Read Stirred: A Love Story for Free Online Page B

work.”
    “Great, okay. Yeah, let me know.”
    Sage hung up and sat on the couch trying to find the missing pieces of her memory. There had been something about summer camp. She remembered mentioning the name of her camp. Something about making a fire, maybe? Right, yes, because she had a faint memory of describing Tim Strough, her first crush. They must have been talking about crushes. . . and maybe the one she had on him? Oh no, this was not good. How had this happened? She dealt with silly drunk women all the time and after three measly shots of tequila, she’d become one.
    This wasn’t even a good story for her bottom drawer. It was a sad little unable-to-hold-her-liquor story. Now, if she’d been dancing on the bar or had some gorgeous guy take her up against the wall in the bathroom, that would have been a story, something to feel a little naughty about before she tucked it into her life experiences. This was more like a cautionary tale of a lightweight naughty girl wannabe who probably blabbered herself silly to a guy she’d been in love with for far too long.
    Sage felt like she was going to be sick from the stupidity of it all. Why couldn’t she be comfortable in her own skin? Why had she dressed that way and found herself drunk in a bathroom? She put her face in her hands. Shit, shit, shit.
    Finishing up her pity party and what was left in her water bottle, she grabbed her phone and read her positive affirmation of the day: “You are not your yesterdays,” the words of her app informed her above a picture of a road.
    “Wanna bet?” she said out loud to her empty house, snorting a laugh.
    Her horoscope wasn’t much better: “Brace yourself for a period of uneasy, but know you’ll get through it.” Damn it. Only a few days ago it said she was going to have the best month of the year. Had the stars moved around that quickly?
    Finding her yoga playlist, Sage plugged her iPod into the cool speaker thing she’d bought off an infomercial late one night while she was trying to unwind after a shift. Soft flutes and steel drums filled her living room. No words, Sage thought thankfully as she stepped out onto her patio and took in a breath of cool morning air. Things would be fine, she told herself as she rolled out her thick black yoga mat. Feet mushing into the foam, she took a seat, closed her eyes, and tried to quiet her mind, which was easier said than done. Her brain still desperately wanted to know exactly how stupid her heart had been.
    Breathe in, breathe out. Sage stretched out on her mat and remembered why she practiced yoga.

    A little over an hour later, sweaty and much closer to normal, Sage grabbed her ringing phone. Pulling on a sweatshirt, she hoped as Kenna began with, “Okay, I have good news and bad news,” that her chi wasn’t about to start screaming again.
    “Which do you want first?” her friend asked as Sage grabbed another bottle of water.
    “Bad.”
    “All right. It’s not exactly bad, but you did quite a bit of talking.”
    Sage moaned, collapsing back onto the couch, the hand not holding the phone now covering her face.
    “You mentioned that you loved him in general terms, which he did dismiss as you being tipsy and grateful for the drive home.”
    “Okay.”
    “But then you sort of. . . described in detail the things you loved about him. His eyes, the way his forehead wrinkles and makes that crease, his hands, the way he loves his family.”
    “Oh my dear Lord, please stop.”
    “Look, I know you’re dying right now, but maybe this is a good thing. You let it all out. Finally saying it has to feel good.”
    “Yeah? How the hell am I supposed to move on from this? I sounded like some pathetic love puppy. I’m surprised I didn’t launch into how great he smells all the time or that I love his dog too.”
    “You did.”
    Sage closed her eyes. “Great. Okay, well, I’m going to start packing now. It was nice being friends with you.”
    Kenna laughed. “Stop. He