Page 111 of Perfect Mess

“Oh. Jack’s not much of a beer drinker. He only likes fancy drinks.”

I gave Mike our order and as he was pouring the drinks, I noticed Ralph and Karen had arrived, holding hands. I still couldn’t believe they were together. Ralph was the epitome of the stereotypical bachelor. I never thought he would settle down. And Karen, well, Karen was … Karen.

“So who’s your friend?” asked Mike, eyes focused on Janet.

“Oh, this is my best friend, Janet. Janet, this is Mike, the owner.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Janet.” Mike extended his hand and Janet took it.

“Pleasure to meet you, too.”

Janet brushed the hair out of her eyes and smiled. “So you own this place? It’s amazing. You must be so proud.”

Mike shrugged. “It’s been great to see all the hard work pay off. Can I get you something?” Mike pointed to the beer menu behind him.

Janet shook her head. “I’m more of a cider girl.”

“Well then, you’re in luck. Just a second.” Mike disappeared into the walk-in cooler behind the bar. When he returned, he carried a pint glass full of a pink translucent liquid. “You like strawberry?”

“I love strawberry.” Strawberry was Janet’s favorite. Janet took a sip and from the way her eyes rolled back in her head, I was pretty sure she liked it.

“That’s fantastic. What is it?”

“It’s my new strawberry cider recipe, StrawPaw.” After seeing our faces, Mike said, “Yeah, still workshopping the name.”

“Well, whatever you want to call it, it’s delicious. You should make more.”

“I’ve been experimenting with a watermelon recipe. And a dragon fruit.”

“I love dragon fruit,” said Janet.

“Then maybe you could come back and taste test for me.”

“Absolutely. I’ll be back for sure.”

As we left the bar with a fresh round of drinks, I couldn’t help but notice that Janet had an extra bit of a spring in her step. Once we were out of earshot, Janet stopped me and leaned in close. “That Mike guy is cute.”

I glanced back at the bar. Mike was looking our way. He smiled. “Yeah, I guess so,” I agreed.

“Is he single?”

“Divorced. But he was a client of mine, so don’t even think about trying to set me up.” Mike was super cute. Super nice too. But I had a strict rule about mixing business with pleasure. So I would never even consider dating a client.

“Who said I was trying to setyouup?” Janet winked.

Before I could fully process what Janet said, Ralph and Karen spotted us from the entryway and made their way over. Karen actually hugged me. I assumed she had sustained a head injury and didn’t recognize my face.

“You doing Bieber tonight?” Ralph asked.

“Absolutely not.”

We made our way back to the engagement party, where I was horrified to find Gary flipping through the song sheets. “What are you doing?” I hissed.

Gary flashed a pair of doe eyes at me. “Just seeing what they got.”

Mercifully, a distraction arrived in the form of Dick and Mabel. “So are you kids having a good time?” Mabel and Dick each had a beer in hand. They seemed to be having a good time. A really good time. We all nodded enthusiastically and gushed about how wonderful of a time we were having.

But the reality was that things were not all that wonderful. I had this sense of impending doom hanging over me, like I was starring in a horror movie and I just started walking down the stairs into the pitch black basement.

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