The Big Easy & Other Lies by Melanie Jacobson

Author:Melanie Jacobson [Jacobson, Melanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Four Petal Press
Published: 2020-08-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

It was only a couple of minutes before the door swung open and Rhett walked in, his jacket back on and the six pack still in his hand. He headed to the sink, twisted the cap off the first beer, and poured it out. Then he kept going. When the last beer went down the drain, he put all the bottles back in the box and set it on the counter. “I’ll throw these out somewhere else, so Bran doesn’t get nailed for anything.” He walked over and took the chair opposite me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

I shrugged. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not,” he said. “But it wasn’t intentional.”

“I know.”

Neither of us said anything for a while. The quiet was all right. My temper cooled. “Sorry,” I said. “I don’t usually do scenes.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. Then he cleared his throat. “So. The dad thing. More of the complicated home life?”

“It’s a very small part.”

“Sometimes I feel like I don’t have a dad, but I guess I at least have the option of picking up the phone and getting his voicemail whenever I want,” he said.

I gave a small smile. “Voicemail, huh?”

“Yeah. His voicemail greeting is the only non-yelling conversation I hear from him.”

I wanted to explain what Delphine had told me, about how this was a sick anniversary I’d never thought to commemorate. But tomorrow would be another day in which my dad was still dead, and it would be the anniversary of nothing. Today wouldn’t matter.

Except for the good parts. The hand-holding with Rhett. That mattered.

“Sorry I dropped your jacket,” I said. “It felt dramatic and interesting ten minutes ago. Now I feel stupid.”

He laughed. “You’re cool.” Seeing my surprise, his face grew serious. “You know that, right? Seriously cool.”

I reddened, and he smiled but didn’t tease me. He leaned his arms on the table, moving slightly more into my space. “We were talking about Urban Renewal. Will you tell me more? I dug those sketches.”

I traced an outline for my Belles and Beaux logo on the tabletop, the name I was toying with for my brand, following the invisible loops around and around. I thought about the impossibility of getting my hands on the fabric lying in wasted piles at my house. “Ever feel like you’re beating your head against a brick wall?”

“Are you kidding? I wrote a song about it.”

I snorted and he grinned. “I’m trying not to feel overwhelmed,” I said. “But changing my concept to this Urban Renewal line changes everything. The fabrics, the designs, the music for the show. I think that my brains will fall out, and that it will happen soon.”

“It’ll work out,” he said. “You guys have voodoo here, right? Maybe you could find someone to voodoo your aunt into giving you the fabric you need.”

I smiled. “I wish. Voodoo is a real thing here, and it’s super interesting. You should do some research on it.”

“Did I just commit another microaggression?”

“Yeah.” I wrinkled my nose at him.

He sighed. “I’ll do better.

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