A Cozmic Promise

I never liked receiving Christmas gifts. Probably because the last real gift I ever got was an open bottle of Jack Daniels. Thanks, mommy.

So, this year, I decided to give myself a present. The present of hustling stupid people at the bar.

"That'll be a hundred bucks," I said after sinking the eight-ball into a corner pocket.

The loser narrowed his eyes, slamming his fists on the pool table. This caused all the remaining pool balls—his balls—to ricochet all over the table.

Bar patrons eyed us, but most went back to drinking, expressions somber. The holidays didn't make everyone happy apparently.

The loser wiped his greasy hair out of his face. "I ain't paying you squat. You cheated."

My hip leaned against the table, the cue stick hitting the ground with a thump. "No, I didn't. You just thought pretty o'l me—" I said faking a southern accent. "—couldn't play, and I wiped the floor with your chauvinistic ass. You lost, dude."

Eyes darkening, his cheeks puffed out like an angry pufferfish. "I ain't lose to some chick."

Tossing my midnight curls behind my back, I rolled my eyes, holding out my hand. "You lost. Pay up or you're gonna pay."

He stalked over to me, slamming his whisky glass on the ground. "Oh, really?"

Before he could reach me, the bartender Charlie barreled over from behind the bar, picking the guy up by his shirt. "Pay her and leave."

Intense fear entered the loser's face, feet dangling off the ground. "Umm alright."

Charlie dropped the man who threw several bills on the floor before glaring at me and running out the door.

"This is your last time hustling people," Charlie said, walking behind the bar again as I picked up my money. Crap, it was only sixty here. Cheap bastard.

Pocketing the cash, I followed Charlie over to the bar, sitting across from him on the tattered bar stool. "You always say that."

He furrowed his brows while wiping off the counter. "I need to start doing it. You shouldn't even be in here miss seventeen."

I pouted, blinking my eyes. "I know, but you love me."

He popped me in the head with the bar towel. "I do."

Charlie was co-owner of the bar, and we've been best friends for years. He was also dating my good friend Ron, who should be arriving any minute now.

"Plus, I have to stay. I really don't want to run into my mother," I said with a sigh. She was probably out now, doing her session at the strip-club before coming back home to drink herself into a coma—hopefully alone.

Charlie leaned on the wooden bar. "You know I'm just kidding. You're always welcome here." He gave me serious eyes. "But you do really need to stop hustling people. It can't end well."

I wiped some non-existent dust off my shoulder. "It's not like I cheat. You know I'm the best."

He chuckled. "You are." His eyes went over to the old pool table. "I remember our dads teaching us together when we were younger." 

Just the thought of my dad sent shivers of pain through my chest, constricting my breathing for a second. I missed him so much. Even though my mother was just a one-night stand, he never skimped on showing how much he loved me.

He was such an amazing man. So great and cultured. Never have I met someone who loved so many different things. From art to fishing to billiards, and he worked as an astronomer.