“Halloween, when I was fifteen. This one Friday night, my best friend was spending the night, as usual, and Joan and Dad were away for the weekend. We decided we really, really wanted to go to Fright Fest, at Disney World. And I knew where Joan hid the keys to her Cadillac. So we went.”

“You’re telling me that two fifteen-year-old girls loaded up in a stolen Caddy and drove two and a half hours to Orlando?”

“At night. And we’d been drinking. And we would have gotten away with it, if some asshole hadn’t sideswiped the Caddy in the parking lot and ripped the right rearview mirror completely off the car.”

“Ouch.” Corey winced. “So you got caught and, what, put in permanent time-out?”

Drue’s smile was brittle. “Something like that. My friend’s father was this uptight, asshole preacher who made a big stink when my father called to tell him what we’d done. She told her father that I’d forced her to go with me. Which was a lie. She drove because my feet couldn’t even reach the gas pedal. Annnnnd, after that, she never spoke to me again. Totally ghosted me. When the school year was up, my dad put me on a Greyhound bus and shipped me back to Fort Lauderdale to live with my mom.”

“That’s some story,” he said.

“It gets worse,” Drue said. “Dad and Joan divorced, but now Dad is married to my former friend—who is my boss at the law firm and who’s made it her mission to make my life a living hell.”

“And I thought my family was screwed up.” Corey hopped off the bar stool. “Hey, I’ve had about a gallon of iced tea. I’m gonna go find the men’s room.”

“Okay. I’ll be right here.”

“Let’s go,” Drue said, when Corey returned to the bar. “I’ve already settled the tab.”

She walked briskly away from the pool area. “Where to now?” he asked, glancing at his watch. “Hate to say it, but I can’t hang out here much longer. I’ve got a five-mile bike ride to get in tonight.”

“Laundry room,” she said.

“How are you going to get in?”

She turned and dangled the key-card lanyard before his eyes.

“Do I want to know how you managed to snag that?”

“I accidentally spilled that whole big bowl of popcorn on the floor. The bartender was super annoyed that she had to come around from behind the bar and sweep it all up. While she was tidying, the lanyard somehow fell off that hook and into my bag.”

“You’re the kind of girl my mama tried to warn me about,” Corey said, shaking his head.

“She never did bring my drink, so I figured this was a fair trade.”