by J. J. Fogg
Mrs. Whitley had returned to the bar and was engaging Eddie in easy conversation. It had to be small talk because, unlike any other night, the place was packed—every table, every bar stool, even a few people standing in open spaces.
Nick had called the bar several more times throughout the week, stealing way too much of Lily's time when she ought to have been working. She had warned him that this Friday night would be busy, so he arrived earlier than usual to make sure he got his usual table. And Lily had joined him, trusting Eddie to handle service, for the most part, on his own.
“Nick, are you sure you want me to be here already when Sarah shows up?”
“Lily, you don't even know that she will.”
“Actually, Nick, I guarantee she will. It's Halloween, she has too. It's the end of the fiscal year, so to speak, for people with unfinished business. Accounts have to be settled.”
It was the first time she'd been so forward with him about how she knew Sarah would show. Had it been the first time he'd heard such a thing, he wouldn't have believed it. Even now, he couldn't explain it and would never repeat such an idea to anyone outside of Doc's Place. No one would believe him, anyway. Just beneath the surface, he sensed she was right—that she indeed knew that Sarah would appear.
“Lily? I believe she'll show up, too. And yes, I still want you here.”
“Okay, then. I won't go anywhere.”
Chapter 18
Even though the place was busy, which seemed highly unusual to Eddie, it also still seemed much like every other night. There would be an initial rush of drinks being ordered and then, only occasional orders after that. Sure, a few stragglers would come in late and maybe a few folks might actually request a second or third drink. But as the initial rush calmed down, Eddie found himself with more and more free time behind the bar. Mrs. Whitley seemed keen on taking most of it for herself.
“So, the last time we conversed, Eddie, I was about to tell you you're ready,” she announced.
“Excuse me, Mrs. Whitley? Ready for what, exactly?”
In the background, the bell above the door rang out. In walked a familiar face—a pretty face.
“Ready to meet my daughter, of course!”
“Wait. What?”
“I've been promising her since she was five that she would someday meet her prince charming.”
“Mrs. Whitley…Me?…I'm no prince…Are you really trying to set me up with your daughter?!” he started to object, feeling unsteady, embarrassed and more than a bit frightened.
“I already know that. We established you're not perfect the last time we talked. But that's part of your charm, my boy. You see, when I told her she'd meet a prince charming someday, she said she didn't want one. She only wanted a good, honest man—a man who was humble, who wouldn't be reluctant to tell her she's beautiful. A family man who finds his own joy in the happiness of others.” She turned to face the door and waved her daughter over.
“I think I've been set up, Mrs. Whitley.”
“Oh, you don't have to thank me. But I do feel I should be thanking you.”
“Thanking me? For what? I haven't done anything. And there's a decent chance I'm going to disappoint you. It's the one thing I have a strong track record of.”
“No, that's not likely. I've seen how Doc took you under his wing and you've been an exceptional student. I fully expect you to make mistakes, though; You are a man after all. But making mistakes isn't the same thing as failing.”
“Hmm, Doc just told me something surprisingly similar the other day. Now, I really feel set up.”
“Well, thank you, again.”
“I'm sorry, Mrs. Whitley but seriously, what for?”
“For helping me with my unfinished business, of course.” Mrs. Whitley turned just in time to give her daughter a hug as she approached the bar.
Eddie was able to hear their conversation, just a few feet away.
“Hey, mom…are you really leaving now?”
“Yes, dear. It's time. I was blessed to be able to see you these last few weeks. I'll be forever grateful for them.”
“I know, me too. But this is so hard.”
“Yes, my sweet. I know it is. But we'll get together again someday soon. I'm sure of it.”
“But you can't know it, right?”
“No, dear. I wish I could. And now…I really must go.”
She hugged her mom one last time, then leaned against the bar, almost to steady herself, as she watched her leave.
Well, here goes nothing, I guess. Eddie slid a cocktail napkin in front of her. “Hi, I'm Eddie. Anything I can fix for you?”
Not likely. she thought silently. She continued staring at the door a couple more minutes, until it was clear that her mother would not be returning. Then, she turned to the bar and took a seat, looking dejected and sad.
“Hey there,” he quietly offered again, “I'm Eddie. I'm not pressuring you at all, okay, but if you decide you want something to drink, just let me know, okay?” He spoke with compassion and tenderness and sensitivity.
“Thank you…Eddie, was it? I'll have a Gin and Tonic, please.”
“Ah, just like your mom.” He smiled reassuringly.
“What?” she replied, with an air of surprise in her voice. “What did you just say?”
“I just said you're getting a Gin and Tonic, just like your mom. That's her favorite drink, too. Though, I've never liked the taste of gin myself.”
“You knew my mom?”
“Well, sure. I mean, not super-personally. But we've talked quite a lot lately. And not to sound creepy, but she talks about you quite a bit.”
“Eddie? Are you sure you were talking to…my mom?”
“Of course, Mrs. Whitley, and you're Anna, right?”
She looked like she was about to pass out.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” He ran around the bar and braced her from behind, just in case. “Hey, Anna? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think so. I just feel a little light-headed.”
