“Okay, I’ll go … but only for a little while. I need to get home in case—”
“We know, we know. In case Delaney needs you,” Jerry said, laughing.
Pam and Jerry were kind enough to settle the bill, covering my part of the food and my drink for my birthday. As we walked outside, I was hit with a vague memory: stumbling out of a restaurant just like this one…only then, it had been my twenty-first birthday. Michael clutching my arm for support. We were both drunk, completely unfit to be driving. But we didn’t care – we were so in love, or lust, that all we could think about was getting back to his apartment, getting each other alone…
‘I can’t wait to get you back to my place. Give you some birthday dessert, baby,’ he’d purred in my ear. He flicked my lobe with his tongue. It was cheesy – all of it – but his words created tingly shocks of pleasure that started on my scalp and trickled all the way to my toes.
Michael, always the charmer. Until he wasn’t.
“Listen, I’m going to follow you there,” I said, opening the door of the van. I expected more protests and was relieved when they didn’t.
It had been so long since I’d been to Grisham Boulevard, which was where most of the popular bars and night clubs were in Kentucky.
“You sure you don’t want to ride with me now? You could leave your car here till morning,” Jerry stood outside the driver’s window, jingling his keys. Pam was clutching his arm, clearly too drunk to drive herself after those four beers.
“Nah, that’s okay. I’ll park in the garage by Grisham, and then if I need you to take me home, at least I’ll know the van is safely parked.”
In reality, I wasn’t planning on having any more drinks. The amaretto sour had hurt my belly and left a terrible aftertaste in the back of my mouth.
Plus, I wanted to be able to drive home so I didn’t have to deal with tracking down my van in the morning. Too many days in my youth had been spent recuperating from the night before…
I placed my purse on the passenger seat and tugged my driver’s mirror down to check for food in my teeth.
Even now, I’m shocked by the woman looking back at me.
I guess I was still expecting that younger version, the one with the smooth white skin and shiny black hair minus the wiry gray strands, the girl with the killer smile and the confidence to back it up. Once upon a time, I could turn heads. Including Michael’s.
But I don’t turn heads anymore.
Maybe the dating app isn’t such a bad idea, I considered.
Pam had shared a few stories about her dating escapades with me. Was I impressed?
No, not really. I sort of felt sorry for her.
My mind drifted back to Delaney, as I waited for Jerry to pull up beside me so I could follow him there.
The phone on the floorboard chirped again. I’d nearly forgotten about it, lying down there in the dark. Grunting, I reached across the seat and scooped it up.
Delaney will definitely be wanting this back in the morning, I thought, furtively.
I stared at the screen of her iPhone. The screen saver was a picture of her and her best friend, Kerry. Kerry was all smiles and puckered lips, but Delaney … she frowned into the lens, her eyes narrowed and intense. She looked almost … angry. And everything about the photo screamed: ‘Don’t fuck with me.’
Maybe that’s exactly what she was aiming for, I considered.
I swiped right, mostly to erase that vexed image of her, and was instantly met with a prompt to put in a password. Without thinking I punched in the six-digit code Delaney and I had both been using for years now, the one she used to use for Roblox and other online kid games. But that had been years ago; surely, she had changed it by now?
Surprisingly, the password still worked. Like me, Delaney was a creature of habit.
A dozen app icons filled the screen. I was relieved to see that her wallpaper was a simple design, blue ocean water and steamy white caps on a stranded beach. It felt wrong looking at her phone like this. And if Delaney knew I was snooping, there would be hell to pay.
She would be livid, no doubt.
But isn’t this what responsible parents are supposed to do? Check up on their teens?
My mother was dead by the time I was Delaney’s age, and I could have used one with all the trouble I got into.
Delaney had two unread text messages blinking back at me in the corner. Before I could change my mind, I clicked on the message app.
The first one was the message I’d sent her earlier, telling her to call me if she needed me.
And the newest one… I clicked on it and waited for an image to load on the screen.
My mouth fell open and I released a small cry, covering my mouth in horror.
“What’re ya doing over there? Let’s go!” Pam shouted from Jerry’s passenger window. They were parked right in front of me, blinding white headlights shining in my eyes.
I quickly pressed the home button and the screen went dark. Shaking, I reached over for my purse and buried the phone deep inside.
I rolled my window all the way down, leaned out, then shouted, “I’m so sorry, but I have to go now. Delaney needs me at the hospital. Thanks for dinner. We’ll do it again soon, yeah?”
“Yeah, of course,” Pam said, but I could tell she didn’t believe me. She slumped back in her seat, and I could see she was already texting away on her phone.
If Jerry and I are here, then who is she texting? I wondered.
Pam didn’t have any other close friends, but
