Page 33 of Drawn to You

Marti refills my water glass and I meet her gaze across the bar.

“You’re a nice one, Marti.”

She laughs. “I’m just blunt, Fred. And trust me, no one fucks up the way you feel about yourself like an ex. I have a horrible ex in my past. He made me question everything about myself. You seem like a good guy who’s afraid to get hurt again. But no risk, no reward.”

“Word. I think I better get to my bathroom.”

“You feelin’ the urge to purge?”

“Yeah, where’s my bathroom?”

She comes around the bar and helps me off the barstool. “I’ll show you where you’re going. And the good news is, it probably smells like piss and vomit, so it’ll make you puke real quick like. Makes me want to puke and I don’t even drink.”

“You’re a riot,” I say, trying not to lean on her because I’m huge and she’s wiry. “We should hang out.”

“I’m here from seven p.m. to two a.m. five nights a week.”

Marti leaves me at the bathroom door and I go inside. She’s right. The smell sends my stomach over the edge and I barely make it to the toilet to throw up.

Twenty minutes later, my stomach is empty and Marti is using my phone to call an Uber.

“You can have my car,” I say. “It’s really nice.”

She chuckles. “If I took all the things customers offer me when they’re drunk, I could retire.”

When my ride arrives, she walks outside with me to make sure I get in. I turn to her and open my arms.

“I feel like we should hug. Some breakthroughs happened here tonight.”

“Just get in the car, Fred. This will all be a blur tomorrow.”

“I love you.”

She laughs. “You made this night a lot more fun; I’ll tell you that much.”

I crawl into the back seat of the Uber and lie down.

“Don’t puke in my car,” the driver cautions from the front seat.

“I won’t.”

Judging by the swirling sensation in my stomach, I may be overpromising on that.

I sneakthrough my front door, gently closing it and tiptoeing across the darkened room.

“Where the hell have you been?”

A furious Josie jumps off the couch and I sigh heavily.

“You scared the shit out of me.”

“Oh, did I? You can wait the rest of your life for me to apologize. I spent hours looking for you. Calling hospitals.Praying whatever mess you got into won’t get out and cost both of us our jobs.”

It sounds like she’s speaking to me from the inside of my ear. I take a few steps away.

“Look, can we talk tomorrow?”

Even in the dark, I see her eyes flash with fury.

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