Sooner or later, grief will get us all

Chapter 24

Barney did what any modern man would do when sitting next to a hysterical female on a suborbital flight to Orlando. He gave me Bloody Marys until I shut up.

So now I’m grief stricken, feeling guilty for fucking Pride—and drunk—when I meet Cazandra at the airport.

“Oh, Lexus, you’re drunk.” Her eyes hold pity rather than condemnation.

I almost tell her, about what I just did. But I can’t.

“This day isn’t about me, Caz. Don’t make it about me. I’ll get through it. But it isn’t about me. It’s about her. This is her day. She deserves a nice day. She does. She does. She doesn’t deserve me!”

Grief as I never have felt it slams into me like a fist. I scream, a primal scream of pure loss and pain, and the room goes dim as the floor rushes up to meet…