“I’m not saying you have to drink as fast as I am, but if you don’t finish it sometime soon, your paper straw there is going to wilt and give out on you.”
Wanting to show the ridiculousness of this statement, Penny lifted her drink, only to be disappointed when she saw the straw had thickened and looked less sturdy.
Bonnie signaled to their waitress as she passed. “I’ll have one more,” she ordered sweetly. “And just another straw for my slow-drinking friend.”
“Does it make you feel better to point out my flaws?” Penny asked, taking a long, slow, concentrated pull on her drink, enjoying the vibrant flavors. She did love sangria. She wanted to be able to cut loose the way Bonnie did. She was simply too aware of the effect it had on her. Still, she regretted her words the moment she said them. This could not be classified as helping her friend.
Bonnie pouted. “I forgot about this stage.”
“Excuse me?” Penny blinked in confusion, unsure if she was being insulted.
“Where you get all morose and down on yourself before you start to get tipsy and fun again.”
“I am not morose and down on myself.”
“Tell that to the umbrella pole you keep ogling with those sad eyes.”
“I’m not sad,” Penny said, smiling back fiercely, in a way even she knew must look ridiculous. “I’m just… contemplative. I mean, I get compartmentalizing; I know you’re good at that, but… How are you so chipper? I keep waiting for you to fall apart, but you’re not. I feel like I might fall apart for you.”
It was then that Bonnie looked around surreptitiously, as if someone might be listening, and leaned in closer. “I have a plan,” she paused, knowing it would make Penny lean in as well. “And as soon as you finish that drink and get another one, seltzer is fine, I’ll share it with you.”
The server arrived with Bonnie’s second sangria as, once again, the girls faced each other, eyes locked. She was going to start to think they were a couple of weirdos if she didn’t already.
“Blackberry seltzer, please,” Penny ordered, taking the new straw being proffered without turning. She felt a sense of rejuvenation as she stuck it in her drink and determinedly sucked down the contents. A plan to get Felix back. This was precisely what they needed and something worth getting drunk for. Only when she had triumphantly sucked up the last of her sangria did she say, “I’m listening.”
Penny could tell she was being evaluated as Bonnie eyed the empty drink, head tilting slowly up to register the now glassy-eyed expression she undoubtedly wore.
“We’re going to Ireland.” Bonnie’s voice rose an octave, and her whole body seemed to vibrate, waiting for Penny to share her enthusiasm.
Penny replayed the words over in her head twice before finally uttering a vague, “Huh?”
This made absolutely no sense. Penny’s brain went into a tailspin trying to find the relevance of this sentence. Because she obviously was not going to Ireland. Had Felix gone to Ireland? Bonnie never mentioned Felix going to Ireland. Could he have? Were they seriously going to chase him to another country? She couldn’t go to Ireland. She had to nail down an apartment.
“We already have a place to stay. You know we still have the family house. I mean, my dad owns it with his brother, my uncle. I haven’t been back in a few years, but now is the perfect time to go.”
Penny said nothing, only continued staring, wondering when Bonnie was going to stop talking nonsense and tell her the real plan.
“You do remember I’m Irish, right? I mean dual citizenship and all. Moved here when I was six. No accent anymore but….”
“Yeah, I know. I know,” Penny cut off the explanation that wasn’t explaining any of the right things.
“They mostly use the house as an Air B&B these days. My dad already had it reserved for four weeks, for me and that asshole I was going to marry, for our honeymoon. He made some calls and pulled some strings, and now we can have it for the whole summer.”
“Bonnie, what the hell are you talking about?” Penny’s heart beat faster as the reality of what Bonnie was saying started to sink in. She was somehow insanely serious about this plan.
“The tickets are already paid for. All he has to do is change it to your name. All you have to pay for is food and spending money, which you’d be doing anyway. I know it might mean you move out a little later than expected, but it’s not that big of a deal.”
This was crazy. A whirlwind of words had formed in Penny’s mind as she tried to find the right ones to battle her friend’s hare-brained idea. She knew the look on Bonnie’s face, and it scared her. To Bonnie, this was already a done deal. Penny needed an out fast. “What about your job? I know I have the summer off. But you don’t. Are you quitting?”
“Of course not. But I already spoke to Mr. Denehy, by the way a second-generation Irishman, which didn’t hurt, about working remotely on my honeymoon. It wasn’t that hard to convince him to let me do it longer. I edit books. I can do it anywhere.”
“Oh.”
“And your parents said your passport is fully up to date, so really you’re ready to go.”
That was when the proverbial penny dropped, and the real Penny realized what was going on. She looked at her empty drink, which her friend had all but forced on her. She thought about how her parents had acted just before they left. And shetook in the smug look on her friend’s face, which was now fading fast.
“You were getting me drunk on purpose,” she accused. “You knew I’d be more likely to say yes after a drink.” Even as she said this, she gulped the blackberry seltzer that had arrived without her noticing. She needed something cool to help alleviate the sudden heat she was feeling.
