I was kinda bummed because, after that scene with Pepper, I wasn’t thinking about the piece I was working on.

I was thinking about my friend and that maybe I needed to spend more time in her corner.

Like, say, after we inadvertently upset her (a lot) and she’d gone off on her own, instead of going to my studio to work on my art, find her and share I was in her corner. Also admit I might not have been real good at doing that in the past. But now I was all in.

So, yeah.

I was bummed I wasn’t in a work-at-the-studio mood.

But more bummed that my friend was in a bad place.

And I decided, once I got to the studio, I’d text her. See if she wanted to meet for a coffee.

Or something.

On this thought, Axl picked up.

“Hey, babe.”

“Hey, uh, heading to the studio,” I told him.

“Cool,” he replied.

Okay, now…

Um…

Where to begin?

“You good?” he asked.

“Well…”

In truth, I knew where to begin.

I just didn’t know if I should begin there.

That being, feel him out about what to do about Pepper and Auggie.

And by feel him out, I meant enlist his services to get Auggie to get the lead out in going for Pepper.

“Hattie,” Axl prompted.

“Okay, well, the meeting was about Smithie’s closing for three weeks,” I told him. “They’re doing some renovations. VIP seating and putting in a kitchen because they’re going to start serving food. It’s all good, including for us. We’ll keep getting paid. And Smithie covers tips. Truth, I can have better nights than he covers, but I won’t be hurting.”

“Right, then yeah. All good,” he said. “And that gives you free time to be in the studio.”

I hadn’t said anything outright, but he sensed I was jonesing to get back to it.

My guy.

Such a good guy and so tuned to me.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

I said no more.

Axl waited.

Until he was done waiting.

“Babe,” he pushed, knowing there was more to say.

“Okay, we had a blowup with Pepper when we pushed her about getting together with Auggie.”

“Shit,” he muttered.

And the way he did, I knew now he had more to say.

“What?” I asked.

“I take it she was resistant to going there with Aug?” he asked back.

“Very,” I answered.

“Right, well, not too long ago, I got up in Auggie’s shit about this same thing. And, babe, prepare. Because she’s not giving him anything and he gets why she isn’t. He digs her and wants to go there, but you don’t push a woman with a kid. So my guess, he’s going to be moving on if he isn’t in that zone already.”

That wasn’t good news.

But I was stuck on something else.