“…On the way…” I hear him mutter into the receiver.
That’s that.
If he doesn’t already hate me, he probably does now.
She hangs up the phone and hands it back to me. “You’re lucky this guy loves you,” she says. “Otherwise, we’d be stranded here for another two hours.”
“Thank you, Dasha,” I whisper, head against the porcelain.
I know how I must look. Classy. Whatever - we’ve all been there before, right?
“I’m so sorry I ruined your one night away from the kid,” I add.
I give a weak smile and turn into the toilet again to hurl.
“Aw, it’s okay, sweetie,” she whispers, sitting down next to me. She strokes my hair and kisses the back of my head. “I’m always here for you, girl.”
“Me too. I swear,” I tell her. “Next week you can get too drunk, and I’ll hold your hair.”
“Deal,” she says.
There’s a pounding on the door and Dasha runs to open it.
“There’s someone in here, you idiot!” she screams.
The woman shakes her head and walks away.
“It’s okay.” I smile. “I can walk outside. I’m ready to go.”
She grabs my hand and leads me through the spinning room, the one with all the lights and dancing, and debauchery. It’s a funny place, really. I can’t tell if people are there to get off or have a laugh.
When I get outside, I fall onto the curb next to her car. “I can’t believe I fucked things up with Rocco,” I say, unable to control my volume.
“Madison, it’s—”
“No!” I yell. “I’m so stupid. I should have never walked away from him like that. I should have never gotten angry. I lied. I didn’t tell him about Boulder when I should have. I’m such an idiot. I think I really him.”
“You do?” a man’s voice says, directly in front of me.
I look up, and it’s Rocco.
“I think I really like that lady too.” He smiles. “It’s a shame she’s leaving town, but I’m sort of glad she got too drunk to drive tonight. Otherwise, we wouldn’t cross paths again.”
I laugh and throw my arms around him, feeling the life shoot back into my body. “I was wrong,” I whisper. “So wrong.”
Rocco
I hold her in my arms and she sways with drunkennes
s.
I’ve missed the way this woman feels against my body. I miss the way she looks at me, the way she smells like roses and everything good in the world…
I miss it all.
Even if it was only one night apart from each other, I thought it could last a lifetime.
“I was wrong too,” I tell her. “I didn’t mean to hide it from you. I thought I could fix things. I thought there could be another way around it.”