“You whaaaat?!” Amy was scolding me the next day, unsurprisingly, for not having hooked up with Jake. And part of me didn’t really blame her. “You didn’t even get his shirt off? Shit, I’m not angry. Sorry for raising my voice there. I mean, you should have at least gotten his shirt off.”

This whole thing was getting confusing and complicated. For me, anyways. But who knew what Jake thought of the situation. As promised, his agent, Marissa, had dropped off a chic brand name outfit that could have paid a month’s rent. I’d only emailed her office once, as a courtesy when I started on Jake’s campaign. So I’d had no idea that he had a female agent, one that was a little too easy on the eyes. I hadn’t dallied that morning, and I’d gotten out of there as fast as possible. Jake had acted normal, like getting turned down was nothing new to him. But I had felt an unspoken tension in the air as I slept.

“I don’t know,” I said, sitting heavily in my seat at the bar of a packed McBanners. It was Friday, and I couldn’t be more thankful that the week was over. While the past week had been action packed, it had taken a lot out of me. “I just couldn’t. We’ve only known each other a week!”

Amy’s expression said it all, and I hadn’t even told her about the rest of last night’s adventure—not Tate, not even about the robbery. “Andrea! You need to get with the way we do things in the big city! One-night stands are a thing! It’s not a big deal! And also, you need to get his shirt off him. Ask about those tattoos.”

“Tattoos? What about them?”

“Supposedly he has backwards tattoos on his chest. The media has asked him about them, and not once has he given a straight answer why he has mirror images of tattoos on him.”

I scrunched my face. “You seem to know a lot about Jake’s tattoos. You know, seeing as how I was the one who almost had a one-night stand with him.”

I’d never had a one-night stand, but it didn’t feel very cool to say so. Plus, the last thing I wanted was to be Jake’s one-night stand. If we were together for just one night, that would be a rip off.

At least a ten-night stand. God, I couldn’t believe I’d resisted. The fact that Jake had respected my decision without hesitation had been wonderful, and confusing, too. Had he realized he hadn’t wanted to sleep with me? Or was he the nice guy I thought he might be under that dirty-playing, beer-guzzling, party persona he didn’t refute?

“And then there was the whole ‘sleeping with clients’ thing that seemed like it might get me into trouble,” I added.

“Psssh.” Amy waved her hand in the air like she didn’t care. “I think Jake Napleton is one of those worth the risk situations. You don’t agree? Besides, I bet you could turn this into at least a five-night stand.”

I started to regret that I’d even told Amy anything. Even though she was my best work friend, I didn’t feel quite like unpacking the real reason for my hesitation that Amy only knew the half of: my ex.

My phone buzzed. I looked down and saw Mama flash on the screen. “Sorry, I have to take this.”

“Jake?” She arched an eyebrow.

I shook my head. “I wish.”

I left the bar, finding an area outside that was quiet enough. I slid my finger across the touchpad to answer.

“Mother. How are you?”

“Hi, honey! How’s the big city?”

My mother would never recover if she knew what I’d been up to. It was like she had an “Andrea got close to hooking up with someone” detector. I pictured her having a stroke listening to Jake and I talk dirty.

Why was I even thinking of Jake and me talking dirty?

“It’s so great, Mother. Steve has finally asked me to take on a project that really means something. And I’m out at McBanners right now with my new friend Amy.”

“That’s…” She took an extra beat before responding. “Grand. Just grand. Well, everybody misses you here.”

That was passive aggressive code for, You’ll be coming home at the end of the internship, right?

I kept my poker face for the moment. “Good. I miss everyone too.”

Then she came in with the really heavy artillery.

“Mr. Barnes is holding that social media position at Barnes’s Bar. He looks forward to having you.”

I shuddered. For once in my life, I was starting to enjoy myself, to find myself. Now my mother, well-intentioned though she was, wanted to remove me from this growth period.

“Mother, a small neighborhood bar doesn’t need a full-time social media person,” I informed her, which was very true.

“Well honey, he’s holding it just the same. I’m sure you’ll find something to do when you come back here. The softball team needs a coach next spring…”

My mother kept talking, but I stopped listening. Somewhere in my heart, I knew she wanted the best for me. But after the divorce, there was another, selfish reason that she wanted me back in Sugar Tree: to keep her company. My younger brothers were both in college now, and I was her only daughter. It’s what good Southern daughters did, took care of their parents. Tears welled up in my eyes just thinking how much I loved and respected the woman. She’d wanted the best for me, she really had. But she was born and raised in Sugar Tree and planned to stay there for her whole life. The fact that I had been in a college relationship with Sugar Tree’s homegrown star, Grant Newman, meant to my mother that I needed to return home with him and start making babies, ASAP. She still lived in a world where we would kiss and make up sometime soon.

Maybe it was partially my fault for never totally filling my mother in on why Grant and I broke up. Still, as much as I loved my mother, I had been realizing lately that I needed to separate myself from home and create my own independent being if I ever wanted to be truly happy.

“Andrea Jane! Did you hear what I just asked? Have you been going to church on Sundays?”

I had, but clearly that wasn’t the point of this conversation. I couldn’t do this anymore. Not right now. Not on a Friday night when I was already two tequila shots and an appletini into my night.

