‘I think you could say that.’
‘Are you in finance?’ Ken asked.
Liam nodded once. ‘Isn’t everyone in here?’
‘Most of them, yes,’ Ken replied, looking left then right. ‘And don’t worry, we all have similar bad days every now and then. It’s the nature of our business. I’m sure you know that, but the good thing is – it’s neverourmoney that we lose.’ Ken winked at Liam. ‘So who really cares, right?’
Liam looked down at Ken’s shiny Italian-leather shoes. They looked like they had been polished just seconds before he entered the bar.
‘The customers care,’ Liam replied, returning to his drink. ‘Very much, actually.’
Ken laughed a little harder than Liam expected. ‘Investment,stock market, finance… all of those are risky businesses, my friend. The customers know that. They knew that before they decided to invest. Don’t beat yourself up about it.’
‘Too late,’ Liam whispered, just as Terry placed a bottle of beer and a whiskey shot on the bar in front of Ken.
‘Thanks, Terry.’ Ken reached for the shot and lifted it at Liam. ‘To better days, my friend. To better days.’
Liam nodded as he brought his glass to his lips, but once again, he simply pretended to have a sip. He really wasn’t there to get drunk.
Eight
The Varnish closed its doors at 1:00 a.m. every morning. After closing, while the waitresses collected all the glasses and cleaned up the tables, Terry would cash up and do a stock check before wiping down the bar and mopping its floor to the point of shining. All that done, Terry, the waitresses and the management would sometimes grab a beer together at the bar and shoot the breeze for a while before finally heading home. That night, though, only Terry and Sabrina, one of the two cocktail waitresses that had been working the floor that Thursday, were in the mood for a beer.
Terry lived alone in a small one-bedroom apartment in East LA, about seven miles from Downtown, which in a city as large as Los Angeles was considered to be ‘just around the corner’. At that time in the morning, it would take him less than twenty minutes to drive home. But Terry wasn’t exactly ready to call it a night yet.
Back inside The Varnish, as Terry and Sabrina worked through a bottle of Bud and a chaser each, they shared a couple of lines of cocaine in the bathroom.
Terry and Sabrina weren’t a couple, but they had slept together plenty of times before, mainly when they were both drunk and high. The fact that they only had sex when they were a little off their heads had never really bothered either of them. Casual, drunken-and-wasted sex was a thing in LA. Butthat night, even though Terry did make a move as they shared their second line of coke, Sabrina politely declined, saying that she had a dentist’s appointment in the morning, which was actually true.
‘Are you sure I can’t come over for a little while?’ Terry tried again, as he and Sabrina emerged from The Varnish. ‘I’ll be quick. I promise.’ A devilish smile on his lips.
Sabrina walked up to him, stretched her body onto her tiptoes, and gave him a friendly peck on the lips. ‘You know that “quick” is never the case with you, Terry.’
Terry chuckled. ‘You’re making it sound like that’s a bad thing.’
‘Definitely not.’ As she came back to a flat-foot position, Sabrina purposely allowed her hand to gently brush against Terry’s groin. ‘Wow!’ She smiled an even more devilish smile than Terry’s. Her eyes moved down to where her hand was. ‘I can feel and see how much you’d really like to come over.’
‘Uh-huh.’ Terry nodded. ‘You know that’s right, baby.’
Sabrina kept her hand right where it was for another second before stepping back. Her eyebrows pointed inward and down, creating a sad expression. ‘Pity that tonight really is a “no-no” for me.’
‘Ohhh, that’s so cold.’ Terry looked down at the volume in his pants. ‘Are you really just gonna leave me hanging here like a dog with blue balls?’
‘I’m sure that you can take care of that yourself,’ Sabrina said, as she waved Terry goodbye. ‘You’ve got big hands, big boy.’
‘Damn, girl, that’s freezing cold. I ain’t getting nothing?’
‘You’ve got tomorrow off, right?’ Sabrina asked.
‘That’s right. We can party all night.’
‘No, I’m good. I’ll see you on Saturday.’
‘Don’t you even want a ride?’ Terry tried one last shot. ‘We could fool around in the car.’
‘Nope, I’m good. I’ve got my bike.’
Still not quite believing that Sabrina had simply left him there, Terry watched her disappear around the corner.
