Vexed by Vodka by Lucy Lakestone

Author:Lucy Lakestone [Lakestone, Lucy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Velvet Petal Press

18

The crowd gasped as I yelled at Mr. Mixy, “You have never been anything but a pompous, talentless, flea-bitten liar!”

I realized that the entire audience had gone as silent as the W in wretch, which was exactly what he was, or the K in knife, which I really wished I had in my hand—all while his narration droned on in the background. And Astra, poor little Astra, barked in my defense from the audience.

“Pepper,” came a low voice in my ear. “Outside. Come on.”

And Neil’s hand was on my lower back, gently guiding me out of the theater as the audience murmured and a few laughed—oh my God, I heard Stephan laughing too—and I felt like crawling into the innermost chamber of a nautilus shell and locking it behind me. I mean, if you could lock a nautilus shell.

Whoa no. Neil. The Bartenders. Had I messed everything up for them? Their reputation mattered to me more than mine did. Well, that wasn’t really true. But as much to me, for sure. I was a part of them now. They were my family. Oh, crap.

“I’m sorry,” I said hoarsely when we got to the lobby. We just stood there as people walked around us, going to the other theaters to see other movies. Neil rubbed my back with one hand. To my embarrassment, tears streamed down my face. To be clear, a lot of things made me cry but not usually this hard. These tears were about twenty percent humiliation and eighty percent murderous rage.

“It’s OK. He deserves worse,” Neil said.

“But I don’t want to be known as the hysterical bartender who loses it at public events.”

He shrugged. “It’s a little film festival. It’ll be fine.”

And this was one of the things I loved about Neil. Even when everything was going to hell, he said it would be fine. And goodness knows Neil had a lot going to hell right now.

“I need a few minutes alone,” I told him. “I’m really sorry. Should I go home?”

He laughed. “Don’t be silly. Come back after you take your moment. You will come back, right?”

I knew what he was saying. I had to come back. Because if I didn’t, it was the same as backing down, as admitting that somehow I was wrong and the Bearded Bastard was right.

I sniffled for a couple more minutes as the lobby cleared out. “I’ll be back.” I looked around and headed toward the exit signs that would take me out the back of the building into the dark parking lot.

I slipped out a side hallway near the back of the long corridor, pushed the door open and propped it ajar with a wooden wedge I found sitting in the hallway so it wouldn’t lock behind me.

I stepped out into the warm and humid night and took a deep breath. A few turtle-safe pole lights cast dim pools of amber down into the dark lot. No one was out here, just a bunch of cars. All the movies were in mid-run, I guessed.

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