“Ugh… my head is killing me…” I complained to myself as I raised my myself from the stone alley.
Unsuccessfully though, I fell back to the ground as I just closed my eyes for a bit, taking in the sounds of the now hustling and bustling city around me as you would expect from New Year’s Day before once again raising myself to my feet while fighting off the headache accompanying my hangover.
As I steadied myself, I took stock of my belongings, making sure I had everything I had left my apartment with. Phone, wallet, keys. Check. That’s everything, I think.
I once again latch my hand onto the side door and think to myself ‘Old Joey is definitely going to get it for leaving me out here like that, I thought he was better than this. Though, not even police found me? Guess I must have looked like any other homeless person they didn’t want to deal with.’ As I pulled the handle
“Right…”
Turning and making my way to the entrance of the alleyway I am greeted with streets that were unusually quiet but made sense as many others were still hungover at their homes after last night’s bender. A typical New Year’s Day for the residents of this city.
I turned to the right watching the oncoming cars as I made my way to the front entrance of the bar. It was a predominantly of brick construction with some glass windows and most of it being painted black with the sign that had ‘Liquid Gold’ written on it. It has two floors and presumably Joey lives up on the second one with no seating out the front on account of the thin sidewalk.
Opening the door, I walked inside. Usually, the bar is closed at this time of day and only opens early in the evening, but today seems to be an exception as last night left more people asleep here than just me. If you added some fake blood this would look like a crime scene from a movie.
Navigating my way through the sleeping people on the ground and sitting in the chairs slumped over the tables I made my way over to the front bar, taking in a deep breath ready to unleash all the verbal abuse of a 55-year-old white woman with three kids and a bob haircut.
“Ay Miss, we’re technically closed right now so no more drinks. If you do wanna drink I can fix you up with a water, if that’s fine with ye.” He immediately greeted me with a glass of water, it seems like he assumed I was one of the passed-out patrons on the floor.
“Huh? The hell are you on about, Joey?” I complained while brazenly taking the glass of water he offered. “You should have known I was out there, right? But when I woke up I was left to dry out there. It’s way too cruel don’t you think? You left a 25-year-old girl passed out in the alley out back.”
The fact that I didn’t inform him I went out to the alley to begin with is something I have decided to conveniently forget for the sake of my argument.
“Miss, the hell are you on about? Now that I think about it, did I even see ye last night here?”
“What do you saying, how could you forget the face of you most profitable customer? I’ll bet you snuck a few shots for yourself last night.” I said to him while I took a swig of the water he offered me and finished it all at once. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter anymore I guess… Hey I know you’ve got some premium stuff under the table here, I’ve seen you get at it before so how about it? I’ll give you $30 for a glass”
“$30 a glass? That’s mighty generous of you Miss… but how did ye even know it was there? Besides, I know the faces of all my regulars and you ain’t one of em” He exclaimed to me while taking out one of his favourite bottles.
“Old Joey, has your age finally gotten to you? You’re like what? 66 this year, right? Besides, with my frequency here I must’ve paid a not so small percentage of the mortgage on this place.” I gave him a questioning glance as I said it while I tapped my card on the reader.
“No Miss, I’m dead serious right now. Ye have been going on about things you couldn’t have even known about. I’ve never told ye my age let alone even seen ye before, and not even the regulars know about my private collection under the table. Also, yer card was rejected.”
“What? It’s Talia, you’re just playing games with me again aren’t you?” I exclaimed annoyed as I reached into my wallet to grab my last $50 note. Last night’s bender must have alerted the bank as suspicious and locked my card, a problem to deal with later.
As I handed him the note I saw his eyes. This man was dead serious.
I grabbed the glass and finished it in one swing.
Finished with whatever B.S. Joey was on about, I decided to leave as I got up from the front bar stool as the other patrons were beginning to awaken.
“Kids these days… Get home safe ye hear, whatever you took last night is still messing with ye right now so get some rest.”
“Whatever you say.”
I left the bar and began to walk to the train station so I could get back to my apartment. As I did so I decided not to dwell on Joey’s strange attitude.
“Lets see…” I took out my phone and tried to connect to my bank’s website, but there was no connection. Upon further insight, a couple of minutes of messing with the settings I realised there was no cell service provider, my own phone didn’t recognise my sim card.
Yet another problem to follow up on…
