Page 8 of The 7 Rules of Moving On
“I think I’ve had enough swimming today.” Holding a pretzel to her lips, then pointing it at him, she said, “I could help you close up, if you want.”
“Thanks guys.” Trig waved at Pudge and Grandma Betty while he watched Kissie eat her pretzel with rapt attention. “You have fun.”
“I’m out too,” Ryan said, pulling on his coat. His brow ticked up, questioning. “See you tomorrow? Bright and early?”
Trig nodded. He knew what Ryan was getting at. His tone was saying, “Are you sure about this?” He was saying this because Trig never hooked up with anyone from the resort. It was bad for business. And honestly, before tonight, he’d never really wanted to. He wanted to now. He probably shouldn’t. He likely wouldn’t. But man, he wanted to.
Once the bar was empty, Bear’s Den taking their turn on the playlist, Trig met Kissie’s stare. Her eyes were a remarkable shade of blue, deep like the ocean, like twilight.
“What do you need me to do?” she asked.
Never, ever leave. “Nothing. You don’t have to help me close up. You’ve had an eventful weekend, wingwoman. Drink your drink. Eat some prezzies.”
“Prezzies?”
“Yeah, prezzies. Yummy little prezzies.” He plucked a pretzel from the bowl and popped it into his mouth.
She snickered. “You’re cute.”
“And you are beautiful.”
Her eyes ballooned.
Maybe he shouldn’t have said that, but it was true. And since he knew all too well what it felt like to be lied to, Trig was nothing if not honest.
“Anyway,” he pivoted, grabbing his spray bottle off the back counter and stepping out from behind the bar to clean tables, “do you think Dawn is over her ex now?”
“Not all the way. But she’s way better than before we came here.” She spun around on her stool, and he could feel her watching him while he wiped a table clean. “Last week she was sleeping all day, crying all night. It was bad.”
“Cheated? You said her ex had cheated, right?”
“Yep. Like a real dick. Can I ask you something?”
Turning a chair over on top of the clean table, he said, “Shoot.”
“Why do men cheat?”
“Ha!”That’s rich. “Um, I don’t believe men are the only people who cheat.”
“True, sorry. Okay, why do you think anyone cheats?”
After placing another chair up on another table, he sat beside her at the bar. “I don’t know. I’ve never cheated. But when my ex cheated on me—”
Her mouth fell open. “I didn’t know. If you don’t want to talk about this, I totally understand.”
He bumped his shoulder gently into hers. “It was a year ago. I’m pretty much over it by now.”Not entirely true. “But she told me she’d cheated because she thought I was ‘going nowhere.’”
“Ouch.”
“Little bit. You may find this hard to believe, but there are at least a handful of women out there who aren’t impressed by broke bartenders.”
When she said, “Elitist snobs,” in solidarity, he couldn’t help but chuckle.
“The man she left me for was…not a broke bartender.” He scratched his beard. “Honestly, though, I’m sure there are a multitude of reasons people cheat, but it doesn’t matter what the reason is. Because there is no reason that justifies betraying someone you’re supposed to care about.”
“Agreed. One hundred percent.” She raised her glass, and he pulled his still half-full drink over, raising it as well. “To the people who never cheat,” she said, leading the cheers.
He touched his glass to hers. “Hear, hear.” After taking a solid sip, he asked, “You’re leaving tomorrow, right? Back to…?”
