Page 41 of All Yours

“You didn’t say that you had a boyfriend.” Patrick sighed loudly, slid from the seat and wandered off.

Finn placed a martini glass of red liquid in front of Sloane as I took the seat vacated by the guy.

“Bye, Patrick,” Sloane giggled. “Now let’s get you drunk.”

“It sounds like you’re already there,” I said.

She smiled and hit me with a flash of baby blues through her eyelashes. “Just a teensy bit buzzed.”

Sure. And a monsoon is a slight rain shower. It wasn’t like her to get intoxicated.

“Jonah,” Lauren yelled, dressed in a royal blue flapper dress. “You’re here.”

“Hi.” She too may have been on the tipsy side.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Sloane said, as a yellow drink in a highball glass appeared on the bar in front of me.

“One Zombie Cocktail,” Finn said.

“Thanks. Can’t say I’ve ever had a drink this yellow.”

Adrian’s long-time bartender gave me a sarcastic grin and a thumbs up. As if to say that’s what I get for letting Sloane order my drink.

“Lauren, Eden,” I said in greeting. “You’re all flapper girls.”

Eden ignored me. I get it. I had been a bit of a jerk to her that morning. But I stand by my feeling that something fishy was going on with her.

“Yes. I wanted to dress as Zelda Fitzgerald. Then, we decided to do a roaring 20s theme together,” Sloane said, taking another sip of her red cocktail.

“Have they done the costume contest yet?” I asked.

“Not yet. That’ll be a bit later.”

“I bet you’ll win,” I said, studying the yellow liquid in the glass.

“I doubt it,” she said. “There are plenty of genuinely good costumes.”

“Brody and Darren are running around in nothing but board shorts,” Lauren interjected.

“Their shorts have their kayak store logo on them. It’s just an advertisement,” Sloane said.

“They certainly got my attention,” Eden said, laughing.

“Yeah, but that’s not gonna win a Halloween costume contest,” Sloane said. “They’re just going to freeze their nipples off.”

Lauren choked on her drink, almost spitting it out. “I have a mental image of a nipple falling off and hitting the ground,” she pantomimed something falling from a chest and hitting the ground with a splat. The ladies howled with laughter.

I smiled, watching Sloane double over laughing. To see her carefree and having fun after everything that had happened released some of the tightness in my chest. I picked up the Zombie Cocktail and took a swig. The overwhelming taste of alcohol burned my sinuses, and I held in a cough.

“What’s in this?” I asked Finn as he’d wandered back over, no doubt to see what all the commotion was on our side of the bar.

“Three kinds of rum and several fruit juices. I went light on the juice for you.” He grinned.

“Thanks,” I sputtered.

“It’s great about you and Sloane,” Finn said. “It’s about time you two got together.”

I sat dumbfounded. Why would he think that? We were supposed to pretend for the tabloids if her identity got out. But why did Finn think we were together? After one date, did the entire town assume we’re a couple now? Did he catch the incident with that Patrick guy? Before I could formulate a question, someone else flagged him down ordering a drink.