Intoxicate Me

Meet

It was cold on this Wednesday afternoon. I sat in the alley behind the bar, my only heat source being the liquor in my palm. I was almost out. I stood up and staggered back into the bar. I had just enough for one bottle of jack. I sat down with my bottle and scanned the bar. I spotted a girl sitting by herself. Perfect target. I walked over and sat across from her. She looked up at me. I smiled. But before I could say a word, she said "You aren't getting my money." I was confused. How could she know what I was planning? "I've seen you rob at least twenty girls just this week,"she continued. She took a drink of her beer and looked away. "Why not turn me in then?" I asked. "Because," she sighed. "I know what bad guys look like. You are not a bad guy." She looked down at the table. She was quiet for a moment. "What's your name, anyway?" She asked, looking up. "Jace," I replied. "I'm Chloe. I'm a regular." I wondered briefly why I had never seen her. I guess I wasn't really looking. I mean, she seemed pretty hard to miss. Beautiful red hair, green eyes, a body that could stop a truck. "So, Jace. What's your story?" She snapped me out of my reverie. I figured I had nothing to lose now. "It's a pretty long, depressing one," I warned her.
"I have all the time in the world, and a heart of stone. Try me."
With that, I found myself telling her everything. Maybe it was the jack talking. I told her about my wife, who had abused me physically and mentally. I told her about my almost daughter, that she aborted to spite me. She really was evil.
"I dropped out of college and left my wife, and then I ended up here. I couldn't keep a job, always drunk, always drinking. But it was the only thing that kept me from seeing my little girls face every time I closed my eyes."
She had tears in her eyes but she quickly wiped them away. "I'm so sorry Jace." I smirked through my pain. "Your turn." She nodded. She explained that she had fallen in love with Ralph in high school. Things were great, until he started dealing illicit drugs. He became angry, strung out, abusive. She couldn't leave him, she said. She knew too much. It was either die or stay with him. I didn't know what to say. "I...I'm so sorry Chloe...". So she had been through her own living hell. Maybe we weren't so different. This was the first person I'd related to...probably ever. We continued talking into the deep hours of the night. I asked her where her husband was, and she told me he left her there when he went out to do his deals. She looked at the clock. "You'd better go. He'll kill you if he sees you with me." I grimaced. I didn't want to leave her. She could see the concern on my face. "I'll be fine," she said. "I'll be right back in this same spot tomorrow. Go." With a heavy heart, but surprisingly light shoulders, I left.