Bar

7 YEARS LATER

Winona

I never should have ended up at HJ’s bar. My day had been long though. One of my oldest friends had stopped in at the coffee shop that I still worked at long after graduating from college. She mentioned HJ and how she worried about him.

I almost asked her what the hell for? HJ was a beast of a man and could take care of himself. Yet, the only reason she worried about him was because over the years I’d mixed up our friend groups. My self-destructive side that didn’t care about a thing in the world reared its ugly head every time I thought of him ignoring me, acting as if he didn’t know me.

So, I kept showing up at his place of business, goading him to disclose that we knew each other through the family.

He never did. HJ protected the family at all costs, even if he’d kissed me in a bathroom all those years ago.

We passed one another with hatred and longing in our eyes but acted like strangers in front of everyone. Over time, our friends had us down as tolerable ac