Page 55 of Free to Breathe
Em lifts her head from her book before saying something odd. “You’re the dream, Corinna.”
I’m confused. “Excuse me?”
Resuming her drawing, she explains. “Holly’s dates usually involve an intellectual meeting of the minds over some piece of art. She’s friendly with all of her dates because there’s no spark.” She scratches against the paper continue while I wait. “My dates are all about the challenge. What will impress me enough…” Her voice trails off leaving what she wants to say unsaid, but I know how to finish the sentence. What will break through the ice around her heart?
Tucking both hands beneath my face now that Mugsy’s lying down next to me, I ask, “Do you know what that is?”
“I wish I had a clue. Part of me wants the fairy tale we create day after day, yet the other part of me understands that’s just for fools.” I nod, understanding that perfectly. “But you, Cori? You’re unapologetically sexy, outrageously funny, with a healthy dose of temper. You’re basically every man’s dream. Men get pissy when they can’t have what they want, so they pout.”
“And pouting devolves into bullying, badgering, and assumptions?” I demand.
She shrugs. “For the insecure ones, the ones whose dicks are too small to handle a woman as strong as you, certainly.”
“I’m not that strong,” I protest.
“Corinna, there are only five other people whose strength I would compare yours to, and we’re related to all of them,” Em says bluntly. Putting her sketchbook aside, she rests her arms on her upturned legs. “Now what, or should I ask who, brought this question on?”
Leaving nothing out, I tell Em about my night out, where I started out eating Mexican with Colby, running into Addison, ending up at Redemption, and the dance with Marco. When I get to the part of Colby’s accusations at my front door, I hear the hiss of breath she sucks between her teeth. “Now I’m left with another man alluding to me being a—”
“Don’t you dare say it. First, because we both know it’s not true. And second, even if it was, who are these righteous assholes to judge? Men who have slept with God only knows how many women before they come to us?” Em is bursting with anger. “It’s okay for a man to sleep around but not a woman—not saying you have.”
I pull a hand from under my cheek and wave her on.
“Right or wrong, personal decisions are just that—personal. The only moral compass you have to answer to is your own. Fuck ’em all.” Em finishes her tirade. “Know what we should do tonight?”
“What?”
“Let’s go back to Tide Pool. We’ll force Jason and Caleb to drive. Keene too if he’s not working,” she decrees.
“Em, the last time we went to Tide Pool, we ended up lying on the bar while random guys did body shots off of us.”
Her navy blue eyes flit away briefly before they come back to mine. “Precisely.”
* * *
Tide Pool,located on the outskirts of Collyer, is a complete dive. Jason and Caleb’s protests are vociferous as we make our way over the uneven lot. “Keene’s going to have our nuts for this, and I can’t say I blame him,” Caleb mutters.
“So, don’t come with us,” I tell him breezily.
“I prefer to lose my nuts over dying, Cori,” he retorts. Turning to Jason, he demands, “What happened the last time you were here with them?”
Before Jason can open his mouth, we enter the dilapidated honky-tonk. My hands immediately go over my head, and my body begins swaying.
Jason sighs, coming up behind me. “Can you promise me no body shots this time?”
“Body shots?” Caleb’s eyes are about to fall out. Tucking his wife closer, he asks, “Which one of you did body shots?” All of our hands, including Cassidy’s, shoot up. He gapes down at his wife. “No fucking way.”
Cassidy shrugs and points at Em. “Em dared me.”
Em grins at Phil. “He started charging money, saying it was for charity.”
Phil grins. “It was. The charity was our bar bill that night.”
Ali’s smile is lethal. “Remember the guy who…”
A chorus of “Oh yeahs” followed her lead-in. None of us will ever forget the man who had dreams of Holly’s long red hair flying as she rode off on the back of his bike.
Caleb’s looking at us like we’re all certifiable. “And we’re here why?”
