Page 20 of She Used to Be Nice
“Seriously, guys?” the man who was probably the manager said. He sounded more impatient than pissed off, like he’d seen this happen a hundred times before. He took out his phone menacingly. “It’s 7PMand I only have one working stall. Get out or I’m calling the cops.”
Avery’s fuzzy postorgasmic bliss completely disappeared, replaced now with the sharp sting of real life. The man folded his arms across his chest and rested them on his beer belly as he watched Avery throw on her clothes, flatten her tousled hair, and wipe the lipstick smudges from the corners of her mouth. She stopped abruptly and stared at him, wide-eyed and wild.
“Please don’t do that,” she begged. She would not be able to live with herself if she went to the hospital and got arrested in the same month.
“If you get out right this second,” the manager hissed, “I won’t.”
Avery hobbled out of the bathroom, disheveled and panting, her right shoe halfway on her foot, and bolted out of the bar. She didn’t even care if Pete was behind her. She needed to get out of there. Once outside, she sat on the curb a few feet from the entrance and smoked a cigarette, taking huge pulls and trapping the smoke in her lungs for as long as she could.
“Whew!” Pete suddenly appeared next to her, sitting down. Without the lights shining onto the awning of the bar, his facewould have been hidden in the near-blackness of night. “That was fun. Definitely a close one though.”
Avery took another long pull of her cigarette. She wished she could disintegrate into a pile of ashes. “What are you saying? We got caught.”
“Well, yes.” Pete stretched out his legs and propped himself up on the concrete, getting comfortable. “But we’re not going to jail. That’s good, right?”
“Oh,sure.That’s fantastic. Everything’s fine because we’re not going to jail. Glad that’s the standard we’re working with.”
Pete narrowed his eyes, watched her for a few seconds. Then he lifted himself up off the ground, brushed the dirt off his pants, and made an about-face, like he was going to leave Avery to wallow in her bitchiness. But she couldn’t help herself. On top of all the terrible, impulsive decisions she’d made lately, on top of the awful choices she made senior year, she’d just made another one.
But she didn’t need to take her anger at herself out on Pete.
“Hold on,” she said with a sigh.
Pete turned around and stared at her, looking like he’d had about enough of her bullshit. She didn’t blame him. She’d had enough of it, too.
“I’m sorry. I’m just mad at myself.” She hesitated. “I get myself into bad situations all the time. It—it just sucks.”
Pete sat down beside her again, softening. “Avery, it takes two people to have sex. We were both in the same situation.”
“But it was my idea.”
“So? I agreed to it. And guess what? I had a pretty great time. I might even go out on a limb and say you did, too.” His eyebrows bounced up and down on his forehead suggestively.
Avery nudged him. “Fuck you.”
He grinned. “Already did that.”
The corners of Avery’s mouth pulled into a smile. Maybe she could trust that Pete was right. That maybe everythingwasokay. No, that maybe everything was more than okay. Because despitethe near-arrest, she was here. With him. And against all odds, enjoying it.
She wondered what would happen if they stayed on this street corner for the rest of the night. Maybe they’d make their way to another bar, one of those dark cozy pubs illuminated year-round by Christmas lights. Maybe they’d talk and laugh until two in the morning, their surroundings slipping away as conversation took them under, and she’d ride home in a cab with a cheesy grin on her face as she replayed the night in her head, wondering when she’d see him again. Wondering if this was the beginning of something. Just like Morgan had hoped.
“What were you doing in that bar by yourself, by the way?” Avery asked.
“Woooow,” Pete teased. “Someone’sjudging.”
Avery giggled, unable to resist making the girlish sound. “Not at all! People our age just don’t normally do that. Feels like a divorced dad kind of thing.”
“Well, how do you know I’mnota divorced dad?”
“I guess I wouldn’t.”
Pete smiled with his perfect white teeth. Avery’s stomach did a cartwheel.
“No, I’m kidding,” he said. “I was just hanging out. My buddy left to go deal with his drunk girlfriend, and I was finishing my beer.”
Avery cocked her head. “Was it the same friend from the other night?”
Pete’s eyes widened. “You remember that?”
