You Were Always Mine

Night Out.

Kelly's buzzed with its usual Friday energy, low amber lighting and the clink of glasses intertwined with conversation.

Vivian spotted her friends' booth tucked near the back before they spotted her.

"There she is!" Maya waved both arms over her head like Vivian was arriving from another country instead of across town.

Vivian slid into the booth beside Drew.

“I'm so sorry I'm late. Traffic.” She offered, trying to catch her breath.

“Hey Drew..” She offered as he blew her a kiss.

"You look tired." He studied her face. "But glowing. That is a suspicious combination."

Vivian sighed. "I haven't slept in two days."

"That explains the ‘tired’. " Drew tilted his head. "Not the ‘glowing’. "

Jordan slid a shot glass toward her without a word.

Vivian eyed it.

"What's this for?"

"Solidarity." Jordan's voice was flat.

Maya rolled her eyes. "He's still sulking about Stella."

"I am not sulking."

"You ordered four shots before Vivian even arrived."

"That's called preparation."

Vivian laughed, picking up the glass. "To preparation then."

They clinked and drank.

The alcohol burned pleasantly on the way down, loosening something in her shoulders she hadn't realized had been tight.

Maya leaned forward almost immediately, eyes gleaming with the particular mischief she saved for exactly one subject.

"So." She drew the word out. "Liam's back."

Vivian nearly choked on her next sip.

"How does everyone already know this?"

"Jennie told Drew, Drew told me, I told Jordan, and Jordan pretended not to care." Maya said it all in one breath.

"I genuinely did not care." Jordan reached for the tequila bottle.

"How do you feel?" Maya asked, ignoring him entirely, eyes fixed on Vivian with an unnerving focus.

Vivian blinked. "About what?"

"Liam. Being back."

"...Happy?" Vivian frowned, genuinely unsure why the question needed asking. "He's my friend. I missed him."

Maya's mouth quirked like she expected a different answer, one that hadn't arrived.

"Just happy?"

"What else would I be?"

"I don't know." Maya shrugged, though her eyes said otherwise. "You two were close."

"We were friends." Vivian said it slowly, like she was double-checking her own memory.

"He left for years. Now he's back. I'm glad. That's it."

Drew watched her carefully throughout the exchange, saying nothing.

Jordan, however, had no patience left for subtlety.

"Can we talk about something that actually matters?"

He poured another round without asking.

"Like how I need advice."

"On?" Vivian asked.

"Making a woman insanely, pathetically jealous."

Vivian raised an eyebrow. "This is about Stella."

"This is about my dignity."

"Which Stella crushed." Maya added helpfully.

"Thank you, Maya." Jordan said, “I needed someone to remind me of my misery. You're very helpful.”

"I'm just providing context."

Jordan turned to Vivian with the desperate sincerity of a man three shots deep.

"You're married to the coldest man in the city. You must know something about making someone want you back after they've made it clear they don't."

Vivian opened her mouth, then closed it. The observation landed somewhere she didn't want to examine at a bar on a Friday night.

"I don't think that's advice I'm qualified to give."

"Please. Anything. Do I get a motorcycle? Do I date her best friend? Do I…"

"Move on."

The voice cut through cleanly.

Everyone turned to Drew, who hadn't looked up from his drink.

"That's it?" Jordan looked personally betrayed. "Move on?"

"That's the whole advice." Drew finally lifted his gaze, unimpressed.

"You want her jealous, you want her to regret it, you want her to lie awake wondering what she gave up. Fine. Then live your best life and don't spare her a single thought while you do it. Nothing makes a person more insane than realizing they don't have the same effect on you anymore."

Jordan stared at him like he'd just recited scripture.

"...That's annoyingly good advice."

"I know."

Vivian nodded slowly, something in Drew's words settling uncomfortably close to home.

"He's right. I guess thriving without them is the first step to healing. I guess."

"See." Drew gestured at Vivian. "Even the miserable married woman agrees."

"I'm not miserable."

"You said it yourself, you haven't slept in two days." Drew pointed out.

"That's called merger negotiations, not misery."

"Sure." Drew smiled into his glass, clearly not buying it and clearly choosing not to push.

The table had just settled into laughter when the air shifted.

Vivian felt it before she saw her; that particular chill that always seemed to precede Lisa's arrival.

"Well, well."

Lisa's voice slid over the booth like oil.

"If it isn't Kentwood's favorite little tragedy."

Maya's smile vanished instantly, Jordan's shoulders stiffened and Drew set his glass down slowly.

"Lisa." Vivian's tone was carefully even.

"I own part of this place now, did you know that?"

Lisa rested one manicured hand against the edge of their table uninvited, already pulling a chair from the neighboring booth.

"Co-owner, actually. Small detail. Mind if I join?"

"Yes." Drew said immediately. “We do mind.”

Lisa's smile didn't falter. She sat anyway.

"How's married life treating you, cousin?"

She turned her attention fully to Vivian, eyes glittering with something Vivian knew all too well.

"I heard the wedding was just stunning. Shame your own mother wasn't there to see it."

The table went silent in the particular way that meant everyone had heard it.

“What?” Maya muttered.

Hell, there's no limit to Lisa's disrespect, is there?

Drew was shaking his head with that dangerous laugh escaping his lips.

He's about to slap the s**t out of someone tonight.

Vivian's jaw tightened, but her voice remained level.

"You're crossing a line..."

"I'm simply making conversation." Lisa's smile sharpened. "Isn't that allowed anymore?"

"Not the kind you're making." Maya snapped in irritation.

Lisa's gaze slid toward her lazily.

"And you are?"

"Someone who actually likes Vivian. Must be a foreign concept to you."

Lisa laughed.

"How adorable. She's got a little squad."

Her eyes moved to Jordan next.

"And you. Didn't Stella dump you? I heard she called you forgettable."

Jordan's face went red, jaw locking.

"Careful." Drew's voice dropped low, dangerous in a way that rarely surfaced.

"You don't want to test me tonight, Lisa."

"Oh, I'm terrified."

Lisa pressed a hand to her chest in mock horror, though her smile never wavered.

"You should be."

Vivian finally leaned forward, voice edged with something colder than anything she'd ever allowed herself to feel.

"You've made your little comment. You've had your fun. Now leave before I remind you exactly whose company owns the building this bar sits inside of."

Something flickered across Lisa's face; a flash of real anger, before she smoothed it away with another smile.

That smile was anything but convincing.

"Relax." She stood, smoothing down her dress. "I was only being friendly."

"You don't know how to be friendly." Maya reminded her.

Lisa's eyes cut toward her one final time, something ugly passing behind them, before she turned and walked away without another word, heels clicking sharply against the floor.

The table exhaled collectively once she was out of earshot.

"I genuinely don't understand how you two share blood."

Drew shook his head, reaching for his drink.

"Neither do I."

Vivian rubbed her temple, the earlier lightness of the evening dimmed slightly by Lisa.

Across the room, Lisa reached the bar and gripped the edge of it, knuckles pale, breathing hard through her nose.

The nerve of her to threaten her!

Years of being compared, years of hearing her own mother sigh Vivian's name like a prayer, boiled somewhere beneath her ribs.

Her phone buzzed in her clutch.

She pulled it out, face still tight with fury, and unlocked the screen.

‘Looks like we might have found something on Vivian Pearl after all.’

Lisa read it twice.

Slowly, the anger in her expression curved into something else.

A smile crept across her lips.

She typed back a single word.

‘I'm listening…’