Peaches and Cream by Georgia Beers

Author:Georgia Beers [Beers, Georgia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2023-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

“It’s just not something we want to spend our money on, honey. You understand.”

Those words, spoken by Adley’s mother exactly three hours and seventeen minutes ago, continued to reverberate through Adley’s head. Echoing, like they were shouted from the top of a mountain. And they might as well have been, given how loud they were in her brain.

She sipped her pinot grigio as she sat at the bar in Martini’s. She’d been there for an hour now, and this was her third glass. Yes, she was overdoing it. No, she didn’t care.

“You understand.” She said it softly to herself, but in a mocking tone. Sneery. Raised lip and everything. Which was not how her mother had said it, but that was exactly how it had felt. Did her parents have any idea how hard it had been for her to ask them for financial help? Any idea at all? She had never, not once, asked for money from them. Not for college. Not for her first car. Not when she’d purchased the Scoop from her grandfather. Not ever. She hinted that she could use it and they’d hinted back that they weren’t interested in helping, but didn’t they know how hard it had been for her to approach them today? To beg? With tears in her eyes because she was facing the reality of losing the Scoop altogether?

She finished her glass and signaled the bartender with the pink streak in her hair for another. She should probably ease up, but for the first time in years and years, all she wanted was to get drunk and forget about the entire day. Or, honestly, the entire summer so far. Yeah, that’d be better. She’d like to rewind back to April, before things started on a downhill trajectory. Or wait. Maybe she’d rather fast-forward. To winter. Ice cream would be gone. The Scoop would probably be gone. Sabrina would definitely be gone…

Ugh.

Her eyes found the doorway that led to the ladies’ room and she stared. Remembered.

Sabrina.

Goddamn her.

Why? Why did it have to be this way? Why did the one person she’d connected with in longer than she cared to remember have to end up being the enemy? Why couldn’t she be traveling to set up a mall? Or an office building? Or because she was selling flooring? Why did she have to be competition?

The fourth glass of wine went down too smoothly. And way too fast. And now she was a little blurry. Her vision. Her thoughts. Her emotions. All of it was…blurry.

She needed to see Sabrina. Yes. That was the best idea right now. She would see her and tell her what she thought of her. Perfect. Let’s do that.

She paid her bill and slid off the stool. Not completely trashed, but very, very tipsy. Too tipsy to drive, which was fine because she knew where Sabrina lived and she could walk there. Too tipsy to make rational choices regarding life, and she knew that, too, but didn’t give a crap.

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