I proved them all wrong. It took me a while to pull my head out of my ass and stop feeling sorry for myself, but eventually I began listening to what my physical therapist was saying and started working at getting stronger. I was in the hospital for a year and it took me six months to learn to walk again, in that time, I also had to learn what is really important in life—and it sure as fuck isn’t a woman like her.
“How have things been going with the new job?” I ask, needing to change the subject since every time I think about the years I wasted on that bitch, I get pissed all over again.
“Good. Really good. And if things keep going the way they have been, I should win the bid on the next location,” he says. I can’t help but be happy for him, since he’s been doing construction forever and this year is the first year he stepped out on his own, with his own crew.
“That’d be good,” I say on a deep breath.
“How are you liking running the bar?” he asks.
“It’s all right. We hired a new girl a few days ago.”
“Oh yeah?” he asks, and I turn my head to look at him.
“Yeah.”
“Well fuck me.” He grins, reading the look on my face without me even having to say anything.
“We’ll see,” I mutter then turn and press the button to speed up my run.
“I’ll have to stop by and have a beer.”
“She’s shy, man,” I confide quietly, wondering why I love that so much.
“Shy?” he repeats, sounding surprised.
“Yep, shy.”
“Have you ever had shy?”
“Nope, but it’s a new day.” I grin at him then curse when I see Lisa standing in front of my treadmill.
“Hey,” she says softly when our eyes meet.
“You here picking up dudes?” Tide asks, and her eyes go to him and narrow. “Just wondering, since you got a full face of makeup on and you’re not even sweating.”
“Don’t be a dick, Tide.” She crosses her arms over her chest, glaring at him.
“Don’t know how to be anyone but me,” he replies, and her lip curls up in disgust before she looks at me once more.
“Do you have a minute to talk?” she asks.
There was once a time when I would have said yes to anything she asked of me, but that was a long fucking time ago. Now I doubt I’d even spare a glass of water on her if she were on fire.
“Nope, I’m here to work out then I’m heading to the bar.”
“Oh,” she responds, looking down and shuffling her feet. “Can you call me? I’d really like to talk to you. We can meet…”
“I’d really like to have a threesome, but I don’t see that happening in my future,” Tide clips cutting her off, and she looks at him again with hatred glittering in her eyes. “If that’s all, you can move along.” He waves her away, and I fight back the laugher I feel building inside me.
“I still don’t know why you’re friends with him,” she scolds, looking at me.
“It’s called loyalty. Maybe you should look up the definition in the fucking dictionary sometime,” he says, and I laugh at that one as she narrows her eyes on mine.
“Come on, Lisa,” her friend Brittany calls from across the room, and she pulls her eyes from mine and lets out a huff before heading that way.
Shaking my head, I slow down to a walk.
“I fucking hate that bitch,” Tide mutters, and I turn to look at him. “Seriously, I fucking hated her in school, and even more so now. She’s never going to change.”
He’s right about that; she will never change. She’s selfish as fuck, and the only reason she’s trying to talk to me now is because I want nothing to do with her, and her ego can’t handle it.
“Join the fucking party,” I retort, and he grins, reaching over and patting my shoulder so hard I almost topple off the machine. “Easy, man.”
“Come on.” He hops off his treadmill. “Let’s finish our workout and get out of here. I feel like having a beer.”
“Tide,” I sigh, knowing exactly why he wants a beer.
“What?” he asks, and I shake my head.
“You meet her, you better be on your best behavior. And you better not scare her off.”
“Who, me?” He points at himself, trying to appear innocent. “I just want to make sure she’s not another Lisa.”
“She’s not.” I know she’s not. No way would Lisa ever get down on her hands and knees to clean up a mess, even if she made it. Or step in to take care of her family unless she was getting something out of it.
After Gia left the bar, I talked to my mom about how she knew her. She told me a little about her history, about her being friends with Gia’s parents when they were both in town and how they had both passed away, her mother from a car accident and her father from a brain tumor. After she told me that, she explained what Nina had to her—that for the last ten years, Gia thought her grandmother was dead. Even with all of that, she still dropped everything and moved here, leaving her job, friends, and life behind. A selfish woman wouldn’t do that.