The barkeep slid a bowl of nuts in front of
her.
“Thanks.” She wasn’t hungry, but she ate them
automatically, the same way she drank the beer.
Aud slid onto the stool beside her. “How far
ahead of me are you?”
Derian shot her a sideways glance. “Not very.
This is my second.”
Aud waved to the bartender. “Dry martini, two
olives.” She grabbed a handful of nuts, turned sideways until her knees rested
against Derian’s thigh, and ran a hand down Derian’s back. “So, how the hell
did you end up here?”
“Went for a walk.”
Aud laughed. “From where?”
Derian clenched her jaw. “I was in the
neighborhood.”
“Okay, fine.”
Derian registered the hurt in Aud’s voice and
shook her head. “Sorry. I dragged you down here and you came without a second
thought, even though I haven’t been much of a friend.”
“Oh, Dere,” Aud said, “that’s not true. Just
because I wanted you to stay here with me and you couldn’t doesn’t mean you
weren’t a good friend. I haven’t reached out to you either. I’ve been too
pissed at you for leaving me.”
“Running away, you mean.”
“Hey, sometimes we have to run in order to
survive.”
“Maybe you can’t outrun who you are,” Derian
said.
“Bullshit. Martin was poison to you.” Aud
sipped her martini. “Wow, this place is a find. Best martini I’ve had in
forever. So, why are you here? It’s not Henrietta, is it?”
“No, she’s fine. Making great progress.”
“What the hell happened?” Aud finished her
cocktail and asked for another. “If it’s not Henrietta, and you haven’t had
another run-in with Martin—”
Derian snorted. “Martin and I have nothing
left to say to each other. We both know where we stand, and nothing will change
that.”
“Then it has to be a woman, and that being
the case, I’d say it’s Emily May.”
“What makes you think that?” Derian tensed at
the mention of Emily, wanting to protect her even though Emily could do that
perfectly well herself.
“I’ve seen you two together, more than once,
and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look at a woman the way you look at her.
Like she mattered.” Aud ran a fingertip around the wide-open mouth of the
glass. “She looks the same way at you.”
“Apparently, looks are deceiving.” Derian
laughed at the lie. She’d always wanted to use that excuse when others judged
her on appearances, but in her case it wasn’t true. “We had a thing, and that’s
over now.”
“A thing. A thing as in you’ve been sleeping
together.”
“That’s generally part of a thing, yes.”
“Really, Derian, Henrietta’s protégé? Do you
have to follow your clit everywhere it leads?”
“According to popular opinion, yes.” Derian
didn’t even mind the verbal assault. She didn’t feel it, really. She was
strangely numb.