“To Brian’s hotel? Um, hell no. The shit show that happened on my front porch is all the confrontation I need, thank you very much.”
“Not that asshole, the other asshole.”
“PJ? He’s not an asshole. Like you said, he’s just giving me space,” I tell her.
I hate that word, space. How does putting distance between you and someone you claim to care about help anything? It doesn’t. It just leaves more room for doubt and to let that person’s imagination run wild. I know he cares about me, but maybe this is all too much for him. He’s never had a serious relationship and all of a sudden, he’s dating a single mom with a teenager who is sweet, but also hell on wheels, who desperately needs a father figure in her life. Then the piece of shit ex-husband shows up, and he realizes he can’t deal with that on top of everything else.
“Space is bullshit. You two need to be a united front. I know you’re strong enough to handle Brian on your own, but you shouldn’t have to. You found someone who has your back and believes in you, and he should be by your side, giving you support during this shit storm,” Ariel tells me heatedly.
Before I can lie my way through another sorry excuse for why PJ has been avoiding me, Ariel is up and off the couch, grabbing her phone from the floor.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m getting you an Uber. You’re going to march yourself up to his house, knock on his front door, and tell him to get his head out of his ass,” Ariel replies, her phone pinging a few seconds later. “Done. Uber will be here in five minutes.”
I want to protest, but she’s right. I’m not the same person I was a few months ago and I’m not about to keep this space between us and not explain to him what’s going on. Not tell him that he’s the one I want, as long as he can handle the temporary drama in my life.
Because it will be temporary. Brian is my past. My stupid, regret-filled, boring past. PJ is my future.
* * *
“You’re really pretty and nice and I looooove you.”
“Cindy, stop petting the Uber driver’s hair,” Ariel complains, grabbing my arm and yanking me back onto the seat next to her.
“It’s okay, miss. Wouldn’t be the first time I was pet by a pretty, drunk lady,” the driver responds, giving us a smile in his rearview mirror.
“Awwww he said I’m pretty,” I muse, resting my head on Ariel’s shoulder.
“He also said you were drunk. I probably shouldn’t have encouraged you to bring a bottle of wine with us.”
“Did you know drinking wine improves your sex life?” Belle asks, leaning forward in the seat on the other side of Ariel to look at us. “An Italian study showed that women who drink two glasses of wine daily enjoy physical pleasure much more intensely than women who don’t drink wine at all.”
As soon as our Uber driver picked us up, we called Belle and told her to sneak out of her dad’s basement and wait for us in her driveway. Much to our surprise, she told us she was at the library and that we should pick her up there. What she was doing at the library at this hour of the night is beyond me, and now that she seems like she’s back to her old self of spouting off random facts that have to do with what we’re discussing, I’m sure she’s fine. And honestly, I’m too drunk to think about that right now.
I hold up the empty bottle and shake it around in the air in the dark backseat.
“Allllll gone! Looks like I get all the intense physical pleasure to myself. Yummy in my tummy.”
“Jesus, you drank the entire thing?!” Ariel questions in shock.
I nod, but quickly realize I shouldn’t do that when a little bit of vomit comes up my throat and I have to swallow it back down.
“We’re here,” our driver announces as the car comes to a stop.
I quickly turn my head to look and smack it against the window, letting out a groan of pain as I smack and paw at the door handle, unable to get it to work.
Ariel reaches around me and opens the door easily, shoving me out of the car as her and Belle follow right behind me.
Leaning against the door after Belle closes it, I stare up at PJ’s house. I forgot how pretty it was, especially at night with the spotlights shining on it and little solar light lanterns lining the front walk. I haven’t been here since the night of that disastrous birthday party. My house is closer to his club and since I need to take Anastasia to and from school every day, it was just easier for us to always be there.