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“Thanks. I gotta run.”
“Oh... okay...”
“Congratulations on the baby,” I say to her, wanting to move on quickly now. I can’t look at something so beautiful for too long.
“See you around,” she says.
Once Vanessa walks past me, I start to cry.
But I don’t want to fall apart. Not here. I wipe my tears and head towards the nearest bar.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had one, but I need a drink.
71
JOSIE
It is my first drink for a very long time, but I no longer give a shit about trying to abstain from alcohol. I go in hard. I have a whisky. Straight. No ice. I need something strong – something that will really make me feel the alcohol. I’m not here to taste a lovely flavor, I’m here for damage. I don’t care how nice the drink might be.
And then I have another shot.
Yep. That really hits the spot.
With the whisky pouring down my throat, I place my hands on the bar and wince. The bartender doesn’t even care about my dramatic display. There are a few lonely souls in here tonight – a few drunks who are trying to escape their lives. The bartender is used to people drowning their sorrows.
I wipe my lips with the back of my hand.
Ha. Look at me... barely a job to call my own and living in a shit apartment. The girl who threw away a movie star boyfriend – a man who was always a delusion anyway. I have no money. There’s no prospect of even thinking of having a baby in my present state...
Someone coughs close behind me. Jeez. They must’ve walked right up to me without me noticing. They must be really close if they make me jump like this. And then I hear them speak.
“It was all fake.”
Fuck, I know that voice.
I slowly turn on my stool to face him. My ex is standing there behind me. Once Kevin knows I recognize his face, he lowers himself on the bar stool next to mine.
And I’m totally frozen at the sight of him. I can’t move. He has me trapped.
He’s here...
“I sent you a message, Josie,” he says. I know him and his little thought processes - I know this is a rehearsed speech he’s spent precious time on. Just like it was back at The Oak - he’s tracked me down here at this random bar in town. He must’ve been following me in here, and it’s clear he wants to say something to me. “Did you get that message?”
I think about that horrible email I got when in Italy and how it made me cry...
That’s the message he’s talking about.
This asshole.
“Yes, Kevin. I got it. I got that email.”
“I knew it was all too good to be true, and now you’re back home with your tail between your legs,” he says quietly and menacing. “How was he, Josie? Some famous asshole you hitched your wagon to? You must’ve been blind not to see how he was just gonna cut you loose, and now you look like the biggest idiot in Crystal River...”
No, no, no.
It can’t be like this.
This is turning into the worst day of my life.
