Page 110 of Forgotten Pieces

She holds up her phone. “I can work from this. In fact, I should just move here and work from my phone all the time.”

“That is not going to work.”

“I know,” she pouts. “But it was a fun thought.”

I put my head on the bar and groan. “Maybe this was a huge mistake.”

“We can look at other neighborhoods tomorrow. There has got to be something for you, Tacoma,” Laney says encouragingly.

“That’s not what I meant,” I mumble into the bar top. “Maybe moving here is a bad idea.”

“Girl, this is like the second biggest drinking capital for tourism in the country. You will kill it here as a bartender. We just need to find you a place that feels like home, even if it’s a little more than you want to pay, I am more than positive you’ll make it up in tips,” Cam says.

I know Cam is right, but that’s not even what’s bugging me. I cannot get Ryder out of my head. I thought that moving away would help. That I would be able to forget him like I forget other things in my life. But not this time. This time he has become a permanent fixture in my head. It doesn’t help that he calls and texts me constantly, looking for answers I can’t give him. So I ignore every text and let every call go to voicemail. I know eventually he will stop.

I wasn’t lying when I said I would be torn apart if he left me again. And although I was the one who walked away from him, I can’t get over it.

Maybe I should have stuck around and tried with him. Tried to be patient and wait for him while he clung to his fiancée. Or ex-fiancée. I am not even sure how that panned out because I fucking ran.

Even Easton was surprised when I told him I was leaving. He had already heard about me and Ryder. Trace gave him a heads up before I went over and talked to him. Easton thought I was being rash in my decision to leave right away. He surprisingly understood my relationship with Ryder. That was after he berated me for being in a relationship with a twenty-five-year-old while I was still in high school. But after he told me about how Harper had run when he wasn’t honest with her. And how he regretted it every day. Ryder had been honest with me. He had given me a choice. And like the asshole I am, I decided to run and try to forget all the pieces that made us right together.

“This shot isn’t going to drink itself,” I hear Laney say while my head is still down on the bar. “If you drink more you might get out of your head.”

She has a point. I lift my head and take the shot she bought and then slam the rest of my beer. “I need more alcohol.”

Cam puts a hand on my shoulder. “Coming right up, babe.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

Tacoma

I really need to stop drinking away my feelings. My head can’t take it anymore. I roll over in bed and the sudden urge to puke takes over. I run to the bathroom and make it just in time.

“Why me, world? Why me?” I say to myself as I lay sprawled on the bathroom floor. “Why do I always get the fucking short end of the stick?”

I need to stop drinking and stop relationships. I need to be over with all of it.

I manage to get my ass off the bathroom floor. I look at the mirror and barely recognize myself. Mascara runs down my face, apparently, I was crying last night, my hair resembles a bird’s nest that my grandma never wanted to take out of her back yard, and I am still wearing yesterday’s clothes, and my shirt is on backward.

I need coffee.

I walk out of the bathroom and brew a cup of coffee. The room is empty, no idea where Cam and Laney went. I change my clothes and wash my face as I wait for my coffee to finish. I look for my phone and find it on the window ledge next to my giant coffee mug that is half full of wine.

I shudder at the thought of alcohol and make a beeline for my coffee. I see a note next to the coffeepot this time that says Cam and Laney went to look for apartments in the Garden District. They thought I could use the sleep. That’s when I notice it’s two thirty in the afternoon.

I don’t think I even want to know what happened last night.

I order room service and clean the room while I wait for it. I texted Cam and she said they would be back in a few hours but to let her know if I want to meet up with them.

I decide walking around alone for a bit is probably a better idea. If I am going to live here, I need to learn my way around. I call a few apartments and schedule times to see them.

After my room service shows up and I manage to eat a few bites of soup and grilled cheese, I head out into the muggy weather. Yesterday we made it to Marigny but didn’t get a chance to look at any apartments because I decided alcohol was my best way of getting over Ryder.

Fuck. Why did I have to think about him?

I walk past a bar and am tempted to go in but when I see a man inside that somewhat resembles Ryder I decide to pass.

I find a coffee shop a block down and get an iced coffee to cure my hangover and cool me down. I end up walking down Decatur and take in the sights and sounds of the Quarter. The artists in Jackson Square peddling their wares keeps me distracted from my thoughts.

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