“Press it again,” Tabitha says with a wicked grin. Adele rolls her eyes.
“You sure?” Charlie hovers her thumb over the button.
“Do it,” Tabitha has a maniacal look not unlike the demon jackalope.
Gritting her teeth, Charlie pushes it. “Don’t you want to play?” a sinister voice whispers from the toy box.
“Oh!” Adele and Tabitha both cry. “Put it away,” Adele orders. Tabitha looks like she wants to push the button again.
“Shit,” Charlie says emphatically and places the box at arm’s length away from her on the table. “Kids really like to play with this stuff?”
I shrug.
“Kids these days,” Adele says, straightening her silverware beside the empty place where her plate will go for the fifth time. “Way more into scary stuff than I ever was.”
“At least it’s not baby Cthulhu. Those were super in last year,” I say. The waitress bustles up with her tray full of our drinks, and I take the toy and carefully set the box back in my bag.
“So you got one for your class?” Adele asks.
“Yeah. Only one, so they’ll have to share.”
“You are the nicest kindergarten teacher ever.” Tabitha salutes me with her strawberry margarita. “And that’s saying something. That bar is high.”
“To Sweet Sadie,” Charlie raises her Fat Tire in toast.
“Sadie,” Tabitha and Adele join in, raising their glasses.
I flush and sip my mango margarita with them. My friends are the best thing in my life right now. I love them like sisters, even though we couldn’t be more different.
“You didn’t want a margarita?” Tabitha asks Adele.
“No,” Adele sniffs and swirls her red wine in the glass.
“They’re really good,” Tabitha singsongs and flips her long, straight red hair over her shoulder.
“No thank you.” Adele tips the glass, closing her eyes and swirling her wine to inhale the bouquet.
“Snob,” Tabitha mocks gently.
“Leave her alone.” Charlie’s voice is a little loud, but it’s not the alcohol talking. Charlie just likes to be loud. She balances her chair on its back two legs for a second then lets it fall to all fours with a thud. “Someone should be drinking wine,” she pronounces. “It is Wine Wednesday.”
“You mean Whine Wednesday,” Tabitha corrects. “We agreed when we started this tradition we don’t actually have to drink wine, we just have to whine. So who’s going first?”
“Sadie.” Adele’s green eyes pierce me over her wine glass. She sees everything, and she’s our unofficial mother hen.
“Sadie? Everything all right?” Tabitha asks.
“Who do I have to kill?” Charlie adds and plants her elbows on the table. “Is it Scott? I will fuck him up.” She means it too.
“Everything’s fine.” I sigh and set down my margarita.
“Nope, come on, spill.” Tabitha waves her fingers in a come hither motion. “What’s Scott up to now?”
“Are you guys back together?” Charlie’s brow furrows. “I thought after... The Incident…”
“The Incident? Is that what we’re calling cheating now?” Tabitha runs her finger around the rim of her margarita, collecting the salt.
“We’re still broken up,” I say. “But he wants me back. He just texted again, asking if we could meet tonight.”
“Seriously? He cheated on you!” Both Charlie and Tabitha explode.
“Shhh.” Adele lifts a hand. “Calm down, Sadie’s talking.”
“Thanks.” I give her a small smile. “We’re not getting back together. I told him no, but he’s being really persistent.” I glance down at my phone in my bag. I turned it off after that last text to get some peace. At any given moment, I could have several missed calls and unread texts from Scott.
“Persistent how?” Tabitha asks, her eyes narrowed.
“Texts, phone calls,” I tell my friends. “Gifts. He sent flowers, chocolates.”
“Did he get the chocolates from The Chocolatier?” Charlie asks Adele.
Adele shakes her head, still looking at me. “No. He knows if he comes into my store, I’ll roast him alive.” She says it delicately, but I have no doubt in a run-in between Scott and Adele, Adele would win.
“Okay, so Scott brought you subpar chocolate,” Tabitha says, emphasizing subpar as if this is the most egregious sin. And in our group, it is egregious. “Then what?”
“He just won’t stop reaching out. The other day, he and my dad were outside the school. Scott said it was for a development meeting, but I think he planned it right when I would take my kids out for recess.”
“Gross,” Charlie says.
“That is just like Scott. So shady. Why doesn’t your dad see it?” Tabitha fretts.
“Because Sadie’s dad is the same,” Adele says firmly. “Birds of a feather.” She looks me right in the eye and raises a slim brown brow.
I keep silent because she’s right. My dad loves Scott and his development ideas way more than I ever did. He has our marriage all planned, so then, the two of them can take over all the real estate in the area. Adele is right. Scott is a carbon copy of my dad.