Page 27 of Vodka and Chocolate Drops

“Why did you decide to keep me?” she asked.

“Oh, Amber.” Her mother’s eyes filled with tears. “There is no way I could have made that same decision a second time.” She held both of Amber’s hands in her own. “I’m stronger now than I was then, and it’s not fair of me to think I’d do anything differently if I went back in time, but I still do. Learn from my mistakes, Amber. Believe you’re enough woman for Scott. He loves you and sometimes loveisenough. Trust your heart.”

Amber rolled her eyes. One silly novel and everyone suddenly thought she was in love with her best friend, Sir Studly. Sure, he was a great man who would make a wonderful boyfriend or husband, but that didn’t mean she was secretly wishing she could be his.

“Scott may still be harboring a crush from when we were kids, but it’s nothing real. He would never love me in the way I would want him to. If, in theory, I decided to fall in love with him.”

“Deciding who to fall in love with is like deciding where and when lightning is going to strike. You don’t get to choose those things. Scott loves you just the way you are--goofy and quicker to act than think--and he always has. You just need to believe that you’re enough for him.”

“Mom…” Amber warned.

“You know what?” Gloria perked up suddenly. “That’s good advice. What about me? Isn’t it my time? Shouldn’t I start believing in myself, too?”

Okay, now her mother was taking a dive off the deep end without a life jacket.

“I think it’s high time I became the woman I always wanted to be.”

“What does that mean?” Amber asked.

“I’ll call you!” she said, hurrying to the door.

“About what?

Gloria continued on.

“Are you going to tell my dad about me?” Amber asked hopefully.

Her mom popped her head back into the room. “Ha, ha. No.”

“Then what?”

“I have to see how much money I have in my tip jar.”

Great. Her mother was going to skip town, and now Amber would never learn the truth about anything.

4

Amber sat in Brew Babies, twirling a vodka shot the bartender, Moe, had placed in front of her when she’d sat down. She couldn’t help but think how alike she and her mother seemed to be when it came to screwing up their lives around men. How had her mom’s life come to this? All those secrets and regrets. Was Amber’s life going to devolve into that, too?

“Not going to drink?” Moe asked.

She didn’t mind a shot here or there, but today her mind was already a mess and she was afraid of what she might say if vodka loosened her tongue.

“Maybe not today.” She passed the shot over to Moe, who shrugged and knocked it back himself.

“No point wasting it,” he said.

“Do you have any chocolate?” she asked.

“Chocolate martini.”

Amber considered it. Alcohol had been unfriended for the moment. “I was thinking chocolate drops. Didn’t you have some in wineglasses the other week?”

“It was part of Mandy’s engagement party. Katie decorated for us.”

“Oh, right.” Her friend had decided to give up nursing and go into interior decorating. She came home every once in awhile to add flourishes to people’s events. “Any leftovers?”

Moe smiled and pulled a coffee cup from under the bar, setting it in front of her. She peeked over the rim and saw two chocolate drops in need of rescue.

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