Chapter Fourteen #2
“I swear to all that’s holy,” he said, still making a puckered face from the alcohol. “For all the money this forsaken conglomerate charges its patrons, they could at least hire someone with a brain in their head. I swear they make it their mission to employ the world’s worst.”
“Your drink’s not good?”
“Not in the slightest. Never is.” He took another sip and made the same face. “That kid must be on the fantastical end of stupid.”
I wanted to ask him why he kept drinking it if it was terrible. Or why he came back so often he had a “usual” drink order, but I didn’t get the chance.
“Now that that’s out of the way, what do you think led to such a hideous and atrocious act? On both their parts?”
I didn’t know why I kept going with the lie. It was better than exposing the truth. And from the sound of it, he wouldn’t have been as forthcoming had he known. Even talking around it helped ease my mind somewhat.
“I don’t know about her, but he…” I stopped myself. “No, sorry, I don’t know what Alec was thinking, but we had an argument about taking the next step, and she didn’t appreciate it.”
“The next step? Aren’t y’all married as of yesterday?” Chucky scratched his beard and put it together in his head. “Oh! You mean… how old are you, boy? I thought kids your age were waiting to have babies for a while.”
“I’ll be twenty-seven next month.”
“Y’all get younger looking the older I get. I swore you were twenty-two at best. Okay, so popping out a few ankle-biters at your age isn’t the worst thing in the world. Y’all can afford a honeymoon here. You must not be struggling.”
“No, it’s not that—”
“Then what is it?”
What was it? Why was I sitting at this bar talking to this stranger? Why wasn’t I home getting dinner with, or fucked by, Alec?
“She made things complicated in a way I wasn’t comfortable with. I don’t know if I ever want to… have kids. But she was insistent. We fought, and I left.”
“That’s when you found out your no good, so-and-so of a boss was screwing your lady? What, did she say something like ‘at least Alec isn’t afraid to put a baby in me’ or some other such nonsense?”
“Yeah, something like that,” I said and faced the bar.
Alec wasn’t a no good, so-and-so, whatever that meant. He was a good man who just wanted to move too fast after experiencing a devastating loss. But good man or not, that’s not a path I could follow. Not then, and maybe not ever.
Chucky took the hint I didn’t know I was giving and let it go. He said, “That’s why I couldn’t be bothered with a woman. Too much. Too complicated. Too many things to do and say and buy and ask forgiveness for. Just too much.”
“You never got married?” I asked, turning to him again.
“No, sir. Not for me. I’m the free kind. Always was and always will be. My mama, rest her soul, used to tell stories how she’d chase me around the churchyard ‘cause I’d strip and run around with my rear end hanging out.” He laughed, and so did I.
“You never feel lonely? Or like your life would be better with someone else in it?”
Chucky laughed from his belly. “Not even once! I’m happier than a pig in slop. Tell you what, kid, tethers keep a man down. I’m free to fly. Never have to ask permission or give direction. I just go.”
That was the damn truth. I craved an unwritten future. New experiences and adventures. New people and places. How could I ever do that tied to a spouse, house, and kids? How could anyone?
“So what are you doing at this Cupid’s nest?” I asked.
Chucky scratched his beard. “Well, I’m working my way down the coast, and the syndicate that owns this hotel owed me an upgraded suite after the debacle they caused a few months ago.
Bit too much if you ask me, but at least they got my room right this time around.
I swear this whole corporation has three brain cells they swap back and forth. ”
“I agree. It is a bit… much.”
“Especially after discovering what a disloyal alley cat your almost-missus turned out to be, I’m sure.”
“Uh, yeah. It doesn’t help.”
He slapped my back again. “You’ll be okay, son. Females are all the same. But some get it in their heads to be more than they need to be. My oldest sister was like that. Asked me once for some money, and I said ‘no, ma’am.’ Never spoke to her again.”
“What was the money for?”
“Her kid needed surgery or some other such medical thing. Don’t think the boy made it, but it’s her fault for leaving her husband in the first place when she didn’t have insurance.”
I choked on the sip of bourbon in my mouth. When Chucky saw my face, he laughed.
“I’m joking. He made it fine. But still never spoke to her or her brood again. Never needed or wanted to.”
