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Max looked around Ruby’s and realized that Chris probably was right. The décor added a certain backwoods quality to the place. The wooden booths were in sad repair, the bar itself was scratched and worn, and to complete the redneck look, the band played behind chicken wire. Fortunately for them, the band took a break about twenty minutes earlier, and seemed to have lost their way back to the stage. They’d heard enough of the band’s singing to know they didn’t appreciate the sound of a dying cat.
Chris and Max didn’t fit with the rest of Ruby’s customers whose average age was probably thirty or forty years older than the two of them. Most younger people headed up to Valdosta for a night out. Ruby’s catered to people too damn lazy to drive up the road for a bar with real music and real liquor. The bar had been around for years, probably before Max had been born. The stale beer they were drinking had probably been in the place when it opened.
“Well, this is the only place that stays open past ten.”
Chris snorted and raised his hand for another beer. “What the hell did you ever see in this place?”
“I said it was the only place—”
His friend waved away that comment. “No. I mean here, this town. You always seemed convinced that this was the place for you.”
When Max turned to face him, his head swam. Maybe five beers and nothing but pretzels wasn’t such a good idea. He needed to slow down.
“It’s home.”
Chris shook his head. “No, it was more than that. It was as if you didn’t consider other choices. New Orleans was my home while I was in college, but I knew that didn’t mean Ihadto go back home. Thank God, because even though I love that town, it wasn’t where I was meant to be.”
Max grabbed the beer just set down in front of him and swallowed the first sip before remembering he needed to slow his pace. “It wasn’t as if I didn’t have a choice.”
Studying him, Chris shook his head again. “You didn’t act like it. It was more than that.”
Because Chris was jabbing at places Max didn’t want to discuss, he tried to change the subject. “Man, you get drunk and get all morose. You used to be a lot of fun, Chris.”
“Oh, no you don’t, Chandler. I think this is very important. Because, and it just might be the beer, oh and the whiskey chasers, it seems to me that you came back here for one thing.”
“I didn’t come back here for the business.”
“I didn’t mean that. I meant Anna.”
Max held his head back and tried to focus his attention on Chris, but it wasn’t easy because the room kept moving. “Give me a break. I came back here after Dad had a heart attack.”
“You stayed because of her. I would bet my timeshare on Maui on it.”
Max grunted. “Doesn’t matter. Can’t hold onto her.”
Chris laughed and tossed back the rest of his beer. “Why do you want to, Max?”
“Love her.” Christ, he sounded pathetic. Pretty soon, he’d end up crying like a little girl. In irritation, he finished off his beer, forgetting again he wasn’t going to drink any more.
“Man, you do have it bad. Listen, you’re making a mistake with that one.”
He closed one eye to focus on Chris. “You don’t even know her. What the fuck do you know?”
“I know what you told me in college. Free-spirited and not like you. Your opposite.”
Max nodded and almost fell off his stool. After righting himself, he noticed another beer had been set in front of him. Figuring it was already too late, he picked it up and drank.
“So, you think holding on to her is the way to keep her. Tying her down?” Chris asked.
Max snorted, then chuckled. “She likes that. She likes that aaaaaa lot.”
Chris sighed. “I forgot you become such a jackass when you’re drunk.”
Ignoring that comment, Max said, “Besides, what the hell do you know about relationships? You’re not in a serious one.”
“I was. And not a fake engagement like yours.”
Max frowned. “I was really engaged. Just didn’t exactly like my fiancée.”