“Come sit over here.” He helped her over to a settee at the back wall near the bar. He cleared off a couple of supply boxes that had been stacked on it and gave her his jacket as a blanket and some bar towels as a makeshift pillow in case she wanted to lie down.
“Oh my god, this can't actually be happening.” she murmured. “This can't be real.”
“Do you want to just rest a few minutes?”
She nodded.
“Okay, I'll be right over here if you need anything? I'll come back and check on you. Just rest, okay?”
She nodded again, as Eddie returned to the bar.
Chapter 19
Nick had no sooner returned to the bar when he looked over to see a woman peering in through the window in the front door.
She appeared to be debating whether to come in or not. When she noticed Eddie looking back at her, she disappeared.
That's strange. He shrugged his shoulders, then scanned the crowd. There were a lot of familiar faces. In fact, at nearly every table or group of standing people, he recognized and knew at least one person. But each party seemed to have one, sometimes two, additional people with them.
In the back of his mind, he felt an idea starting to come together—an understanding, perhaps, that he'd never had before—an awareness, or perception as Doc called it. Have some of these people been here all along?
He continued scanning the crowd, finding Nick sitting at the table in the corner, where he always sat. A glass of red wine was set at the unattended seat to his right; to his left sat Lily.
She was beaming. For that matter, so was he.
They were engaged in effortless conversation, occasionally exchanging meaningful touches with their hands, smiling almost the entire time.
Lily had a divided attention all night, longing to be in the moment with Nick, but also keeping a keen eye on the door.
Surprisingly, he wasn't nearly so diligent, his eyes transfixed solely on Lily.
For some reason, E
ddie looked back at the door, catching the woman peeking in, yet again. She appeared to be looking toward the back of the room. Could that be Sarah? He waved at her with a friendly face, inviting her to come in. This time, she obliged.
As she walked near the bar, Eddie came around to greet her. “Hi there. Would you like to sit at the bar? We're pretty packed tonight.”
“No, that's okay. My, uh, my party…is already here.”
“Oh, okay, sure. By all means, come on in.” I think it IS. He returned to the bar, but watched as she meandered between tables and small stands of people, heading toward the back corner. Well, I'll be…
Eddie was hoping to watch the scene unfold, but caught something stirring out of the corner of his eye. Anna was sitting up, still wrapped up in his jacket. He went to check on her.
# # # #
Lily saw Sarah walking toward them and nudged Nick's leg under the table. “Hey, do you want me to leave?”
“No, Lily. I already told you. Please stay.” He rose from his seat to greet Sarah.
Lily looked down as Sarah approached, as if deferring to her as Nick's first love.
“Hi, Sarah,” he started. “How are you?”
“I'll let you know soon, Nick.” She looked down at Lily, then back at him. “Well, are you going to introduce me?”
“Oh! Right. I'm sorry, this is Lily.”
Lily looked up at Sarah, unsure what to expect. A glare? a welcoming smile? It was the latter. She immediately felt relieved and stood as well, extending her hand. “Hi, like he said, I'm Lily.”
Sarah accepted her hand and smiled. “Very nice to meet you, Lily.”
“Um, you too, Sarah. I've been wanting to talk to you for a long time, actually.”
“Oh?” Sarah seemed honestly surprised.
Lily looked over to Nick, seeking a little bit of help.
“Sarah,” Nick started. “Lily's been wanting me to explain what happened…that night…and I couldn't do it. So, she was wondering if…if…”
“If I would tell her?”
“Right, yes…So, would you?”
“I don't mind, Nick, so long as you tell me you really want me to.”
“Yeah, I do, Sarah. She deserves to know. I'm just too ashamed to tell her.”
“Oh, there you go again. Yes, I'll definitely tell her. But you know my version won't sound quite the same as yours, not with that whole guilty conscience thing you've got going on.”
“Yeah, I know. But she'll understand. Do you mind if I'm not here for this though?”
Both Lily and Sarah nodded.
He left them and headed out the front door for a few minutes of fresh, though unseasonably cold, air.
Chapter 20
“So, Lily, where do you want me to start?”
“I don't even know, Sarah. He won't tell me anything.”
“Good, then you'll hear the straight dope the first time then. But I'll have to give you the short version, okay? I don't have much time.”
“Yeah, I understand.”
Sarah wiggled in her seat a little bit to get comfortable, then proceeded. “Nick and I met in college. He studied and I mostly partied. Somehow our paths met and we fell in love. Mind you, it wasn't really love. We just got along well and enjoyed spending time together. Except, that didn't last. It turned out we're quite different and we started fighting, like all the time. He wanted to settle down, get married, have kids, the whole thing. But I wasn't ready for that—wasn't sure I would ever be ready for that.”
“Was that all you fought about?”
“No, of course, not. Our personalities were just so different. I was carefree; he was responsible. I wanted to travel; he wanted to nest. But even that wasn't the biggest thing.”
“Those are all pretty big.”
“I guess. But I'm pretty sure I was Nick's first girlfriend, the first person he said 'I love you' too. The first person he kissed and had…well…you understand.”
“Yes.”
