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I’m trying to convince my friends to go to Moose’s bar after Georgia and Celeste left earlier to meet up with Skye and Hartley. Carrie and Autumn are with me, trying to stop me from polishing off the rest of the wine before we leave the restaurant.
I know I’ve had a wine too many tonight, and I’m about another mouthful away from getting really giddy.
I told them what happened with Kirk. After holing myself up in my house for the last couple of days, I had to pull myself together and get out of my pajamas to collect my dog and pick my daughter up from school. It was hard trying to act like everything was okay for Blake. Especially when she asked how Kirk was. And our conversation didn’t go how I thought it would;
“Kirk wasn’t too good,” I tell her. I didn’t want to lie, but some things you really can’t discuss with an eleven-year-old. “Mommy and Kirk had a little fight, honey. So I came home early to give us some space. Grownups need that sometimes.”
“Did you know Dad has a tattoo of your name across his heart?” she replies with a smug smile. She doesn’t seem the least bit concerned about Kirk.
I stare at her. “Blake, what are you talking about?”
“Mom! How can you not know this?”
I know Blake isn’t one to make up crazy jokes like her father is, thank goodness, so I know she must be telling the truth. When the hell did he get that done?
“When did you see it, honey?”
“Ages ago when he took me swimming. He has my name too.”
What the hell?
I stare at her, agog. I know he has tattoos on his chest, a heart with wings on his right side with colorful roses all around it. He got it eons ago. I always thought it was sexy.
He also showed me the Bassett Logo he got inked on his upper arm last year. But he’s never mentioned anything about my name being on his body.
How come I never knew about this?
“He must have told me, you know how I forget things sometimes,” I tell her, trying to wave it off.
Even Blake isn’t buying that one. “Mom, you remember everything!”
“Well, clearly not this, sweetheart.”
What else could I say? I would definitely have remembered something like that.
I didn’t press her on it, of course. She’s just a kid telling me the truth about something she saw, but it’s been rattling me for the last few days.
It’s all I’ve been thinking about. Not that I disclosed it to the girls, either. That’s another thing to add to my long growing list of what I have to talk to Brooklyn about.
It’s getting longer every day that passes.
I know I need to tell him what happened with Kirk. And we need to sort out our real divorce this time; Autumn and Carrie know all about that too. I let it slip with everything else before we met up with Georgia and Celeste. I am a little tipsy though, and not exactly thinking straight. “One drink at Moose’s,” I moan to my friends who are already talking about going home. “Don’t be party poopers. It’s my one night off without my child or ex asshole boyfriend who I should have punched in the face…”
They all look at me. Crap. I’m a mouthy drunk, what can I say?
Autumn links her arm through mine as we leave the restaurant. “Sweetie, it’s gonna be okay. You’re better off without that asswipe.”
“I know,” I sniff. “I’m just feeling sorry for myself.”
“And you’re allowed to do that, but you dodged a bullet,” she goes on. “And just so we’re clear; it doesn’t matter how drunk you get, there’s no way I’ll let you ride the moose tonight, whatever happens.”
“I’ve never been that drunk,” Carrie laughs.
“You two are no fun!” I giggle.
“You deserve to let your hair down,” Carrie says on the other side of me. “After what that asshole did. Plus, there’s plenty more fish in the sea… I shouldn’t say this, but I’m going to for your sake, that broody Gaitley is a little bit easy on the eyes.”
I screw up my nose. “I’ve known him since we were in diapers.” He’s cute, like his brother Easton, but they’re more like my brothers than available bachelors.
