“I’m kidding. Kind of. I mean, after the way you went off on that guy…Talk about a killer instinct.”
This was the moment Bonnie had been dreading. She felt her entire body go cold. It was time for her to face reality. She deserved whatever came.
“He’s dead, isn’t he?” she said flatly. “I killed him.”
Peachy looked at her in surprise.
“Oh, hun, that’s what you’ve been thinking? He’s just fine.”
Bonnie sank into the beach chair behind her and placed her head in her palms.
“Oh god,” she exhaled. “Thank god. I thought…Oh, thank god.”
Peachy let out a chuckle.
“You bruised his ego more than anything.”
Bonnie lifted her head from her hands and raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, okay, and you definitely broke his nose and gave him a concussion,” conceded Peachy. “But still, that shit’s mostly cosmetic.”
Bonnie groaned again.
“What am I going to do, Peachy?”
“Look, we can handle it. And you’ve done the right thing already by staying away from the bar. He came ’round yesterday saying he had half a mind to press charges. Can I smoke in here, by the way?”
Bonnie looked around the barren room. She hated smoking, but there wasn’t exactly much in here to protect. She nodded. Peachy lit a cigarette and inhaled with palpable relief.
“Do you think he will?” Bonnie asked.
“Honestly? I could see his heart wasn’t in it. He’s embarrassed, you know. Who’d want to advertise it? Getting beat up by a chick?” Peachy threw his hands in the air. “I mean, woman! Getting beat up by a very strong, independent, professionally trained woman.”
Bonnie smiled.
“But, to him, still a chick,” she said.
“Exactly.” Peachy nodded. “So I’d just lie low for a while and let it all blow over. Take a vacation.”
“For how long?”
“A few weeks, a month to be safe?”
“That’s a long vacation, Peachy!”
Bonnie couldn’t afford this place without that income. She looked around. Peachy was right, it had never been a home anyway. She would have to give the landlord notice, but since these were short-term rentals she would only have to pay through the end of the week.
“I know, I know.” Peachy gave her a sympathetic look. “Look, I’ll give you last week’s paycheck early. You got any friends you want to visit?”
Bonnie shook her head.
“I don’t really do that,” she said.
“Do what?”
“Have friends.”
“Jesus, that’s sad, is what that is. Who do you talk to? If you’re having, you know, issues?”
Bonnie thought about this for a moment.
“I used to talk to my trainer, Pavel. Now just my sisters, I guess.”
“That’s good, sisters are good. My sis is a raging narcissist, but I’m glad you like yours. Can you stay with one of them?”
Another shake of her head. That would involve telling them what had happened.
“They don’t live in the country. But—” The apartment. There was always the apartment. She said the words quickly, before she had time to take them back. “My parents have an empty place in New York I can stay in for a bit. They’re selling it, but they need help packing up anyway.”
“You’re kidding me. Why didn’t you say? That’s perfect. New York fuckin’ City! Next club I’m opening, it’s New York. I’m over the Hollywood crowd. I’d come with you, but it might not sit right with my new bird.”
Bonnie chose not to mention the fact she hadn’t invited him. For Peachy, life was a door in which he was always on the list. She nodded along as he continued airing his grievances with the Hollywood “swine and dine set,” as he called them, her mind racing. Could she really go back to New York after everything that had happened there? But there was an air of inevitability about returning that she couldn’t shake. She had no other options. Peachy had broken off his rant and was now rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
“You think it’s romantic my new bird wants us to share our locations on our phones or weird?” he asked. “It’s weird, right? Like a tracking device? She wants to track me.”
“I don’t know, Peach. Depends how much you like her, I guess.”
Peachy shook his head and exhaled a cloud of smoke.
