Page 43 of Forgotten Pieces

“The whiskey won’t taste as good out of those cups,” I tell her.

“Not unless we drink it fast,” she bites back.

And that’s when I know she is hurting more than she has let on to anyone. When I taught her how to drink whiskey years ago, she never once used it as a way to get drunk quick, she always sipped.

I sit down next to her and peel off the red wax seal on the bottle, pop the cork out, and pour a healthy serving in each of our pink silicone cups. We knock glasses in cheers, although with silicone they don’t make the clinking noise they should. I take a sip while she throws back half her glass. We sit there for a few minutes in silence, watching the ripples of the lake break at the water’s edge. I glance over at her and her eyes are glossed over. “Seven for a secret.”

She looks over at me and the tears start to fall down her cheeks. Without thinking, I set my glass down and pull her against my chest, a familiarity spreading heat across my body.

We sit there for a while. I’m not even sure how much time has passed, but the sun is getting lower in the sky and the sounds of cicadas are getting louder with every minute that passes. The shaking of her shoulders lessens and I look down to see her staring at my shirt.

“I’m sorry. I got makeup all over it.”

I see the smears of black hiding some of Tacoma’s tears. “Don’t worry about it.”

“But what about your fiancée? Wait, I am an idiot. I shouldn’t have told you to come here.” She starts to stand but I pull her back down to the rock.

“First off, my fiancée doesn’t control what I do. If she was home and you needed me, I would have told her I needed to leave.”

Tacoma looks up at me with those big green eyes. “Would you have told her you were going to see me?”

I ponder the question. Shelley knows we knew each other, but she didn’t know the extent of our relationship. And since Shelley tends to fly off the handle a bit sometimes, Tacoma is better left a secret. “Probably not.”

“Is this bad? Us meeting each other in secret again?”

I want to say yes but deep down, I know I need Tacoma as much as she needs me when it comes to talking about our demons. “Maybe,” I shrug. “But then we would both be living in turmoil. Letting the demons feast upon us, letting them win.”

She looks up at me and starts laughing. And I have never been so happy to hear that laugh of hers again. “A little morbid, are we?”

“I’ve been rewatchingGame of Thrones. I find myself with a lot of time on my hands these days.”

“That makes two of us. I am working six days a week at the bar just to keep my mind busy.”

“And to stay away from Easton?” I ask.

She pushes a piece of hair behind her ear then grabs the whiskey bottle. “Luckily, I don’t have his empirical tendencies to deal with anymore.” She pours us both some more whiskey and sets the bottle down before taking a sip. “I moved into the apartment above the bar.”

“That’s convenient.”

“Sure is. It allows me to get drunk and stumble up the stairs when I can’t take my brain anymore.”

My heart breaks at that. “And how often has that happened?”

“Just once. Last night. But considering I moved in two days ago, I’m sitting at fifty percent right now.”

I grab her hand and squeeze it. “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it yesterday.”

She avoids my eyes. “It’s fine. I mean you have a fiancée. It’s not like I can expect you to drop everything at a moment’s notice like before.”

I grip her chin, forcing her to look into my eyes, battling the urge to kiss her. She is so sad but the beauty in her eyes still takes my breath away. She’s matured, grown, become the woman I always thought she would be and I need to fight the thoughts I have of being the man by her side. Because I’m not. I’m the man at the side of another woman. “You’re still important to me, Tacoma.”

She pulls away from my grip and turns to face the lake, sipping from her glass. “What did you tell her when you left to see me tonight?”

“She isn’t home,” I sigh, sipping from my own glass. “She had to go to Atlanta to fill out paperwork. She got a promotion.”

“That’s great for her. But how will you two live here if she is working there?”

“Her promotion allows her to work from home more. It was the plan all along when we bought our property.”

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