Page 82 of Unbossly Manners

“That’s not true,” Nellie said cracking a beer. “I work fucking hard.”

“I know, baby,” Bee cooed, sipping on her Coor’s Light. “You’re a beast.”

Jackson walked into the kitchen, snagged a cheese stick from the fridge, and chomped on it, his face in his phone.

“Hey, man, want a beer?” Nellie asked.

“Yeah,” he said without looking up. My teeth ground together, dying to know what Kat and he were texting back and forth.

Nellie chucked it at him and Jackson barely caught it in time.

“Get off your fucking phone, man,” Nellie said. “You’ve got three beautiful women and one stud in front of you.”

“Where’s the stud?” Jackson said without missing a beat.

He placed his phone in his jean pocket and sucked down a third of his beer.

Jackson turned to me. “Have you got that list together yet?” It was so strange for him to demand anything from me for work that I was confused at first. “About all the disruptions at the office—”

“Nope. You didn’t seem in a rush,” I said, then to get his hackles up, added, “Boss.”

Nellie and Bee exchanged a curious glance.

It was Jackson’s turn to be confused. He blinked several times then looked at his phone. His mind elsewhere.

“How’s Evie?” Bee asked. “Is she coming up with Kat?”

“She’s spending the weekend with her best friend. They haven’t seen each other for two weeks and you’d think it’s been two years.”

“Teenage girls,” Bee said. “They make everything so deep.”

Selena and I walked out to the porch and set up the cornhole. Nellie and Bee were on one team, Selena and I on the other.

Nellie held one of the bags in his hand and weighed it. Then he chucked it forward; it landed in the middle of the board. Selena was next and she way overshot. Bee swung her arm back and her bag landed directly in the hole.

It became clear this was not the first time they’d played.

“I don’t know why it’s called cornhole,” Selena said as she threw the bean bag. It hit the board then flew off. “Look at all those wrinkly lines splaying from the hole. It should be called butthole.”

“It’s meant to be a sun!” I guffawed, beer coming out of my nostrils, stinging my nose.

“It does look like an ass.” Bee ran her fingers along the inside edge provocatively, and we all doubled over laughing as the jokes went downhill from there ending with Nellie grabbing a half-melted chocolate bar and spreading it around the hole.

Jackson sat on a chair, glancing between his phone and the game. He gave a perfunctory chuckle.

Selena wiped the board free of the chocolate; we continued the game for the next half an hour, Selena and I losing every time. I’d only ever played it drunk at a bar or party. And true to tradition, we were pretty drunk by the end because Nellie insisted the losers chug a beer.

The longer Jackson ignored us, disengaging from the fun, the more I welcomed the numbing effect of the alcohol.

Kat’s impending arrival made me want to disappear into the floor but since that was an impossibility, I did the next best thing.

I got shitfaced.

thirty-one

“Kill me now.”

I walked into the kitchen, my fingers rubbing my temples in search of coffee.

---