Page 21 of Of Course, Cutie
10
Burke
The bar was crowded for a Thursday night. Great. That meant enough tips to buy Tess a new tablet to keep at my apartment. Lexi flipped her lid when Tess accidentally left her iPad in my kitchen last week. I had to drive over to her place at midnight to drop the thing off.
Instead of thanking me, Lexi snapped, “God, Burke, you have to help her pack stuff! You have to be the responsible one! She’s six!”
Responsible. Such a shitty word meant to trap you into a life you didn’t want.
“Burke!” Evan called over to me. I glanced up and saw a petite blonde woman standing next to him. She had the Cox family blue eyes. It made me think of cute little Charlie. “This is Bea, my other sister. She’s drinking for free.” Evan led the woman to an empty barstool and said to her, “I’ll be back to check on you in a sec, but Burke will take care of you while I’m gone.”
Bea blinked her eyes at me and smiled. “Hi! I’ve heard a lot about you from Evan and Charlie. Nice to finally meet you!”
“Likewise. What are you drinkin’ tonight?” Charlie talked about me, huh?
“Um,” Bea drummed her fingers on the bar. “Vodka cranberry?”
“You don’t sound too sure.”
Bea laughed. “I’m not too sure of anything lately. I finalized my divorce six weeks ago.”
“Ah. Been there.” I nodded while I mixed her drink. Bea was pretty. She had nothing on Charlie, but at least she was age-appropriate for me. Maybe she could start hanging out at the bar every day and make me fall for her.
I placed Bea’s drink in front of her and gave her a half-smile. “Holler at me if you need anything else.” I already knew I wouldn’t fall for her. It was like Charlie said, the eyes were the window to the soul, and Bea’s did nothing for me.
I served a few more customers and helped a group of trashed twenty-one-year-olds close out their tab, then saw that Bea’s drink was low. I made her another and was about to move on when I noticed her tear-filled eyes.
“You all right there, Bea?”
Bea glanced up at me and shook her head. “I…” She took a deep breath and looked around the bar. “How do you move on from a divorce? How do you survive knowing that you failed when you promised in front of the entire world that you wouldn’t?”
I let out a long, slow breath. Thanks for the reminder that I failed. Hard. “Let me take care of a few more customers, and then I’ll get back to you on that.”
Bea nodded and gulped her drink. I paused and studied her for a minute. “Hold on, Bea. How often do you drink?”
“God, basically never.”
I nodded. “Let me grab you a water.”
By the time I returned to Bea, her second drink was gone. “Hey!” She grinned at me. “I’m ready for another!”
I took her empty glass and replaced it with a water. “Sure thing. Drink that first.”
Bea nodded. “Right. So did you figure out your words of wisdom while you were gone? Can you teach me how to survive a divorce?”
I laughed and rubbed my beard. “I’ve only been divorced about eighteen months, and I’m not sure I have a cure figured out. Every situation is different, and there’s no blanket statement of wisdom for everyone.”
Bea nodded again. Her big blue eyes watched me closely, hanging on my every word. Those eyes were a lot like Charlie’s, but Charlie’s sparkled and held a thousand secrets. Bea’s just stared.
I sighed and leaned my elbows on the bar. “Was he worth fighting for?”
Bea’s forehead wrinkled. “I thought so. God, we were together for six years! We had a kid together! I thought I knew him! But he cheated, and then he wasn’t there while my dad was dying! He just wasn’t there.” Bea’s tear-filled eyes looked up at me again.
“Sounds like you have your answer. He wasn’t worth the fight. My ex-wife wasn’t either, but you know who is?”
“Who?” Bea gulped her water.
“My daughter. She’s the reason I get my sorry ass out of bed every day. She’s the reason I play nice with her mother when I’d rather tell the woman to go to hell.” I took Bea’s empty water glass. “Let your daughter be the reason you get up, too.”
