On the Rocks by Georgia Beers

Author:Georgia Beers [Beers, Georgia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781635559903
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2021-12-01T21:44:33+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Grace was about to set the wooden spoon down in the spoon rest when she saw it tremoring in her hand. It was slight, not a big deal, but enough so she noticed it, and it cranked her nerves up another notch. Standing in front of the stove, watching the big pot of turkey soup she’d made, she flexed her hands open and closed. Open and closed. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Vanessa would be there any minute, and she felt like her entire body was hyped up on sugar. Or cocaine.

Rudy twined lazily between her feet, around, back through, like he hadn’t a care in the world. Grace envied the damn cat, all relaxed and chill. That wasn’t her. At all.

She needed to stay moving. At least for the next few minutes. That should calm her nerves a bit. She strolled the small duplex, didn’t let herself actually pace because that never helped her feel less freaked out. But slow strolling did. As Rudy followed her and hopped up onto the couch to make himself comfortable, she approached the bookshelf against the wall and methodically picked up each photo of Oliver and gazed at it, focused on it, until her heart rate slowed a bit, and she started to feel like herself again.

Her invitation this morning had been brazen, not a quality she’d ever displayed before. It was ballsy. Another thing she didn’t normally consider herself. She wasn’t a pushover by any means. She was no shrinking violet, as her dad would say. But she also wasn’t the squeaky wheel. She wasn’t the person who stood up and verbalized her needs and wants. Maybe that had contributed to the end of her marriage, now that she thought about it.

She stood in the middle of the tiny living room now and looked around and let herself notice the lack of Michael. Or rather, the lack of the lack of Michael. None of his shoes or boots were on the tray near the door, but that was about it. That was the only way she could tell he was gone, at least from the downstairs, and it sort of made her wonder how long it had been that way, how long he’d had one foot so far out the door that it had taken him literally one carload of boxes and less than two hours to move out. He’d said he didn’t take any of the furniture because he didn’t want to disrupt Oliver’s life that much, but Grace wondered if it wasn’t more accurate that he wanted a clean slate, an opportunity to start fresh with a new place and new furniture and a new life. Her divorce might have been technically fresh, but the rift between her and her soon-to-be ex-husband had begun long ago. And she suspected not only was he dating, but he might actually have a new girlfriend at this point.

All these thoughts helped to ease her mind the smallest bit about this date. When she’d

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