Free Something in the Wine by Jae Page B

bottle?”
    “Oh God, no, are you trying to get me drunk? I’m already a little tipsy.” In fact, she was more tipsy than she could ever remember being. She took another piece of French bread, hoping it would help to soak up the alcohol.
    Drew’s teeth glinted as she smiled. “Don’t worry.” Her voice rumbled through Annie. “I won’t take advantage of it.” She picked up a piece of goat cheese from the tray, leaned back, and chewed while her gaze swept over the small lake and the surrounding hills.
    Annie turned to look in the same direction.
    The sun had disappeared now; just a stripe of orange remained on the horizon. A light wind blew a layer of clouds eastward and revealed the crescent-shaped moon. The surrounding hills were just dark shapes, but Annie imagined that Drew could still point to each of them and tell her exactly what kind of grapes grew on top.
    She turned and regarded Drew across the small table.
    Drew was more lying than sitting in her chair, her legs sprawled, her face relaxed. In the light from the tasting room, Annie thought she saw a glow of contentment in Drew’s eyes.
    “You have a beautiful home,” Annie said, lowering her voice so she wouldn’t interrupt the peaceful silence. “I can tell how much you love it.”
    Drew looked up. “I do.” She picked up her glass and studied Annie while she swished around the wine. “Do you have a place that makes you feel like that?”
    Annie fought the urge to squirm under that intense gaze. It took her longer than normal to think about her answer. Her apartment? No. It was cozy, but she was barely home anyway. And her parents’ house had stopped being her home the moment she had moved out. Not even three days later, her father had made her old room into an office. She shook her head. “Not really.”
    “Then maybe a person who makes you happy?”
    How often had Annie warded off questions like that—from Jake, her parents, her colleagues. Even mere acquaintances felt entitled to ask personal questions and judge her for the answer. She shook her head again, hoping Drew would back off.
    Drew didn’t say anything, but the regret—or even pity—in her eyes cut deep.
    To Annie, it seemed like a criticism of the way she lived her life, as if she couldn’t possibly be happy with what she had. Heat shot up from the pit of Annie’s stomach, where the red wine warmed her, until she felt words bubble out of her mouth. “Why does everyone keep thinking that I need someone to make me happy? That I can’t be happy with my life just because I’m single? Life isn’t Noah’s ark, where everyone needs to line up in pairs or drown, you know?”
    Drew’s eyebrows hiked up, but she said nothing.
    “I like my life just fine.”
    Cab lifted his head off Drew’s feet and whined.
    Annie snapped her mouth shut and sank against the back of her chair. Oh, Jesus, I drank too much. Normally, she had much better control.
    “I didn’t mean to imply anything else,” Drew said. “I’m just trying to understand why nobody has snatched up a woman like you.”
    A woman as awkward as me? As boring as me? She pressed her feet to the ground as the world started to spin again. As drunk as me?
    But the warm look in Drew’s eyes said that she had a more positive description in mind.
    Annie’s cheeks burned. “Maybe I don’t want to be snatched up.”
    “Really? But you let Jake set you up on a blind date.”
    “Just to get him off my back.” Annie tried to button the borrowed jacket, but the buttons refused to cooperate.
    Drew said nothing; she just looked at Annie, her gaze skeptical.
    Is she right? Did part of her still hope that the next date would be different? That she wouldn’t feel so awkward that she wanted to go home? Annie wasn’t sure anymore. Thinking was becoming harder and harder by the second.
    “Is it really that you don’t want a relationship?” Drew asked. “Or have you given up looking for the ideal mate?”
    “Ideal mate?” Annie