Page 21 of A Fine Line
“Crew, are you sure everything is okay?” She asked gently, like a mom would.
“Perrrfect.” I nodded. Too fast. Too blurry. “I won’t let her get to me, Layla. I promise.”
Her head cocked to the side and she took my glass out of my hands-hey, that’s my glass.
“Who?” She asked.
“Who what?”
“Who will you not let get to you?” She asked again. Deja vu. Ha. That’s a funny word. DEJJJAAA VOOOO. “Crew?”
“Her.” I pointed to the door, where I knew no one was but that was the last direction that she was in so yeah. There. “That little beautiful witch. She’s so beautiful, Lay. If she wasn’t so awful…I’d keep her.”
“You mean that red haired girl, right? The one you complained about before?”
I put a finger on my nose. “Yes!” Layla was so nice, she understood. More than most did. Mom tried. I think they both did. But Layla knew my brain a little better, a calm in a raging storm. She was a good sister in law like that. “You get me.”
“I understand, I think. You like her?” She asked.
I let out a monstrous groan. “No, Layla. You don’t get me.”
“But you just said-”
“No, I didn’t. I take it back. I don’t like the girl. She’s an evil menace. She just wants me to like her.”
“Ohhh, okay?”
“See, if we do this whole partnership-” that felt like a long word, “then she gets exactly what she wants, I get what I want.”
“Oh, well that’s good, right?”
“NO!” I shouted, my hands raising up and pulling at my hair. “No, Layla. No good. Because that’s what she wants me to think. That if we do this, then we’ll be happy and done. But deep down, I know she’s going to take my heart.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Cause she’s done it before.” My shoulders fell.
History repeats itself. I learned my lesson, falling for a girl in a single instance and finally thinking I may have had a breakthrough in my bad dating experiences only to find out- whoops, not only is she not single…she’s engaged. Engaged to a blonde man in a cowboy hat. She said she liked city boys. I don’t even own a cowboy hat. I should order one. When was prime day again?
“I think maybe you’re thinking the worst of things right now since you’re drinking. What if…whatever it is really works out for you two?”
“Then…” I considered, waiting for my brain to come up with an answer. “I don’t know.”
“Then maybe give it a go? And you can have a backup plan in case whatever it is does go bad like you think?” She reached a hand out, pinching my chin. “Who can hate this face, huh? You’re like a puppy.”
Puppy, man child, all the same to them.
“I’m twenty six.” I sniffed. “Not a puppy.”
“A twenty six year old puppy,” she snickered. “seriously, though. I think you ought to go into this with the right head and you’ll come out on top.”
The right head. Backup plan. Yes.
I nodded feverishly. “You’re right, Lay. I just need to come up with an idea on how to get her back and-”
“No, no. That is not what I said.”
“Ooohh,” I caught on, winking extra big at her. “I hear ya.” My fingers lifted in air quotes. “Not. what. you. said. Suureee. I understand.”