“I wanna know more about you though, gorgeous.”
Andy’s the better storyteller anyways and she’s right. That story is not rowdy compared to some of the tales he could tell her about our drunken escapades. When we were younger and stupider, Andy had this talent for getting me too drunk to remember the night but never seemed to have a problem recounting all the dumb shit I did while I was blacked out.
Charlie shrugs. I’ve noticed this a few times now that she tends to shrink herself down when it’s time to talk about herself. I hate it. I want to know everything about her, even the boring stuff. “There really isn’t much to tell.”
“I highly doubt that. Let’s start with this. What’s your favourite colour?”
“Yellow. Yours?”
“Green. Favourite food?”
“Poutine. Yours?”
“Same.” Neither of us can help our smiles.
The waitress arrives with our drinks. “Alright, and what can I get you folks?”
“Poutine,” We both blurt out simultaneously. Charlie giggles again, and I laugh right along with her.
The poutine we get is weird, fancy restaurant poutine but it’s still pretty good. I mean its fries, gravy, and cheese. What’s not to love?
Charlie opens up to me more throughout the rest of the dinner too. She tells me about her experience growing up here, which was vastly different from mine. There were some shitty, fake friends and weird high school boyfriend. Charlie didn’t seem too keen to talk about either, so I didn’t push it too much. But I don’t blame her for moving away and soon as she could and I understand better now why she doesn’t want to stay here longer than she has to. I get it, but it still makes me sad to think about her leaving in the spring.
“So, you said something about going dancing?” Charlie asks coyly.
My grin is wicked. “You want to? I know a place.”
She laughs. “I’m assuming it’s the one bar that this town has? Not my favourite place, but I’m willing to give it another try if you’re coming with me.”
What Charlie doesn’t know is that I also own said bar. Just like the rink, I took it over and fixed it up into what I think is pretty nice place compared to the shithole it used to be in our youth. I’m guessing she doesn’t know about the renos either, so I decide to ask her, “how long as it been since you’ve been there?
“A few years, but I’m assuming it’s still the same shitty, dirty, stinky, sticky bar that it always has been,” she responds matter-of-factly.
Yeah, she has no idea. “That’s a lot of adjectives,” I muse.
“One for every shitty experience I had there.”
I frown. “What happened?”
“It’s not worth getting into. Just dumb ol’ me being too enamored by shitty ex-boyfriends who could sneak her into places she shouldn’t be. Friends drinking too much and starting fights. Getting ditched by friends who found ‘better’ company ... it’s a bar full of bad memories.”
I will not hesitate to kick the ass of every single person who has made her feel this way if we ever run into them. “Sounds like the company was bad, not the place.”
“I suppose so. But if you have a bad experience every time you go somewhere, eventually you start blaming the place too. Plus, I can’t stress enough how bad it smelled in there.”
My bar does not smell! “Most bars have smells, Charlie.”
“I know. But you think the owner would at least invest in an air freshener or douse the place in bleach once a month or something,” she teases.
I have actually invested in several air fresheners and also pay Andy a handsome amount of money as my part time manager to make sure the place stays squeaky clean and up to standard during his off months working construction.
I debate telling her about me owning the bar, but then the cheque arrives. Charlie goes to grab her wallet, but I stop her. “Not a chance I am letting you buy. I’m the one who asked you to come out, remember?”
“As friends,” she reminds, and I struggle to not scoff. Friends my ass. I shake my head at Charlie as I hand the server my card.
“I tell you what. How about I let you buy me a drink at the shitty, dirty, stinky, sticky bar?” She doesn’t need to know that we won’t have to pay for our drinks at all there.
Charlie giggles and my heart soars at the sound. “Okay, deal!”
