Page 7 of Until Next Time
Me:New phone number. Guess who!?
Casey:When were you going to tell me you were back home?
Me:Right now. But how did you know?!
Casey:Mhmmmm, okay. Your dumb brother told me. Are you going to the Fest tonight?
Me:Yes I am! Dawsen said there would be musicians. Gonna take the hottest one back home with me.
Casey:Your parents are gonna love that.
Casey:We both know who you really want to take home ;)
Me:OMG NO STOP.
Casey:HAH! You know I’m right. Whatever, I’m gonna pick you up. Be there at 6!
Me:Hate you. Love you. Bye.
Casey is my best friend, and she happens to also be the only person who knows about my hopeless crush onhe-who-shall-not-be-named.
The only reason she even knows is because she once found his junior varsity football photo taped in my nightstand drawer, and she held me down on my bed in until I spilled my guts about “Why on earth I would have a photo of Dawsen Jones taped into my night stand.” She demanded.
I tried making up a story that involved River and a dare and she called my bluff immediately. She so lovingly put it, “You’re a shit liar.” And she happened to be right. I couldn’t lie to save my life. Which I choose to look at as one of my greatest qualities.
* * *
I hear a light knock on my bedroom door and my mom’s voice on the other side, “I’ve got something for you!”
“Is it a shot of tequila and a new job? Cause I could use both.” I quip.
She nudges the door open with her foot and shrugs while holding two glasses of white wine, “How about a glass of Sauvy B, and some girl talk?”
“That’ll do, that’ll do just fine.” As I excitedly grab one of the glasses.
My mom always does a heavy pour. God love her for it.
I bring the glass up to my nose, swirl it around and give it a good sniff like I would imagine a distinguished sommelier would do. But I don’t know anything about wine other than I like it very much. This one particularly smells like good times and sunshine. And It tastes even better.
“Damn. This is incredible.” I basically moan as I take another sip.
“It’s one of the cult wines from Southbound, it’s my favorite one that I’ve tried so far!” My mom says as she takes another sip.
Our town is small enough that a new winery in town would be a massive deal, and I’ve never heard of this one.
“What’s Southbound?”
She looks at me with a questioning expression, “Honey, it’s Saddlebrooke—Dawsen did a whole re-brand of the winery when he bought them out. Did you not hear about that?”
I knew he had bought out the winery but I didn’t realize he was going to rename the whole damn thing. That’s a little risky considering it’s Saddlebrooke and the people here aren’t real keen on changing things up.
“I knew that, I guess I just forgot about it.” I say defensively, lying. I definitely did not know.
“What are you wearing tonight?” She changes the subject, Thank God.
“I’m not sure. I have this plaid skirt that I was trying to find something to go with.”
I hold up the brown tweed plaid skirt to my hips to give her the full picture. She smiles and nods as she’s sipping from her glass, “So cute! Okay honey, I’ll let you finish up. Your dad and I are going to head out early to do a little shopping beforehand. We’ll see you atSouthbound.”
