So Good

She chuckled and rolled her eyes. “It was fine and not pitiful at all. It was fun and your dad is hilarious.” She got a serious expression on her face then. “How are you doing now?”

I shifted on my feet and shoved my hands in the pockets of my jeans. I shrugged. “I’m fine,” I said, lying. “I mean, what else can I do, how can I really feel? It is what it is, right?”

“I mean, I guess. But it still sucks with the whole job thing.”

I nodded, knowing that was the truth.

“And you haven’t talked to your dad about his girlfriend yet? You haven’t met her?”

I shook my head. “Truth is, I’m not even upset or feel weird about him dating someone so young.” Because I harbored my own taboo feelings toward my uncle. “But even so, I don’t know if I want to?” I phrased it like a question because the truth was I didn’t know if I was ready to meet her.

Would it be weird given the fact I had feelings for Matthew, a much older man? Would it be too much like my father’s relationship with a young girl? It was just so confusing.

There was a moment of silence and then I saw her expression change. I knew she was switching the topic and I silently thanked God for that.

She glanced over my shoulder, looking nervous all of a sudden. I turned and stared behind me to see what she was looking at, but there was nothing. When I faced her again, I felt my brows bunch in confusion. “What are you doing? Who are you looking for?”

She gave me this mischievous grin and then walked over to her bag, which she’d set on the floor by the front door when she’d first gotten here. I watched as she rifled around in it, and then a second later she pulled out a bottle of peach schnapps.

I felt my eyes widen as I saw the bottle, then quickly looked behind me, expecting my father or Matthew to be standing there about to give us the third degree for having liquor.

“Oh my God, Georgia. Where did you get that from?”

She grinned and tried to discreetly hand it to me, but the bottle was pretty big. I kept looking around, expecting Matthew or my father to walk in and see the exchange, as if we were shady people making a drug deal in an alley.

“Marcus has a friend who is twenty-one. Told him to buy me this so I could give it to you.” She was still grinning like she had just given me the key to all the secrets of the world. “After the last couple of weeks you’ve had, I figured you might need something strong.”

I looked down at it and then back up at her. “What am I supposed to do with it?”

She snorted and rolled her eyes. “Ivy, you drink it.” Georgia started chuckling as if she’d had to really break it down for me and thought it was funny.

“Obviously, Georgia. But I don’t drink.”

Just as she was about to speak, her cell vibrated and she pulled it out of her coat pocket.

She looked at the screen and sighed. “It’s my mom. I have to go. She’s bitching at me because I’m not home yet.”

She gave me a hug, the liquor bottle wedged between us, digging into my ribs. When she pulled back she look down at it and grinned again.

“And keep your schedule open for that party.” She winked. “Have a good time.” She wagged her brows at me as she glanced down at the alcohol. Then she turned, grabbed her bag off the floor, and headed out the door.

I stood there with this big bottle of liquor in my hands, telling myself I wasn’t going to go to my room and drink alone. But then I heard my father’s phone ringing. The way he answered it, his tone changing, becoming softer, sweeter, I knew he was talking to the woman he was seeing.

So I turned and headed upstairs, shut myself in my room, and unscrewed the top of the bottle.

The first swallow burned, but the longer I did it, the more I drank, the more it started to taste pretty damn good.

This might be a very bad idea. Or maybe it was the best one I’d had in a long time.

5

Ivy

I didn’t know how long I stayed up in my room. An hour? Two?

It all blurred together.

I’d drunk a decent amount of the schnapps and was feeling a nice buzz. My body felt warm, my muscles kind of achy.

I found myself stumbling down the stairs, trying to be quiet because I knew my father had gone to bed. The last thing I needed was for him to see me this way and grill me on specifics.