Then, on her first stretch of extended leave in years, something wonderful happened. Sarah met Audrey, a pretty, slight brunette. Audrey and Sarah didn't have much time before Sarah would be overseas again, but they made it count. They had an intense, thrilling, wonderful few months together. By the end of it, they were saying their "I love you's" and making plans to live together as soon as possible. Everything Sarah owned was left at Audrey's house on her next deployment and they were, in all ways, a couple.
That led to new stresses in Sarah's next deployment. Now she did have something to hide and Sarah missed home powerfully during the long, hot days and the lonely, cold nights. She and Audrey tried to make it work and were successful for two years. Things were looking up. Not only was Don't Ask, Don't Tell repealed, but Sarah was nearing the end of her six-year enlistment. Only one more deployment stood between her and civilian life with her girlfriend. Sarah had come back to the states just a week earlier on her two-week leave. It would be the last time she and Audrey would be together before they were together for good. Sarah had come home thinking that they would spend the first week in bed, as they usually did, and then would spend the next week planning the rest of their lives together. Sarah had even considered buying a ring and proposing, taking a trip to the nearest state where the two of them could have gotten hitched.
Sarah laughed at that as she walked from the storage facility. She'd come home thinking about wedding bells. She'd come home, instead, to find her life fall apart yet again.
Audrey had told Sarah, in no uncertain terms, that she had no interest in waiting another year to be in an actual relationship with someone. Sarah had tried to explain her situation, tried to convince Audrey that she loved her and that she was going to be back shortly for their life together but Audrey was having none of it. She'd made up her mind. Worse yet, Audrey had told her there was someone else. Sarah didn't hear much past that. Feeling numb, she'd left Audrey's house, checked into the only motel she could afford, and had spent the last few days in a daze, getting her few meager possessions out of Audrey's house and into the storage unit.
As Sarah walked the streets of the downtrodden area the storage unit was in, she shook her head at her situation. Again she had nowhere to go. The city was the one Audrey lived in and even then Sarah had only grown to know the neighborhood she shared with Audrey. Sarah didn't recognize any of the street names of the blue-collar area. Sarah felt exactly as she had when her father had died, only this time she was in her late twenties with no prospects and no home. She had four days left before redeployment.
As Sarah idly walked through the streets in the direction of her motel, she realized that she needed a drink worse than she'd ever needed a drink before.
After a few blocks, Sarah found what seemed to be what she was looking for. It wasn't much to look at. A small, grimy, two-story brick building with dark windows and a heavy door. It didn't look like much, but then again Sarah wasn't looking for much. The sign above the front door read "O'Flaherty's Pub" and a smaller neon sign pronounced that they had cold beer. It was enough for Sarah. If she was going to spend her last four days alone and miserable, she might as well spend them drunk.
Pulling the door open, Sarah was even less impressed with the interior of the establishment than she'd been with the exterior. At least the bar itself was nice; near ten feet of long, dark wood in front of what looked like a pretty varied collection of liquor bottles. The rest of the place did not do as well in Sarah's estimation. Weak looking tables surrounded by varying numbers of chairs, a few beat-up looking booths. The best seats in the place by far seemed to be the sturdy looking stools in front of the bar.
Not that vast seating seemed required. Sarah knew that even the busiest of bars would not have been packed in the afternoon on a Tuesday, but O'Flaherty's seemed especially deserted. There was only one other person in the bar from what Sarah could tell. An old, rough-looking man in what Sarah guessed to be his mid-fifties sat on one of the bar stools, sipping at a beer bottle and watching the small TV above the bar.
Part 1
Start from the beginning
