AllFreeNovel
Share Us
What if all of it was wrong? I had spent so much energy worrying about if they were true that I hadn’t really even considered the repercussions of bringing them to her like that and them being false. She made a good point. It was such a low priority of such a tiny circulated newspaper that it essentially constituted rumor. Bobby going and asking people what they thought wasn’t exactly scientific either.
I had put so much trust in him not to lead me wrong, that I perhaps made a massive mistake.
The longer the day wore on, the more I felt like a shithead.
Bobby came in around four o’clock and mentioned he heard that Julia had left. I only nodded. He didn’t press it further, instead droning on about the Japanese marketing strategy for one of our purchased upstart companies that I had been so bored with discussing I cut him off halfway through and told him to come back on Monday.
Bobby had been miffed, but didn’t argue. I guessed he understood I was upset and wasn’t going to push me. Yet.
Work was miserable. The whole day was just me staring at my desk, or my laptop, or my phone, and not even processing what I was looking at. Words mixed together in a blur, and I found myself unable to respond to any of it with anything other than short, one- or two-word messages.
I was going to have to call it a day early. Otherwise, I was just wasting time.
I didn’t want to go home, though. Not without Julia. Nothing about going home would do anything other than remind me of her. Of how much happier that house had been with her in it. How it finally started to feel like a home.
There was only one thing left to do now. I needed to drown my sorrows and talk to my friends. Hopefully, they would be able to help me see through the sadness and perk me back up.
Pulling up the group text, I typed out a simple message.
Me: Pepper House. 7PM. I’ll be at the bar.
Leo immediately reacted with a thumbs-up emoji, and a few minutes later, Sean messaged back as well. I could usually rely on Sean to see when something was wrong. Leo was in for a good time, but Sean seemed to be a bit more cognizant of when I was upset.
Sean: You all right?
Me: Make it six.
Sean: Oh shit.
I closed the phone and packed my things, not wanting to stick around anymore. Going to the bar was likely going to only mask the pain, but frankly, at that moment, I wanted the mask. Anything to stop feeling as terrible as I did right then.
I texted my driver and told him to meet me, knowing I was probably not going to be in any position to drive home. Then, I gathered the rest of my stuff and headed for the parking garage. Wade pulled in just as I got there, and opened the door for me. As he got back inside, his eyes flicked up to the rearview mirror and looked at me.
“Everything all right, sir?” he asked.
“Not really, Wade. Just drive me to the Pepper House.”
“Yes, sir,” he said, dutifully. “Shall I wait there for you?”
“Just stay in the area,” I said. “Though, I might get a ride home with someone else. I’ll let you know before it gets too late if I’ll need a ride or not.”
“I appreciate that, sir,” he said. “I’m on the clock if you need me.”
“I know,” I said, feeling a twinge in my chest. It dawned on me that, perhaps, Wade was the only person in the world I could really, truly depend on who wasn’t going to judge me in any way.
When Wade dropped me off, it was still before five, and I went inside, straight to the bar. Within minutes, I was halfway through my first beer and had ordered a second. I was going to start with beer. It would take longer to get to the point where I couldn’t communicate, but hopefully, I’d be at a place where I wasn’t feeling it so badly by the time my friends got there.
The bartender was an older lady, probably in her late fifties, and was eyeing me cautiously as I continued to drink. I got the impression she saw a lot of people come in with my demeanor and end up becoming a wild drunk. The Pepper House was not a place that handled that well. It took a lot to be able to come there, and if you acted up, you were generally gone for good. It was why I liked it so much. The riff-raff was kept out and it stayed quiet and peaceful.
It was the job of the bartenders and wait staff to make sure no one was overserved, and that if someone was drinking alone to slow them down as best as they could. Get them talking. Make them use their time for speaking rather than drinking. I understood it, but I didn’t care to go along with it, and when the bartender, whose name was apparently Linda, tried to get me talking, I kept my responses as short as my messages earlier in the day.
It was with relief that I realized Leo had shown up early. It was only five-thirty when he walked in the door, smiling widely and flirting with the hostess in the harmless way he always did. When he made it to the bar, he sat down heavily and motioned to Linda.
“I’ll have whatever he’s having,” he said.
“Of course,” Linda said, her eyes flicking over to me and then back to Leo. “Will you need me to keep them coming like him too?”
It wasn’t exactly subtle, but it was a decent way of telling him that I had been putting them away already.
