One Good Thing Read Online Free Page A

brown and too thin to look very good in a bun. “Dani, I wanted to let you know a few of us are going to Sadie’s Tavern after work. Feel free to come along.”
    “Thanks, I’ll think about it,” I said. My eyes darted to the office across the hall and I wondered if Evan would be going to the bar.
    The best thing would be to just go home and avoid potential embarrassment. But it was Friday night, and I didn’t have anything to go home to. Unless you counted made-for-TV movies and babysitting Princess.
    The weekend dragged out ahead of me, endless and empty, like the weekends before. Just because Drew was busy tonight didn’t mean I had to stay at the apartment. I’d never really been into the bar scene in college, but it might be fun to try something different.
    I decided right then I’d go, and that I’d enjoy myself, Hot Lips or not.
    *
    I sidled up to the bar to take the stool next to Lucy. Like most bars, it was dimly lit, blaring with loud music from a jukebox, and smelled faintly of smoke from the days when it hadn’t been illegal to smoke indoors. Two pool tables occupied one side of the room; round tables for eating were scattered on the other. Above the bartender’s area hung a handwritten sign on orange paperboard, advertising two-dollar shots and other Friday drink specials.
    My fingers traced a groove in the countertop. The surface wasn’t smooth but instead etched with everything from hairline scratches to deep wedges. It was a well-worn bar, like an old pair of boots that weren’t in the best shape but were too comfortable to throw away.
    Lucy was sipping an amber-colored beer from a tall glass. She smiled when she noticed me. “I’m glad you could make it.”
    “Thanks.”
    “What’ll it be?” the bartender said, glancing at me as he removed some empty glasses from the counter.
    I eyed the drink specials uncertainly. If I drank anything alcoholic I preferred a sweet wine every now and then. And a place like this didn’t seem to cater to the wine-drinking crowd; it was all beer and hard liquor.
    “Jack and Coke,” I said after a long hesitation. I wondered if it would be weird to ask that he go light on the Jack. Or maybe I should have ordered a Coke instead.
    “Are you liking SLQ?” Lucy asked, turning toward me slightly.
    “Yeah; everyone’s been nice so far.” The bartender slid me my drink and I took a sip. The Jack was way stronger than the soda. I had to fight back a shudder.
    “Good, I’m glad to hear it.”
    I glanced around; more and more people came into the bar, causing the heat and the volume level to skyrocket. It must have been a popular place to relax after work. I saw a few people from SLQ come in through the doorway—including a tall figure I recognized instantly—I turned back to my drink before he had a chance to notice me.
    But then, from right next to me … “Hey, Evan!” Lucy called.
    Damn it, Lucy!
    I wanted to shrink down into my chair. I felt a sudden irrational longing to be the size of a Borrower—then I could hurl my tiny body into my Jack and Coke and drown myself.
    “Hey,” Evan said, from right behind me.
    I swiveled on my bar stool to face him, hoping to appear nonchalant. Like any confident twentysomething swigging liquor at a bar, talking to a guy she barely knew who’d already seen underneath her skirt.
    Except I had the feeling I wasn’t that confident and I wasn’t very good at faking it.
    “You’ve met Dani, haven’t you?” Lucy asked.
    “Yeah,” he said, grinning at me like we were friends or something. “We met before she started working at SLQ, actually.”
    What
? He wouldn’t.
    Would he?
    Lucy looked a little too curious. “Really? How did you meet?”
    “It was one of those Halloween contests for pets.” He glanced at me. “It was fun. Interesting.”
    My heart started doing an odd tripping beat. “Fun” and “interesting” weren’t the words I’d used to describe it. Unless those were synonyms for