Page 53 of Motivating Mira
I mean it was, but not from me. She needed a friend. That was my place. Having a night like that wasn’t in her best interests. And now she wouldn’t call me if she needed someone to talk to. Instead of giving her relief, I’ve taken something from her. A safe place with someone who both knew her and what she was going through.
I cursed as I stared at my car. Another fuck up. I couldn’t drive. I’m inebriated.
Pulling out my phone, I dialed Jesse and cursed again.
“Hello?” It’s the groggy voice of my best friend.
“It’s me. I need a ride.”
“Who’s me?” he joked, already fully awake thanks to years of on call shifts where you’re woken to an emergency and must be ready to go within a second or two of opening your eyes.
“Just come get me, jackass.”
“I’m already on my way… er… as soon as you tell me where I’m going.”
“Chopper’s Bar. And Dude, don’t forget to leave a note for Marni in case she wakes up and gets scared when no one’s there.”
“It’ll be twenty minutes round trip.”
“And if you woke up as a thirteen-year-old girl, and found no one was there with you, after having lost your mother, would it matter if it was only twenty minutes?”
“Fuck. Right. Yeah. Gotcha.” He sighed loudly. “Will I ever get this?”
“She might be an adult by the time you do, but she’ll be an adult who knows her dad tried.”
He grunted before adding, “See you in ten minutes.”
And it was exactly that amount of time when he rolled up next to my car. “You drunk?” was the first thing he asked as I got in.
“Yep.” I answered giving the “P” a pop as I put on my seatbelt.
He accelerated out of the lot and we were silent for a minute. “So what were you doing here?”
“Had a…” I caught myself before saying the word date, because Mira didn’t date, but I also wanted to be honest suddenly. My best friend trusted me to be here for him, and it was time I trust him to be serious for once. “A not-date.”
His head snapped to the side as we turned onto the main road. “What the hell is a not-date? And have I really been out of the dating scene that long?”
“Are you considering four months ‘that long’?”
He snorted. “Yes!”
“I was out with a woman I really like who needed to blow off steam but doesn’t date.” I glanced at Jesse my brow arching as I braced myself for his teasing and vulgar questions. But they don’t come.
He glances at me as we pull up to a red light. “And you do?”
“I kinda do.”
“That’s a new one. I’ve never known you to date.”
I huffed. “Never found anyone I wanted to.”
“That sucks. What are you going to do?”
I blinked. “That’s it?”
He frowned. “What?”
“You aren’t going to rib me about this? Tell me to stop being a girl and man up?Get under someone else, Wes, it’s the only way to get over someone?”
