AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’m not eager to sharewhyI know. Her brother knows, but I suspect it’s one thing he hasn’t told her. Before my family moved off the lake to be closer to the shop, we lived only four docks down from the Atwoods. Devon was like a third brother to me. Still is, even though we don’t see each other often enough.
There are a lot of things you don’t know about me that would impress you.
I don’t say it, of course. “Do you like it?”
Taking a sip of beer, she nods. “I do. But it’s frustrating too. I feel like I could be helping them more. Like I could have a bigger impact if . . . don’t get me started. I’ll be on this soapbox all night. And I’m not staying.”
The hell she was leaving.
“Oh no. I haven’t seen you in what . . .”
Eight years.
“. . . in years. You’re not going home.”
Chari nods behind me. When I turn around, no less than ten people look away.
“You have enough of a fan club here,” she says. “Not to mention Devon, who is pretty pumped to see you.”
At the moment it looks as if Devon is pretty pumped to be in an entirely different conversation on the other side of the bar with a woman I don’t recognize at first.
“Is that Colleen Karim? Isn’t she a doctor now?”
“Yes. And yes.”
“Looks like you might win that bet sooner than later. What did you bet, anyway?”
“Dinner.” She smirks as she says it, but then something changes in her face and she looks down to her lap.
“That must seem silly to you. Someone with . . .” She stops.
I hate this part of my new life. Hate it. Of course I’m grateful for everything success has brought to me, but there’s a flip side to the coin of fortune. I can’t sit in my hometown bar without being stared at, my conversations overheard and analyzed. And a woman who was once a close friend now feels uncomfortable around me. But if I complained about any of that, I’d be laughed out of the bar.
“Please don’t feel weird around me.”
Chari looks toward the taps, her gaze narrowing on a familiar logo.
“But it’s so strange. That’s you. Your beer. I mean, it’s crazy, Enzo.”
It’s the first time she’s said my name tonight, and it sends a ripple through me.
“It’s definitely a little bit crazy.”
“A little? More than a little. You create an alcohol antidote that lets people sober up before they get behind the wheel. They say your company has saved something like a bazillion lives already. And it’s just ‘a little bit crazy’?”
How many times has someone asked how that makes me feel? Five hundred? A thousand? But this time, I give a real answer, not the kind of canned response favored by our PR team. Even though our success and the impact we’ve madeisincredibly humbling, I’m sick of saying so.
“It’s more than a bit crazy,” I admit. “But there are days I wish I’d just graduated as a chemist and worked for a pharma company somewhere. Maybe back here.”
She looks at me like I’ve lost it. People tend to think money and success negates a person’s capability for self-doubt, but it’s not true.
“And here I thought I was the only one who wondered about my career choice.”
There is something dark behind Chari’s laugh, an emotion she’s trying to mask with humor. I shouldn’t want to know what it is, but uncovering that mystery is suddenly the most important thing in the world. Unfortunately, unraveling it will have to wait.
“Sorry about that. I had to.” Devon looks between Chari and me. “Talk to someone.”
I can’t resist ribbing him. “Ah,” I say. “Is that what they call it these days in Bridgewater?”
