bile back down as I shake him from my thoughts.
“Or stress,” Halliday says as she studies my face. “I keep telling you to take a break.”
“Can’t,” I slur. “Not until after this case, anyway.”
She smiles. “Well, once this case is over, you and me are going somewhere hot with cocktails. And we’re going to have an amazing time.”
“Cocktails sound good.” I crane my neck to look down the bar at the bartender who’s serving someone. “I could go for a cocktail.”
“Nu-uh.” She slides my water in front of me and taps the side of the glass.
“Ruin my fun, why don’t you?” I scowl, which only makes her laugh.
“Saving you from a hangover tomorrow, don’t you mean? Any more and you’ll feel awful. Get this down you now and you have a fighting chance.” She nudges the glass a little closer and I pick it up. “Good. Now, we’re staying here tonight. Huge hotel bed, crisp sheets, a good sleep. You’ll have forgotten all about Henry’s limp dick by the morning and be back to your usual fighting form.”
“Amen.” I throw back the contents of the glass, screwing my face up in disappointment as I remember it’s water.
“That’s more like it.” She smiles and then her attention is caught by something across the room. “Oh, I see Logan. I’ll thank him for tonight, and then we can go up to our rooms. You’ll be okay for a minute, right?”
I flail out a hand in an ungraceful wave. “Go. I’ll be fine.”
She narrows her eyes, unconvinced.
“Honestly, I’m great.” I lift my glass to my lips, forgetting it’s empty, then glare at it like it’s the source of all my problems.
“Okay. I’ll be quick.” Halliday hurries off, and I tip my head back, admiring the ballroom of the hotel we’re in. The architraves and archways around the room are beautiful, even if they are a little blurry, thanks to the six, no seven, gins I’ve drunk.
“The guys who run the company that did the re-model are here tonight.”
“Sorry?” I drop my head back down, meeting the friendly bartender’s eyes.
He tips his head, and I follow his eyeline across the bar, spotting Drew talking to a beautiful, curvy brunette in a green dress. She grins at something he says and then wraps her arms around his neck so she can reach up and whisper in his ear. I don’t need to be closer to know that his cool blue eyes are probably glittering at her now as he laughs at whatever she just said. The way they do when he’s amused. The way they did when he joked that he’d be my husband now if I hadn’t turned him down.
