Page 24 of Sunny Undone

“I don’t drink at parties like this,” I say.

He takes my hand and leads me through the crowd. “You’re gonna have to explain that to me,” he says over his shoulder.

I have nothing to lose by being honest with him. “I don’t want to drink something that could have been spiked.”

He stops suddenly and turns, placing his hands on my shoulders as I nearly crash into him. “You think I’d spike your drink?”

“I don’t know, Sunny. Not all men would, but some men would. It’s why we choose the bear.”

Lines form between his eyebrows. “Why you choose the what?”

“The bear. It started as an off-the-cuff question posed to eight women. You’re alone in the forest, and you can either face a man or a bear, and seven women picked the bear.”

“Well, that’s fucking stupid.”

I sigh. “Only if you’re a man. A man might sexually abuse us, mutilate us, hold us hostage for two years in the woods, might invite his friends over to rape us. The bear might kill us, or we might get away. We like our chances.”

“You’re gonna have to give me a minute to think that through.”

I smile at that. “I’ve got all night.”

“I’ll come back to the bear, but what if you came with me behind the bar, we found something perfectly sealed, and I open it right in front of you?”

The bar, in fairness, looks perfectly clean and hospitable. There are beers on tap and bottles on the optics, but there are also fridges behind the bar with various bottles inside.

He leads me around the back of the bar.

“I can get you a drink,” says a man in a leather vest that declares he’s a prospect.

“Not today,” Sunny replies. Then, he looks at me and points to the fridges. “Pick one.”

I scan them quickly, because it’s clear we’re in the way of normal bar operations, then point to a cider. “That one.”

Sunny reaches in and grabs the bottle. He turns it over in his hand, then tips it upside down gently to show me it’s sealed. “Enough proof it’s not been messed with?”

“Yes. That’s fine.”

He cracks it open with an exaggerated flourish. “There. Chain of custody maintained.”

Despite myself, I laugh. “Do you know what a chain of custody is? And isn’t it chain of evidence?”

He shakes his head. “Hey, I’ve watched enough true crime shows to fake being smart.”

“I’m not sure that’s how intelligence works.”

“Who cares?” He takes the pint being offered to him by the prospect. “Lucky for me, you’re carrying enough intelligence for both of us.”

The bottle is cold in my hand, the condensation immediately dampening my hand. I take a small sip, determined to make it last.

“Like it?” he asks, he’s holding his glass toward me, and I tap it with the neck of the bottle.

I nod. “It’s tasty.”

Sunny chuckles. “You want a glass for that? Because you don’t look all that comfortable sipping from the bottle.”

“Yes, please,” I say with relief.

Sunny puts his drink down and grabs a glass. He even grabs a clean cloth to give it a wipe, then takes my bottle and pours it out for me. “There you go.”