I gave him an awkward smile and took another sip. Talking to him was a mistake. I had wanted a few more but figured once I finished my drink, I’d head back up to my room.
After a few moments, he said, “Thinking on it, it’s best you seek employment elsewhere. His being your boss doesn’t bode well for the business. And I can say, a man’s retirement is only as good as the company he worked for.”
“Who’d you used to work for?” Even drunk and miserable, I was open to making a sale.
“Ma Bell. I started back when she still had all her kids.”
“Have any contacts left there?” I asked, pretty sure that meant AT&T. They’d never, but it was worth a shot.
“Oh, heavens, no! I retired some months ago and handed them the infernal mobile phone they insisted I carry. Along with my phonebook stored within. Then I sold my house and just up and went. I got at least ten more good years in me, and I intend to spend them traveling around as best I can.”
“You sold your house!? Where do you live?”
“You’re looking at it, kid! Ever since electronic mail, I don’t need a postbox. The sale, plus my retirement savings, means I have enough to live big until I hit the clay. I never have to wash a set of sheets again in my life, and if that’s not freedom, I don’t know what is.”
“And you’re not scared to travel alone for the rest of your life?”
“Not one iota. Never needed anyone else, and still don’t. My folks are dead, most siblings too, at least the ones I talked to, and I always make friends in passing easy. Just as I did with you. Now we're chatting instead of sitting here drinking quietly.”
Those were some good points. I never really needed anyone, either.
My family loved me but never supported what I wanted to do.
My friends abandoned our pact to transfer schools, but I did it anyway.
I made friends easily, and bed partners easier.
I never had a relationship serious enough to impact my life choices. Except for Alec, but that was…
I’d never sell my house just to travel the world, though. What if it all went to shit? I’d need a place to come crawling back to. And a real asset I could borrow against if need be. Not to mention a place to take women—and men—back to where I felt most comfortable. Which was another good point.
“What about when you want the company of a woman? Is it still easy to pick them up at your age? Or does it get harder?”
“Excuse me?” He placed his drink down.
The bourbon had slowed my ability to read people, something Alec never struggled with. “Are women your age still down to fuck? Or do you go for younger?”
Flecks of spit landed on my face as Chucky shouted, “Did you talk to your missus like a filthy, two-cent sailor? Maybe that’s why she got it in her head she could act like a man. If you’d treated her like a lady, she wouldn’t have thrown her goodies at your superior.”
My eyes fluttered, as if he had slapped me. “I… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any offense.”
Chucky’s voice softened, but the snarl remained. “Thank you for the apology. I can forgive quite a bit from a young man in a position such as yours. But let that be the last.” He peeled his eyes away from me and took a sip.
“I… thank you. I’m sorry again, man.”
When he spoke again, it was as if nothing had happened.
“It’s fine. I understand young men have many things on their minds these days.
But not everything in our heads should be let out.
You need to know what’s appropriate to ask a friend in passing such as myself.
” He slapped my back and smiled. “But you’ll learn. ”
I laughed, drunk and relieved he wasn’t mad at me anymore. “Yeah, I will.”
“Wanna know the best part about making friends in passing? We don’t ever have to speak again, and that’s just fine. You don’t owe me anything, nor I you. Just fine and dandy, if you ask me.”
Chucky was a few screws short of set, but he knew himself. What he wanted and what he liked. Is it so wrong to pursue one’s own interests?
No, it wasn’t.
He was right. But more, he was happy. He lived his whole life for himself and made it out fine. No, not fine—thriving. I said something he didn’t like, and he let me know. His drink was shitty, and he let me know that, too. If we were to never speak again, it wouldn’t be a problem for either of us.
I was looking at my future, and it wasn’t all that bad.
Or, a possible future. I’d never sell my most valuable asset to travel the world in retirement, even if it funded my lifestyle.
But he was free, wasn’t he? In a way no one else could comprehend.
I started to. Then I realized I made the right decision.
Alec was a good man, but looking for something I couldn’t give him. That wasn’t me. He needed a solid foundation underfoot. I needed the wind below and the horizon ahead. Even if it was years in the future, we’d never be able to be what the other needed. And that was fine. More than fine.
“Yup. Just fine.”
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