“I honestly never felt that way about him. Sure, I liked him okay enough, and he's a terrific guy. He just wasn't ever meant to be my guy. I tried to tell him that so many times, but he always shut me down. Until one night, he wanted to visit me at my place, but I was out drinking with friends. He found me at a bar, dancing with a stranger.”
“Oh, so he thought you were cheating?”
“Well, I wasn't. But in his mind, I might as well have been. Anyway, he made a huge scene at the bar—embarrassed the hell out of me, yelling, 'Maybe we're really not meant to be together!' And I mean he was really yelling it.”
“Oh.” Lily recalled him mentioning that line before, without all the context, though.
“So, I left in a huff. He humiliated me in front of all my friends and a bar full of strangers. But here's where his version of the story is just plain wrong. He thinks I left because I was upset about what he said. That isn't true. I had been trying to tell him that very thing for months, but he didn't want to believe it. I stormed out of there because he embarrassed me and that's the only reason.”
“So that explains a lot, but not the guilt.”
“Yeah, so here's the kicker. I said I'd been drinking, right?”
Lily nodded.
“I'd been drinking a lot. And…well, I didn't exactly make it home that night.”
“Oh.” It all made sense, now. Everything came together in Lily's mind.
“I'd like to say a part of me died that night…you know, the cliché?…but all of me died that night, Lily.”
“I understand, Sarah.”
“Do you?”
“Are you kidding? Look at this place. You think this many people would come to this place if there wasn't something else going on? Half the people here have unfinished business, just like you.”
Sarah looked around. “Okay, so I only see about a dozen people in here, but whatever.”
“Huh?” Lily scanned the room again. There were easily fifty people who hadn't left yet.
“Anyway, I don't have unfinished business. Not really. I'm only here because of Nick. He's, like, stuck. I've been trying to get him unstuck for almost a year.”
“And your time runs out tonight.”
“So, you do understand.”
Lily nodded again.
“Lily, I don't love him. And I never did. But he's a good guy, and he took on guilt for something that wasn't his fault. Anyway, that's the story.”
“Thank you for sharing it with me.”
“Sure, and thank you. The real tragedy would be if two people died that night, instead of just one.” Sarah rose and gestured to Nick to come back in. He quickly reentered, looking forward to the warmth inside if not the conversation.
Sarah had some final words she wanted to share to both of them. “Lily, I've seen how you light up. And Nick, I see how you are around her. Those gifts you bought her were sweet, by the way.”
“You saw that?” he asked.
“Yeah, sometimes I just looked through the window but didn't come in. Anyway, what you guys have is real. What we had…well, it was fun for a while, and then it wasn't. But it was never love. Nick, I'm leaving tonight and I don't think you'll ever see me again. You need to know that Lily is your love, not me. Do you finally understand?”
“I do, Sarah. Yeah, I do.” Then he turned to Lily and took her hand, gazing into her eyes for a moment before speaking. “Lily? I'm sorry I put you through so much this past year. Thank you for helping me and not giving up.”
“You're welcome, Nick. You're very welcome.”
When they both turned around, Sarah was gone—the wine glass, empty.
Chapter 21
“Hey, Anna. Are you feeling any better?” Eddie reached up and held the back of his hand to her forehead, as if to check for a fever. Why he thought to do that, even he didn't know. It just seemed like something to do.
“I think I might already know the answer,” Anna started, “but how did you know my name, Eddie?”
“I already to
ld you.”
“Tell me again?”
“Sure, your mom told me.”
“And how did you know my mom?”
“Well, she's a customer here. Her and your dad, both.”
“Right…right…And when did you first see them here?”
“I don't know, I guess it was around the middle of September, maybe?”
“I have one more question. Can you tell me something that only my mom would know? Anything at all?”
“Like what?”
“Anything, Eddie…that only my mom or dad would know…please?”
“Okay, uh, well, she said that when you were five, she said you'd someday meet prince charming and you said you didn't want one. Does that count?”
“Wow…” she looked down at her arm and pinched it, then winced in pain.
“Anna, why are you asking all these questions?”
“Because I've been visiting my parents these last few weeks, Eddie.”
“Yeah, I know. I've seen you with them.”
“And now, you're saying you've been talking with my mom, too.”
“Sure, tonight even.”
“Eddie…I only came here tonight because my mom told me I should. She said there'd be someone here I'm supposed to meet. Not my 'Prince Charming' but my honest man. I don't know why…or how…but I think that's you. But Eddie,” She paused before proceeding. “I'm the executor on my parents' estate. That's why I came home from school over a month ago.”
Eddie was still trying to comprehend what Anna was telling him when he felt warmth on his shoulder. He turned to find Doc patting him—partly to give him an encouraging 'attaboy' and half to ask him for a moment of his time.
Doc nodded toward the bar, indicating further that he wanted to talk with him privately.
“Anna, I'll be right back, okay?” He rose and followed Doc back to the bar.
“Hey Eddie, listen. I'm just about out of time but I wanted to ask you something.”
“Sure, Doc, anything.”
“Well, I'm hoping you'll take over tending the bar in my absence.”