Olivia avoided me the rest of the shift. She refused to make eye contact or talk to me, but she did it so eloquently, I wondered if I was just imagining it. Maybe she wasn’t ignoring me, we just didn’t have anything to talk about. Not after what she told me about her drinking.
I recognised her excuses. They sounded a lot like my mother’s after she was late to collect me from school, or after she got banned from a grocery store, or after…
Despite myself, I reached up to touch my cheek.
Mum always had lots of excuses for why she started drinking that day. They never made up for the stinging pain.
“Quinn.”
“Hmm?” I jolted up from my thoughts.
Caspian waved at me. “Could you give me a hand with a new keg?”
“Yeah, sure!” I replied. Why not, right? Who didn’t want to learn how to replace