“Mother, I’m so sorry. I have to go. My friend is calling me.”

“Well, all right. You watch out for those city playboys at the bar, though. Find you a nice country boy, like that college boy of yours. And Grant’s in Chicago right now. He texted me. Maybe you two can, you know, rekindle things.”

I swallowed hard and knew that I’d have to tell her the whole story about Grant soon. Until then, I was doing my best to put him behind me.

“Mother, did you just say Grant texted you?” I asked, disgusted that he had the audacity to use my mother to get to me. It would just make it harder to tell her the truth, especially since she still clearly adored him and he still had her wrapped around his little pinky.

“Yes, and he’s really horribly heartbroken after everything that happened. He wants you back.”

I stiffened. “Mother. I’m twenty-three. I can handle my own dating life. Please stay out of it.”

I heard an elongated sigh on the other end of the phone.

“I just worry about you. You know that.”

“I love you, Mother. I have to go.”

“I love you too.”

I pressed the red button on the touchscreen to end the call and breathed a deep sigh of relief as I walked back to the entrance of the bar. The bouncer with a big beard waved me through the line since he knew I had just stepped outside.

A drunken call with my mother wasn’t exactly the best way to kick off a Friday, but at the same time, I had been dodging her calls for several days.

I sauntered back into the bar area of McBanners, shocked at what I had just done: told my mother off. Cut her off. Ignored her.

For my whole life I’d gone along with exactly what she wanted. Yet, just now, I couldn’t go along with her. She no longer knew what was best for me. Only I knew that.

Or did I?

All doubts aside, I knew that I needed another drink right now to deal with these feelings that were bubbling up. Maybe not the healthiest way of dealing with them, but hey, I’d been dealing with my feelings in a healthy way for twenty-three years, and where had it gotten me?

I pulled up beside Amy at the bar, a newfound sense of resolution running through my blood. “Hey, I’ll take two shots of tequila,” I told the bartender.

Amy eyed me. “You all right? Who was that?”

“My mother,” I answered, giving her a shudder. She nodded heartily, as if that was all the answer she needed.

“I’ll take two shots also,” she said, holding up two fingers. “Not going to let you drink alone.”

The bartender poured a couple more, and we downed them in quick succession.

“Well, this night just got really interesting,” Amy said, scrunching her face before she bit down on the lime. We were both starting to feel a solid buzz.

A half hour later, the night did get interesting. My feelings started to tumble out.

“Dammit Andrea, you’re the coolest,” Amy blabbed. She was in full-on drunk confessional mode. “You’re so fucking cool. We had a girl here before, and she would always steal my pens and lie to me. Until one day, I caught her red-handed, and she still didn’t admit it. You’re nothing like the pen stealer. And for that, cheers to you.”

“Well thanks,” I giggled as we clinked our appletinis together. “Seems like the standards have been set pretty low if all I had to do was just not steal your pens.”

“No, that’s not it.” She backtracked. “Besides the pens. You’re a good person. You try so hard to be good. You have Jake Napleton trying to hook up with you for goodness sake, and you’re turning him down because you want to keep things professional! My God! The self-control you have!”

“Shhhhh. Keep it down!” The bartender had looked our way, and who knew how loud she was screaming at me. We were starting to get borderline belligerent.

“Okay!” she said in a loud voice. The bartender laughed and shook his head, then turned to another customer.

I wondered what Jake was up to today since the team had an off-day, and Friday off-days weren’t that common. They had their last game of the week with the Bulldogs yesterday. By Sunday, Jake’s suspension would be over, just in time to play the Jacksonville Firebirds. I took out my phone. With all the alcohol swimming through me, I did not think twice and fired off a text to Jake while Amy turned and chatted with the guy next to her at the bar.

Me: Hey. How’s the off-day?

Jake: Worked out this afternoon, just showering at my place. What’s up?

Me: You going out tonight?

Jake: I can be. Are you?

Me: I’m at McBanners.

Jake: Can I come or does that violate your work rules of professionalism?

Me: You should definitely come!

Jake: I will. Fast and hard.

I sent him an eye roll emoji.

Jake: Sorry, should have mentioned you will first.

Jake wasn’t even that clever, and the exchange was stupid and arbitrary, yet I felt a wave of heat coming over me as I thought about anything having to do with him and me and coming and going. Whether it was the simple act of him coming to the bar or something else entirely, he put a spell on me. The fact that last night had not phased him was a nice surprise. Or was he thinking he was wearing me down? Crap, me inviting him here would just make him think I wanted to pick up where we’d left off. I mean, I did, but, well…crap.

“Um, Andrea…?”

Amy was poking me. I put my phone back in my purse.

“What?”

The bar had gotten considerably more crowded, and I couldn’t tell who she was talking to. She gave me a wide-eyed look, almost like a warning. I found out why when she moved her head out of the way, and instantly a chill ran through me. And not the kind I liked.

Grant Newman stood there with a stupid smirk on his face.

“Andrea, so good to see you again.”

A chill ran over my body. “Thought you flew out today,” I said coldly.

“Nope,” he grinned. “Decided to stick around for our off-day.”

“How’d you even know I’d be here?”

His grin turned positively wolfish. “Your mom texted me.”

Just effing great. I turned to the bartender. “I’m going to need another shot of tequila please.”