American Honey

***

“Scarlett, he has a freaking girlfriend.”

“Is she one legged, too?”

Scarlett is the only person alive and walking on this Earth that has the balls and permission to make fun of me. At first, it was like having ice cold water run over my spine every time she cracked a joke, but over time the pain eased. It actually helped take the burden of that day off my mind.

“Tess, they’re not boyfriend girlfriend. How many times do I have to tell you this?” Tommie hollers from the kitchen.

It’s girls night at Tommie’s. Popcorn, candy, hair color and chick flicks. Will escapes our wrath every time. Tommie has been quiet about the incident with Finn, and I know she wants to bring it up.

“For the last time. He. Has. A. Girlfriend. Assholes.”

“I want the real story, Tommie, get your ass in here and spill. I’m sick of the half-truths and bitterness from hell cat here.”

Tommie flops down on the couch with the goods and doesn’t shut up for the next thirty minutes about my gushing attitude this morning and then the neutering. Scarlett for once in her life is left with her jaw hanging down and completely speechless.

“What? Nothing to say? I was used. It was great sex, but that’s all.”

“You didn’t tell me all that,” she finally replies.

“Well, Tommie wouldn’t give up while neutering the damn dog, so I finally spilled.”

“I’m in shock, Tess. I really don’t know what to say,” Scarlett whispers.

The two women in the room truly know my heart can and never will love again. What I let Finn take and feel is something I will regret for the rest of my life. Not because it was a mistake, but because he gave my shattered heart a tingly sensation that has been missing for over a year. He breathed life into a hopeless cause and then crushed it the instant he came stumbling into the vet office with a dog and a girlfriend.

“The dog was cute,” I finally say, hoping to end all parts of this miserable conversation.

The sound of the garage door lifting, Tommie’s dogs going ape shit and the kitchen door shutting saved my ass from any further scrutiny. Both girls instantly recognized the pain and pleasure mixed in my eyes, they are not dumb by any means.

“Will,” Tommie screeches. “You’re home early. What the hell? It’s bitches and beer night.”

Tommie and Will have such a carefree relationship, always slinging shit at each other, but coming back together at the end of the day. In only seconds, Tommie has bounded up into Will’s arms showering him with kisses.

“Shit looks deep in here. What’s going on?” He asks with an eyebrow raised.

“Tess got fucked by Finn Evans,” Scarlett causally replies as she pops some junk in her mouth.

Will nearly drops Tommie from the brash and crude way Scarlett just shared everything.

“As in Finn Evans?” He asks.

“Yes, but he has a girlfriend. I’m an idiot and I let the hottest asshole in town screw my brains out in the closet at a freaking bar.”

“Finn. The G Spot. Closet. Girlfriend. My sister is a freak,” Tommie mumbles.

Will places Tommie on the counter and gives her one long final kiss before grabbing an ice cold beer from the fridge.

“Finn doesn’t have a girlfriend,” he replies, pulling from his beer.

“He does,” I insist. “I saw her and she flaunted the fuck out of it right in front of me, Tommie and their dog’s nuts.”

“Quit using that word, Tess. Jesus Christ, it’s like an automatic out of your mouth over the past year,” Tommie scolds.

“Oh fuck off,” I mumble.

“Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with her using the word fuck. One, it proves the closed up woman is alive and two, I like fucking. In fact, I live to fuck,” Scarlett adds.