Page 27 of Love Bitters

I expect Maisie to cower, but if anything, the question makes her sit straighter in her chair. Her chin lifts until there’s no hair hiding the entire left side of her face, or what’s left of it, I should say.

“I got trapped in my apartment about eighteen months ago when it was on fire,” she admits. “It stripped me of half the skin on the left side of my body and my dignity, so you’re more than welcome to look at it. Or not, if it grosses you out. But we don’t have to ignore it like an elephant in the room.”

“Done,” Blythe says smoothly, breaking the tension that had formed between the seven of us.

Jolene lets out a deep breath only loud enough for me to hear. Guess she was stressing about how badly this situation could’ve turned as I was. Trying to regain control, she claps her hands together softly and rubs them twice.

Just as she opens her mouth to speak, another voice cuts her off. “What can I get everyone to drink?”

In the midst of my nerves, I seem to have missed the fact that they actually have a waitress barista in this joint. They all place their orders with her. Penelope is the last, other than me, and she makes a very specific request. “Could I please have mine in this reusable cup?” Taking the chick and all of us by surprise, she pulls a metal to-go cup from her boho bag on the floor beside her.

I quickly peruse the menu, lucking out when I see the peanut butter-flavored frappe. It likely won’t be the real stuff, but it’ll settle the craving for a bit.

I get strange looks as I order it and the barista walks away, so I decide to be as open as Maisie was. “I know, I’d be disgusted too. Was, up until a couple months ago. There’s a bean in my body demanding peanut butter even though I’ve never eaten it a day in my life.”

A quiet settles over us right before they all burst into laughs. Even the corner of Maisie’s lips pulls up.

“Did you just call your baby a bean?” Jolene teases at my side still chuckling.

I shrug, admitting, “Yeah, I did. It’s probably bigger than that now though. I’m just going to keep calling it a bean until I can start feeling it move.”

“It’s good for you and the baby to not drink caffeine,” Luci chimes in. As she garners everyone’s attention, she adds, “I have a son. He’s a teenager and getting ready to move out of the house now, but back in the day doctors said it was bad for the baby. It’s been awhile, but I’d say not much has changed in that aspect.”

“Yeah, it’s still frowned upon,” I tell her with a smile. “The bean doesn’t want it anyway, so I’m not too terribly offended that I can’t have it.”

“Will this be our regular meeting spot?” Penelope asks, putting an end to that direction of conversation.

“Actually, no,” Jolene starts. “We’re going to do the rest of them at my house if everyone is cool with that. We’d have done this one there, but I wasn’t sure who all planned to show up tonight and didn’t want to risk giving some strange rando our address.”

“That makes total sense,” Penelope replies. “I just wanted to make sure so that I could bring you guys reusable cups for your drinks if we were.”

Blythe’s expression jumps straight to cold calculation. “What are you, some kind of tree hugging hipster or something?”

Her words and tone are as harsh as they were with Maisie. I’m not sure what this chick’s problem is, but it’s going to take a lot of patience to keep her around.

Unlike Maisie, Penelope doesn’t snap back. A smile takes over her face, bringing her cheeks up and narrowing her eyes even further as she smoothly replies, “Less trash is better for the environment and the animals. And let me tell you, the bark feels like the soft caress of thanks when you’re doing your part to save the tree.”

Blythe rolls her eyes to the ceiling. Neither the answer nor the arrival of our drinks moments later does anything to change her mood either. Jolene takes a few deep pulls of her iced chai before setting it down on the table and getting straight to the point.

“Okay,” she says. “How often do you guys want to meet? I had originally thought about once a month, but Jade, my sister, thinks every two weeks.”

“We could do both,” I suggest. “For those that want to do once a month, we’d pick a book and date. Then we’d plan around that for everyone that wants to do it twice a month.”

She nods at me before glancing back at the rest of the circle. “What do you guys think you’d want to do? All in favor for once a month?”

Blythe is the only one who raises her hand. Realizing this, she lets out a dramatic sigh and puts it back down.

“There may be times I can only come once a month,” Luci admits. “But I’d love to try the twice a month option if you guys are willing.”

“Okay, that’s settled then,” Jolene says. “We’ll have our first official meeting next week so we can pick a book to start with.”

“Why don’t we just pick one now and then meet in two weeks?” Blythe asks with an attitude of superiority.

Jolene cuts her eyes to me. Even when hidden behind the rectangular frame of her glasses, the blue orbs are widened a bit with what I’m sure is the same amount of surprise and disbelief I’m feeling at the moment.

“Well, I had originally planned to wait until we were all together to pick the first book, but I'm sure Jade won't mind."

"Great," Blythe blurts, still not sounding happy in the least even though she just got her way. "Can we make requests for what we'd like to not read? Genres and whatever, because I will truly just go ahead with the plan of offing myself if I have to read about some teenage werewolf and his weird hoebag of a girlfriend."

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