The Beginning of the End

13. A Talk With An Old Friend

After a very long and emotional talk with Ella, Chloe felt a compelling desire to drown out the world. She didn't want to call the girls tonight, but she didn't want to be alone either. Trixie was at a sleepover, so taking her to a movie or something was out of the question.

She decided to head to one of the Tribe's favorite stomping grounds: a semi-fancy place near the precinct. The lighting was dark, the crowd wasn't too noisy, and the bartenders did a great job and never seemed too busy. The eye-candy wasn't half bad either most nights.

Chloe sat down at the bar in a soft, slightly worn pleather stool, just a few seats down from a group of twenty-somethings.

A woman with dark hair, bright blue eyes, and lots of tattoos walked up to her behind the bar with a friendly smile and asked, "What can I getcha?"

Chloe thought for a moment and then asked, "Something sweet enough that I can't tell how much alcohol is in it?"

The bartender huffed a laugh and asked, "Coke and rum okay?"

"Diet Coke?"

"You got it." The bartender laughed again with light amusement and went to work making Chloe's drink.

"Thank you." Chloe replied with a small smile as the bartender set the drink in front of her.

Chloe sipped on her drink, thinking about the past eight years and what she would have done differently if she could. She knew something was off about Lucifer from the moment they met, but she never dug for answers as well as she could have...should have. Maybe, somewhere deep down, it didn't matter to her what skeletons were in his closet. She had wanted him as her partner no matter what; they made a good team after all.

But fear and logic clouded what her heart was telling her she wanted. Sure, she felt enraged, resentful, betrayed, and disgusted that he hid insurmountable information from her that she had a right to know about. That wasn't fair. She didn't keep any secrets from him. Although, part of her understood why he didn't tell her everything at first. It was a lot! Even that didn't seem to appropriately explain the great pressure of this truth between her and Lucifer. This information probably turned the world upside down for him too, and he didn't tell her because he didn't want her to run away.

But she ran away anyway.

Chloe closed her eyes and hung her head in shame. She tapped the rim of the cup against her forehead.

Sometime during her mental crash course, a man took the open seat next to her without saying a word. She didn't acknowledge the man until he asked, "Man troubles?"

Chloe slowly opened her eyes and turned her head to look at him.

The man was older, maybe late sixties or early seventies? His smile was kind, as were his dark eyes.

Chloe scoffed and asked in return, a bit sarcastically, "How could you tell?"

The man sighed with a smile to match his words and answered, "Because you're in a bar, alone, on a Friday evening, and you look like you've got the whole world on your shoulders."

Chloe laughed and shrugged. "Yeah. I guess you could call it 'man troubles' then." It was a simple explanation, and really just a curve around the truth.

The man held up a finger to signal the bar tender that had recently helped Chloe. When he got her attention he politely requested, "Scotch on the rocks when you get a chance, please?"

She nodded while drying a glass and called back, "You got it."

Chloe giggled slightly, "You don't strike me as the hard liquor type."