Bears in Mind by Sam Hall

I don't know what to say.

So chapter one starts out in Natalie's POV.

And we follow our girl into one of her local bars that she and her husband used to spend a lot of time in.

But she goes in this time alone.

And she's very anxious about it because, well, it's been years since she's done this.

And this comes a week after her husband, Paul, decided to drop a bomb on her.

Okay.

Like it was right during dinner, a mouthful of Mongolian beef.

He says, we need to talk.

And then tells her he wants an open marriage because he's not attracted to her anymore.

Not only have you ruined my marriage, now you've ruined my Mongolian beef.

After that pronouncement, he looked at me expectantly as if he'd just proposed we review who our home insurance was with.

I hadn't replied.

I hadn't been able to.

My husband couldn't have hurt me worse if he'd pulled out a gun and shot me point blank.

And in some ways, that's what it had felt like

for her.

Also, little trigger warning here that there is pew-pews.

There's a pew-pew that shows up and some violence that comes along as a result.

So I'm going to be as mindful and careful about it.

I'm not going to be gratuitous, but I just wanted to let you know.

So she's rolling through this in flashback form and, you know, taking us along with it.

She's just like lore dumping on how she got here on a regular night by herself as a married woman, but, you know, in a bar alone.

She's a big, brave girl.

And she walks in and she greets the bartender, Garrett, who obviously knows her pretty well.