Page 7 of The Brave and the Reckless

“That’s good to know.” I grinned and wiggled my brows.

“Esra, no.” Sanny glowered at me across the table.

Zuri signed “sorry” with her right hand, while grinning into her drink and taking a swig.

“Don’t start telling meno. I could have stayed home for that.”

“I care about this place,” he replied. “Don’t make me regret getting you this job.”

“You can still care about it when summer is over, I leave, and everyone just accepts that your sister is a slut who parties too much.”

Sanny’s mouth fell open and Zuri snorted a laugh. She held a hand up to her face as some of her drink blubbered back up. “Oh god,” she coughed, still laughing, “you’re really going through with this wholewild summerplan, huh?”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Fluttering my lashes, I gave her an innocent smile.

Before either of them could come up with a retort, our attention was drawn to the stage, where Renee Barlow tapped a finger against the mic until everyone fell silent. She started a welcome speech, but I barely paid attention. Zuri’s words echoed through my mind.Wild summer.It was so much more than that and it irked me that apparently my entire family had boiled it down to this. “Out of control” were the words my father had used after I dropped out of med school and went on a two-week bender in Malibu. That I had “lost my way” had been my mother’s diagnosis when I’d started staying out overnight without telling them where I’d been. (Usually, the bed of some guy from some crappy rock band I’d seen playing at some shitty bar. Usually a drummer. The calloused hands just worked for me.)

But I wasn’twildorout of controlorlosing my way.

It was the complete opposite. I was in full control. For the first time in a long time, I was doing what I wanted. I was finding my way. I’d spent the last decade of my life sticking to a predetermined script to get into agreatcollege and agreatmed school and agreatmedical residency program. None of that was on the cards for me anymore, and in a weird way, it was freeing to see your future go up in flames.

Sue a girl for having fun and getting laid when she finally has the chance to make her own decisions.

“That’s you.” Zuri pushed her elbow into my ribs.

“Hm?” I blinked and focused back on the room just in time to hear my name being called out again. Renee was on the stage with a couple of other people, pained expressions plastered across their faces.

“Go. She’s introducing the new hires.”

“Oh, got it.” I shuffled out of the booth, took a quick swig from Sinan’s beer, and beelined for the stage. “Hi, hello, oh thank you,” I laughed when Renee offered me her hand to help me up. I was not going to look like a deer caught in the headlights, even if the stage lights were blinding. This was going to be my summer of fun, no matter where I was spending it. I plastered on my biggest smile and waved into the silhouetted crowd like I was winning a beauty pageant.

Judging by the snickers and mumbles in the front row, people were picking up on my shirt. After my shower earlier, I’d had exactly one left that didn’t reek of sweat and car. The pink one. The one that said “u can’t pick ur father but u can pick ur daddy”.

Renee introduced a few other people, and by the end there were around twenty of us up on stage. Most of us were just here for the summer; two were new permanent hires. Those two were the only ones that got lengthy introductions that included their job titles– the blonde barkeeper called Adriana, and an older accountant named Donna. Apparently corporate emails weren’t a thing at Bravetown. I was just grateful that she hadn’t introduced me as her new Annie Lou.

I still had to mentally prepare for the lecture Sanny would give me for accepting a job that involved climbing on to a horse.

Once we were dismissed, I followed Adriana to the bar.

“You’re Sanny’s sister, right?” she asked and slapped a napkin down in front of me.

“How do you already know that?”

“Wild Fields is small,” she said, shrugging, “and you two look alike.”

“Not much,” I mumbled, because I almost looked like a carbon copy of our mom, while Sanny was all our dad’s straight lines and height. Contextually though, there probably weren’t many Turkish people in this town. Safe to assume we were related. “So you’re from here?”

“Kinda, yeah.” Adriana shrugged and didn’t elaborate. She just set my drink down in front of me. I hadn’t ordered anything specific, just as fruity and girly as possible. She’d delivered. The drink in front of me was pink and garnished with pineapple and orange slices, and glitter dust swirled around in the cup.

“What do I owe you?”

“Tap your staff pass here.” She held up a little white scanner. “First alcoholic drink is free tonight. Soft drinks are always free for staff members.”

Good to know. That would save me some money. I laid my card against the scanner, but Adriana didn’t give me any sign of it working even after the machine beeped. She just blinked.

“Did it work?”

“It says cast member,” she replied.

---