And I sure as hell am not going down without a fight.
The knock comes a third time — quieter, softer.
I frown. That’s not Gus or Rich, that’s for sure.
Bat in hand, I unlock the door and slowly crack it open.
“Hi.”
I grin and open the door wide for Eva.
“Hey.”
She glances at the bat, her brow furrowing.
“Oh, yeah, sorry.” I set the bat down by the closet door.
“Everything okay?”
“Just working on my swing.”
She raises a brow. “I see?”
I grin. “Actually baseball was never my thing.”
“I thought I’d heard Boston was obsessed with the Red Hats.”
I laugh. “Sox.”
“What?”
I chuckle. “It’s Red Sox, not Hats.”
“Sorry, not a sports person.”
“Yeah weird, never would have guessed.”
She gives me a look. “So what did you play?”
“Hockey, actually.”
“Really?”
“Yep. All-state in high school.”
“Wow.” Her brows go up in surprise. “Do you still play?”
“Nope.”
She looks at me expectantly at my one-word answer.
“It’s a long story.”
“I’m listening.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “What are you doing here, by the way?”
Eva bristles.
Fuck.
“No, hang on. I mean, it’s cool you’re here, I just mean did you need something?”
She looks at the floor, her teeth raking over her lip. “Do you have anything to drink?”
I snort. “Um…” I wave a hand at the wall of shelves full of promotional free shit liquor companies send you when you open a bar.
“Oh, whoa.” Her eyes go wide as she glances over the shelves.
“What’s your poison?”
She shrugs. “I’m not sure.”
“Okay, right. Add that to the list.”
“Of?”
“Of things to fix for you being twenty-one.”
She frowns. “I don’t need fixing.”
“Well, so far, we’ve got ‘never had sex’ and ‘doesn’t know her drink’.”
She glares at me.
“We’re working on the first, and I think good ole’ Milton might play a big part.”
Eva groans and drops her face into her hands as I grin.
“So let’s work on part two. You’ve drank before right?”
“Of course,” she says quickly.
“Of course?”
“I mean, sort of.”
“Please tell me I didn’t give you your first beer the other night.”
She smiles. “Oh, no.”
“Good.”
“My second.”
I whistle lowly. “Well, shit. This is bigger than I thought it was. What about hard liquor?”
“I had plum wine when I was in Korea?”
“Right, that’s a no.” I sigh, rubbing my hands together. “Let’s stick to something light then.”
“Why?” She walks over to the shelves and starts to run her fingers over the bottles. “This looks good.” She pulls a bottle of scotch from the shelf.
I laugh. “You’ve got good taste.”
“So, this is it?”
“It’s scotch.”
“Never had it. Let’s try it.”
I eye her, furrowing my brow. “Everything okay?”
“Yep!” she says quickly. “I just- c’mon, let’s try some.”
I shrug, grabbing two glasses. “All right, screw it.”
I pour her a tiny, tentative sip.
“You act like I’m going to hate it.”
“Try it first.”
Eva picks up the glass, and immediately wrinkles her nose as she sniffs at it. “It smells like dirt.”
“That’s sort of the point.”
She shrugs. “Well, here we go then.” She tips the glass back, downs the scotch, and immediately starts to cough and wheeze.
Her face turns red as she chokes and sputters, and I chuckle as I come around and pat her lightly on the back. “You all right?”
“Holy shit,” she wheezes.
“Yeah, how’d that go?”
“I think I always thought it was going to taste like butterscotch.”
I cringe. “Okay, well, that’s setting yourself up for failure.”
“Right, so, not my drink.”
“I think we can agree on that.” I put the cork back in the $300 bottle of liquor.
“So what’s next?”
I eye her again. “Why don’t we stick to beer?”
“I’m not a little kid you know.”
“No, you just have the drinking experience of one.”
She makes a face as she goes back to scanning the shelves. “How about this one?”