Page 27 of Thirst For Me
“That’s the disguise. Look, I know you’re doing everything in your power to distract me from the fact that my life is falling apart right now, and I love you for it, but the damage has already been done. Just hit me with it.”
“With what?”
“I haven’t looked at my phone today. What fresh new hell has cracked open beneath me since yesterday?”
“None, I swear. I called Kyle after we talked, and I told him he’d better erase that meme from existence and figure out who made it. Like, immediately. As far as we can tell, it got texted to, like, everyone in his contact list. Someone had to have accessed one of his devices to do that.”
“Oh, god.”
“So, whoever it was must be close to him or tech-savvy or both. But at least it didn’t actually go viral or anything. You’re not famous.”
“I’ve never been more glad.”
“And Kyle swears up and down he had nothing to do with it. Maybe someone just thought it was funny. Like cute-funny?”
“Right. Adorable.” I might be able to laugh at it myself if the blunder immortalized in said meme wasn’t responsible for ending my relationship, throwing my boyfriend dick-first into the awaiting comfort of his hot female bestie, and now, losing me my much-needed investors. “Well, the only people on that video call were Kyle’s family. So, if it wasn’t him ...”
“Are you going to call him?”
“I really, really don’t want to. Not right now.”
“Then let me take care of it,” she says. “You have enough to deal with. Your focus should be on the smoothie bar. Your business. Making sure it survives the loss of the investment. And taking care of yourself. After that, maybe you sit down with Kyle and get closure?”
“Yeah.” Truth be told, until I fully sober up from last night’s drunken singalong, I’m in no shape to deal with any drama. “I appreciate you looking out for me. You know I do. But I’ll get closure with Kyle once I have my shit together. So, maybe never?”
Sophie frowns at my joke. “Well, in good news, everything is as promised here. Fridges and freezer are up and running. I picked up some things at the grocery store and a couple of farm stands along the way. I managed to load in the stock I brought, sanitize the counters, set up all the blenders, even made myself a slushy.” She holds her cup out to me. “Taste?”
“New flavor?”
“I’m calling it Watermelon Sugar. Like the Harry Styles song.”
I take a sip but say nothing, just let the cartoon hearts shooting out of my eyes say it for me.
Sophie grins. “All that’s really left to do is a little cleaning and all the fun decorating. You and I can rock that out easily.”
“Sophie, you’re a goddamn angel. I’m buying you dinner tonight. For now, can I sit down?” I sit down on the curb before she can answer, rubbing my throbbing temples, and she joins me. The Watermelon Sugar really didn’t land so well.
“Headache?”
“Oh, yeah. You know how music is my go-to when life sucks? But usually I have the decency to sing alone in the shower, like the good lord intended?”
“Oh, no.”
“Oh, yes. I crashed a bachelorette party and screamed ‘You Oughta Know’ at strangers. You know how Very Drunk Sierra can get.”
“I haven’t seen her in so long,” she says wistfully, and drapes an arm around me. “But that song should not be allowed at karaoke nights without proper supervision.”
“I know. You should’ve been there to stop me. Or at least sing backup.” I cover my face with my hand and peer out between my fingers. “And there was no karaoke. It was a jukebox. With no microphone.”
“Oh, Si.”
“Positive note: met some cool girls from Calgary. They’re gonna swing by tomorrow to taste-test smoothies for me before they leave town.”
“Cool.”
I cringe and just spit it out. “And I slept with the hot bartender.”
Sophie’s jaw drops.
