Page 36 of The Fallacy of True Love
I’d been ready to argue with her, and then she had to hit me with that last line. If there was anything I could relate to, it was that—feeling lost in a crowd of people.
Glancing at the bar, I spotted him. His shoulders were slumped as he contemplated his beer bottle.
Damn it.
“I hate you,” I hissed at Nikki before I stood.
She tapped my ass, setting off Eric’s chuckles. “Good girl.”
I gave each of them a searing glare. Then, taking a deep breath, I strode off toward the bar.
At the table closest to it, a group of teenage girls kept looking at Alonzo. I caught them whispering, “You talk to him,” and “You do it.” I had to shake my head. If I were the friendly type, I would have told them to shoot their shot because he was only a guy. But I wasn’t like Nikki, and I was already maxing out my generosity meter with what I was about to do.
Stopping next to Alonzo, I waited for him to notice me. He didn’t even stir. That told me how right Nikki was.
“What’s it telling you?”
He jolted and stared at me blankly. “What?”
“The bottle. What’s it telling you?”
It took him a couple of seconds, but finally he snorted. “That I should drink it before it gets warm.”
“Wrong. It says you should go drink it with us. C’mon.”
I turned and walked away. I’d done my part. The rest was up to him.
He caught up to me in record time, just like he did on the way to the beach this morning. “What changed your mind?”
“Nikki,” I said bluntly. If he couldn’t handle my honesty, then maybe he couldn’t handle hanging out with me and my friends either.
His laughter came out rusty. “I’ll take that.”
I glanced at him. “Desperate?”
“Maybe. But also…curious.”
We arrived at our table, where my friends had already pulled up a fourth stool for him.
Of course it had to be the one next to mine.
“Glad you’re joining us, Lonzo,” Nikki said. “Sit.”
“Where’s your stuff?” Eric asked as we took our seats.
Alonzo held up a plastic bag with what appeared to have clothing inside. “This wasn’t a planned trip, so I had to buy some things when I got here.”
“They gave you single-use plastic?” Outrage filled Eric’s voice.
Nikki chuckled. “Oh no, you’ve triggered him.”
“No—Yes,” Alonzo fumbled his words, and I snickered at his discomfort. “I mean, they weren’t going to, but I asked for one. I figured I’d need it for wet clothes. Sorry.”
Grunting, Eric said, “Make sure you recycle it.”
“Definitely.”
“Eric heads an ocean protection nonprofit, so plastics are a big no-no,” Nikki told Alonzo. “That event yesterday? He spearheaded it.”
