Monday night a little after six, David walked into The Club Car restaurant and saw that Missy was already seated at the bar chatting with two older men sitting next to her. They seemed to be hanging on her every word. She was still beautiful with her long blonde hair, and those big blue eyes. Missy used to be into yoga, and it looked like she kept that up over the years. She was wearing a pink and blue sleeveless dress that showed off tanned and toned arms. She glanced toward the door and smiled when she saw David. When they’d exchanged emails about the Taste of the Town event, Missy had reminded him that they needed to have a drink to catch up and she suggested meeting at The Club Car, a popular spot for after work cocktails.

He made his way over to the bar and slid into the seat next to her. She leaned in to give him a hug hello.

“Don’t you look handsome in your sharp suit.” Missy smiled and batted her eyelashes, and for a moment David felt like he was back in high school. When they’d first met, she’d turned those blue eyes on him, and he’d been a goner. They’d dated for all of senior year and then a week before he left for college, she dumped him for a local boy. Missy never had any desire to go to college. She married that year and had two kids right away.

It had stung when she dumped him, but he knew a long-distance relationship would have been hard to keep up while he was at school. He saw her a few times over the years when he was home for summers. But once he moved off-island, he didn’t run in to her again until just recently, when he was with Paula.

“You look very nice, too,” he said. “What are you drinking?”

“I’ll have a Cosmopolitan.”

David ordered her drink and a draft beer for himself.

When the bartender set their drinks down, Missy lifted her glass and tapped it against his. “Cheers! To new beginnings.” She smiled and held his gaze for a moment before taking a sip.

She was flirting with him. That was unexpected. He’d agreed to the drink because he thought it might be fun to catch up with an old friend. But he had no intention of rekindling things with Missy. He wondered if she thought he was staying on the island.

“I’m sorry about your divorce,” he said.

“It happens. As my mother likes to say, ‘everything happens for a reason’.” Missy had married into one of the most prominent, wealthy families on the island. They developed and owned real estate and her ex, Bill Cooper, had inherited the business from his father.