Page 12 of Cozy Girl Fall
“We were dumb kids,” he said, dismissively, surprising her.
“How wereyoudumb?”
Ethan’s smile dropped and when he leveled her witha surprisingly serious look, Pen wasn’t sure she was breathing. “Because I let you go.”
The sky darkened above them, but she barely noticed as the heat of Ethan’s eyes swallowed her whole. A raindrop hit the ground next to her and she jolted at the sound.
More rain hit the grass, the scent of damp earth rising up around her, and Ethan smiled as he backed away, like he hadn’t just broken her heart and mended it all in one sentence.
“Have a good time with Tasha tomorrow,” he said and she was fairly certain she nodded as he walked away, leaving her standing alone in the rain.
7
Before she’d left Magnolia Springs, there had only been one bar Penny had gone into—primarily because they didn’t check IDs too closely for anyone under twenty-one who wanted to drink. The Old Church had been closed and reopened sometime while Penny had been gone in the city and was now called Cocktail Club.
When it came to small towns like Magnolia Springs, change was slow and not always welcomed. But the same couldn’t be said for Cocktail Club, which was thriving on a Friday night. It seemed to be vaguely jungle-themed with colorful lights that changed depending on the time, neon slogans on the dark wallpapered walls, and leafy green plants in gold planters that separated the booths. Strangely, it worked and Penny felt surprisingly at ease in the space with its low-lights that made it feel like she couldn’t be watched too much by the room’s inhabitants.
She smoothed down her top, checking the sweetheart neckline was still in place, and brushed a piece of lint from the ruched detailing on the front. It was an outfit she’d worn many times and knew she looked good in,her black, distressed skinny jeans adding an edge to the otherwise too-sweet top with its ruffled mesh sleeves—she’d picked it out deliberately, wanting to at least feel confident in her outfit if nothing else. She’d been nervous to see Tasha again, especially now that she’d had a few run-ins with her brother, but Penny hadn’t had long to dwell on her nerves because Tasha had arrived first and was waving her over to one of the tables in the center of the room.
They shared a semi-awkward hug and picked up the cocktail menu. The drinks were relatively reasonably priced, especially compared to what she was used to in the city, and the music wasn’t so loud that she couldn’t hear Tasha recount her day. It took a couple of minutes for the initial awkwardness to ease, but then the two of them had quickly fallen back into sync as if it had only been a matter of days, not years, since they’d last hung out. Penny realized that she’d missed having a girlfriend to gossip with while she’d been in the city. She supposed it was one of the benefits of having known someone for the majority of your life: even when time got in the way it didn’t change the familiarity that every conversation held.
“So how’s it been, being back on the orchard?” Tasha asked, studying Penny’s face. At the mention of the orchard, Penny took a big gulp of her margarita, trying to think of anything but Ethan’s toned shoulders in that tank top. “Are you hating it?” Tasha pressed, and Penny couldn’t help but smile at how well her old friend still seemed to know her.
“It’s been surprisingly OK,” Penny replied, willing the image of Ethan’s face, the way he’d looked at her as they’d stood among the trees, from her mind. “I don’t remember it making my body ache so much as a teenager, though.”
Tasha laughed, the sequins on her short-sleeved top catching the lights and shimmering. “Ethan said he bumped into you a couple times.”
Penny was surprised by how casually Tasha mentioned this, but she nodded, trying to seem unfazed. “Yeah, I saw him.”
“He said you hid from him.”
“Maybe.”
Tasha rolled her eyes as she sipped from her glass. “I know I told you to avoid him but I didn’t mean you had to stop, drop, and roll at the sight of him.”
“I didn’t roll,” Penny protested and cleared her throat, looking for a change in subject before the prickle of guilt in her throat made her blurt out something stupid like:
Is it possible to be in love with someone you haven’t seen for ten years?Or,Hey, Tasha, when you say to avoid your brother, does fantasizing about him count?
“Anyway, enough about me! What are you doing now?” Penny asked, desperate to talk about something else that didn’t involve Tasha’s brother, especially with the warning Tash had given her not so long ago.
Tasha sipped her drink, her pink lipstick leaving a perfect imprint on the rim. “I run the library.”
“Oh wow, that’s perfect.” Tasha had had her nose in a book almost as often as her phone when they’d been growing up. “How long have you been doing that for?”
Their comfortable chatter continued as Tasha filled Penny in on what had (or, more accurately, whathadn’t) changed in Magnolia Springs over the last decade. Penny was surprised to find that she was actually having fun, feeling totally at ease in Tasha’s company. When it hit nine and Penny began to feel like it was getting late, it occurred to her that maybe she was getting old. But, she reasoned to herself, if she wanted to be able to drive home she needed to cut herself off after this drink anyway.
Part of her wasn’t ready to leave yet, though. It was easy to remember why she and Tasha had been friends, her good sense of humor and kindness shining through as Penny enjoyed their comfortable chatter.
Tasha leant in close. Her third margarita was nearing the dregs, and her rose-gold eyeliner made the intensity of her brown eyes even more apparent as she asked one of the questions Penny had been dreading all night.
“So why’d you leave San Francisco?”
“Oh, you know.” Penny laughed, looking away from Tasha’s eyes and instead signaling to the waitress for another drink. She’d get a cab home if she had to, but this conversation required another cocktail. Or three. “My parents needed me.”
“And?”
Penny sighed, shoulders slumping as she drained the last of her drink, casting around for a way to derail Tasha’s line of questioning. She began to stand, preparing to go in search of another margarita. “You know, I might go to the bar and—”
