Branded: An Everyday Heroes World Novel (The Everyday Heroes World)

I mourn the fact another asshole has decided to ghost me?”
“Yes. Exactly that,” I whine. “My head is killing me.”
“You just need a bit of hair of the dog.”
“No! Dear God, no. No more alcohol. Coffee and ibuprofen only and whatever delicious thing you’re whipping up over there,” I mumble against the table.
“French toast. The carbs will help.”
“I can’t believe I even had the stuff in the house to make that.” I sit up and pull my hair into a bun, securing it with the hair tie around my wrist.
“You didn’t. I had it delivered after my run this morning.”
“You can’t be human. There is no way you consumed that much alcohol and got up for a run this morning.”
“I’m not a lightweight like you.”
I stick my tongue out at her then go to find a bottle of water and some ibuprofen.
Once I’m medicated and hydrated, I pull on a hoodie from my bedroom and swipe my phone from the nightstand.
Back at the table with a delicious plate of carbs, butter, and sweet maple syrup in front of me, I unlock my phone to do a social media check, as I do every morning, but what I see instead makes me want to crawl under the table and hide.
“Oh God. Oh no.”
“What?”
“You’re the worst drunk buddy ever,” I scold. “You let me text him? Why didn’t you fight the phone from me? Or slap me? Or punch me in the boob? Anything to keep me from texting him.”
“Whoa. Calm down. Who did you text?” She comes over and looks over my shoulder at my phone. “Isaac Black.” She covers her mouth and begins to snicker. “I mean, they say drunk words are sober thoughts. You obviously wanted him to text you. What’s the big deal?”
“I embarrassed the hell out of myself! What do you mean ‘What’s the big deal?’ I told him I thought he was hot and that I wanted him to reach out, and I was a drunk idiot who couldn’t even spell.”
“Well, now I need to read these.” She extends her hand. “Hand it over, sister.”
I place my phone in her hands then lay my forehead back on the cool wood of the kitchen table.
“This couldn’t have gone worse.”
“Oh calm down, you big baby.” She continues to scroll through the messages. “They aren’t even that bad. You’re overreacting.”
“You think so?” I lift my head again and look at her.
“Yes. If anything, it’s cute and endearing. You should reach out to him again this morning, now that you’re sober. It’s empowering that you said something first. Show him he doesn’t have ultimate control.”
She tosses my phone back to me and I place it on the table next to my plate of food.
“I’m not even that interested in him.” I pick up my fork and push my food around a bit, waiting for Liv to say something, anything, but instead she’s simply glaring at me when I look back her way.
Liv has the kind of stare all good teachers have. The one that can level you completely and you feel the anger and disappointment that makes your gut drop to your toes.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I’m just waiting on you to stop lying to me, and yourself, before I give my opinion.”
“What do you mean? I’m not into him like that.”
“You’re a liar.” She finally plops down into the seat across from me. “You wouldn’t be freaking out about a drunk text if you weren’t at least a little interested. You certainly wouldn’t have agreed to go on five dates with him.”
Liv was shocked, to say the least, when I told her about the interaction at the supermarket and that I somehow let him talk me into going on five dates with him. Who was I kidding? He could have asked me to commit to a dozen dates, and I was so high on serotonin from seeing his adorable interaction with his grandmother I would have said yes to that too.
“Just hear me out, okay?” she asks, as she lays her hands on the table, and I nod in agreement. “How long has it been since you’ve been on a proper date?”
“Only once since I’ve been here, and just a few here and there in the last five years.”
“And when was the last time you had sex?”
My eyes go wide. “I’m not even considering sex with him yet.”
“Ah ha. Yet. And no one said you had to, I’m just trying to make a point here. When was the last time?”
I take a moment, and really think back. I haven’t had sex since I’ve been in Sunnyville, that’s for sure, so it would have to be in LA.
“Like… three years ago, I think.” Fuck, saying that out loud makes it seem even sadder.
“And why is that?”
“I don’t even know if I have an answer for that.”
“Yes, you do. Find it and let’s hash this out. Because from what I’ve heard through the grapevine, Isaac is a good man, and shouldn’t your first time back in the dating scene here be with a decent human, at least?”
She has a point there.
Dating has been difficult since my brother passed away. My life didn’t make sense for awhile. I couldn’t understand why he was gone and I was still here. I processed a lot of guilt with therapy. Then I was trying to find a place to live, dealing with insurance from the fire, so dating wasn’t exactly the first thing on my mind.
“After the fire and losing Jason, and everything that came with it, dating took a back seat. When I finally did try it out, everything felt empty. I owed it to him to live my life to the fullest because he didn’t get the chance. I wanted to live for him. Why waste my time on emptiness when I could wait for greatness?”
“How can you find greatness when you don’t try? You’ve spent enough time in your house on the nights and weekends. Go out, have fun,