“Well, well, it’s little Jenna,” Jacob
said, flashing me a dazzling smile.
“Give me a hug.”
I hugged him back as I struggled
for something to say. Jacob was a former
friend of Kevin. They actually weren’t
friends anymore because of me; Jacob had always had a bit of a thing for me and
Kevin got too irritated at his inability to not be overly friendly to me.
“Hi, Jacob,” I replied, my face
still pressed into his chest.
When he let me go, a slow smile
crossed his face. “Can I buy you a
drink?”
I glanced at my nearly empty glass
and nodded. He grabbed my hand and I trailed
him to the bar. When we got there, he
introduced me to his friend Ron. I
ordered my drink and narrowed my eyes.
“What are you even doing here?” I asked him. The last I’d heard he’d moved to St.
Paul.
“I’m so happy to see you too,” he
replied with a laugh. “Just back
visiting some friends. But that’s enough
about me. I heard through the grapevine
that you’re a single lady.”
“Well…” I said. I wasn’t sure how to answer that. Was Ryan my boyfriend? We hadn’t yet had that conversation, but I’d hardly
consider myself single. I didn’t think
Ryan would consider me single either.
“Well?” he repeated, as the
bartender returned with my drink.
“You’re not married anymore, right?”
“Right,” I replied.
“So you’re seeing someone,” he
said.
“Yes,” I agreed. That seemed like a fair assessment.
“But it can’t be too serious, or
you would have just said no, you aren’t single.”
I frowned. “I’m not single,” I replied firmly.
He grinned at me. “Alright,” he said. “Well, congratulations on your divorce from
that asshole, in any case.”
“Thanks, I think,” I responded,
rolling my eyes.
I glanced back towards the
table. I saw Grace making her way
through the crowd towards the bar. I
waved at her, and she slipped between people and came over. She looked at Jacob and Ron and said, “If
they want to come sit with us, we can pull a couple chairs up.”
“We’d love to,” Jacob said before I
could say anything. “Ron?”
“Sure,” Ron said. “Let me get another drink.” He drained his drink and he ordered
another. He offered to buy one for Grace
but she politely declined and ordered her own.
Ron eyed her up lecherously and I gave Jacob a hard look. He shrugged like “nothing I can do,” and I
pursed my lips.
As we walked over to our table, I
did notice him lean towards Ron and say something quietly. Ron rolled his eyes but nodded, and he was
nothing but polite to Grace after that.
Once back at the table, I surreptitiously checked my phone again. This time, when I saw no response from Ryan,
I googled what time it was where he was in France and discovered it was only
5am there. I shoved my phone back in my
purse, feeling silly for being so impatient for his response when it was so
early in the morning there.
“So where’s the man tonight?” Jacob
asked me.
“France,” I replied. “For work.”
“What’s he do that takes him to
France?” he asked curiously.
“International project management,”
I said. “I have no idea what that
actually means, but that’s what he does!”
He regarded me carefully. “Are you happy?”
“Yes,” I answered without
hesitation. “Very happy.” And it was true.
“Good,” he replied sincerely. “I’m glad to hear that, Jenna.”
Jacob and Ron hung out at our table
for about an hour, and during that time, I had 3 drinks. Jacob bought all 3, even though I made it
very clear he wasn’t getting anything in return. “Let me just buy a beautiful woman a couple
drinks, would you?” he replied, rolling his eyes. “I’m not looking for anything from you. I absolutely would be if you were 100%
single, but you’re not, so I’m just being nice.” Not interested in turning down free drinks, I
took them. And by the time Jacob and Ron
wandered away, I was feeling pretty wobbly.
A few more drinks over the rest of the night, and I had completely
forgotten my impatience to hear back from Ryan.
I woke up in the morning in a
strange bed. I panicked slightly as I
rolled over, trying to figure out where the hell I was. My heart sank as I wondered what I’d done. I was slightly relieved to find I was the
only one in the bed, at least. The
pounding in my head wasn’t helping anything.
As soon as I stepped out of the
unfamiliar bedroom, I sighed in relief.
I knew exactly where I was then: Grace’s house. I heard voices from the kitchen so I stumbled
in that direction. Emma and Grace were
sitting at the kitchen table and I could smell coffee. I plopped into a chair and groaned.
Without a word, Grace stood up and
poured me a cup of coffee. She put it in
front of me and then brought me a glass of water too. “Tylenol?” she offered. I nodded miserably. I cringed when I heard the cabinet bang
shut. I gratefully swallowed the pills
offered by Grace.
“Why am I here?” I asked.
“You guys were both so drunk I
didn’t want to deal with getting you home to two different places,” Grace
explained. “So I just brought you here.”
“Makes sense,” I said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been inside your
guest room. I was a little freaked out
because I had no idea where I was until I came out of the room. I’m glad it was here!”
For having been just as drunk as I
had been the night before, Emma seemed just as fresh as Grace. I was way too old to drink like that. I took a deep breath and asked, “Did I do
anything stupid last night?”
Grace and Emma both laughed, which
made me nervous. “No, not really,” Emma said. “Unless you count falling off your chair and
then falling again outside the bar.”
I groaned. “Well, I guess it could have been worse. That’s probably the best I could have hoped
for!” I paused and then asked, “Did I
drunk call Ryan?”
“No, but he called you,” Grace
said. “You missed the call and called
him back and he didn’t answer. You were
sad, but you didn’t do anything stupid.”
“Thank god for small miracles,” I
replied. I spotted my purse on the
counter and grabbed my phone out of it.
Ryan hadn’t called back. I
dropped the phone back into my purse and sat back down. At the rate I was going, I wasn’t going to
make it through the 10 more days Ryan would be gone.