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Ada snapped her back to the conversation. “Since your sister is abandoning me for Chase, I have a spot open at my apartment. It’s yours if you want it.”
Liza hadn’t thought about moving at all since the day her sister initially floated the idea by her. “Oh wow, thank you… When would you need to know?”
“Sunday at the latest. The LA rental market is hot. It's also full of crazies, so I’d rather not have to go through the vetting process. But, I do need to know ASAP so I’m not stuck with the full rent.”
“That’s… soon.” Liza felt torn. She needed more time. “I’m sorry to run. I’m supposed to meet a friend. But thank you for offering. I will think about it and let you know.”
Maggie lifted her brows. “Friend, huh? I thought he was your fake boyfriend this week.”
Liza gave her an annoyed glare. As she turned to leave, she could hear Ada say, “Oooh… I need the tea on that.”
It only took Liza a few minutes to drive to downtown Oakville where The Roadhouse Bar was situated. She had never been inside The Roadhouse, but she’d driven by it her whole life. It was a dive bar, not really a place that twenty-somethings frequented. It seemed like the kind of place where the same people probably sat on the same bar stool for the last thirty years. As she opened the door, a handful of heads turned her way.Yep, I look out of place.
Liza pasted on a friendly smile while quickly scanning for Miller. Although no one appeared to be smoking, a haze was visible wherever dim light streamed. Taking a few slow strides, she tried to appear confident.
At the end of a long counter, she spotted Miller. His eyes were glued to a beer bottle in his hand. Liza approached slowly like he was a wild animal that she didn’t want to spook.
Sliding onto the leather barstool beside him, she sat quietly, letting him get accustomed to her presence.
Miller spoke first without looking up. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, I come here all the time. The real question is, why haven’t I seen you here before?” Liza nudged his shoulder.
She heard him exhale a small puff of air. That’s when she noticed the beer bottle still had a cap on it.
“Don’t they usually open those for you.” Liza nodded toward the drink in his hand.
“I asked them not to.” He spun the bottle with his fingers.
Liza waited for him to continue.
After a full minute, he sighed. “I haven’t had a drop of alcohol since I was nineteen.”
Liza felt her eyes widen.
“My dad was an alcoholic. When I was eight, my mom finally told him he had to go to rehab or leave. He left. I vowed I’d never drink, that I’d never be like him. But, after high school, I was lost. Living at home, working at a gas station. All I ever wanted to do was be a doctor. I had no back-up plan.”
Miller snorted and picked at the beer bottle label. “You know why I wanted to be a doctor?” He didn’t wait for Liza to answer. “My mom tried to explain addiction in a way I could understand at such a young age. She said, ‘Dad’s brain is hurting right now. He needs to go get help so that he can be healthy.’ My eight-year-old self decided right then and there that I would become a doctor because doctors help people who are hurt.” He let out a sad chuckle and hung his head.
Liza put her hand on his back. “That’s sweet. You wanted to help him.”
“But, I couldn’t. We were notified that he passed away from pancreatic cancer when I was nineteen. That night I got drunk for the first time in my life. I was so angry…” Miller let his hands fall away from the bottle. He stared straight ahead before continuing.
“I cleaned out my mom’s alcohol supply, and then when that was gone, I walked to a liquor store near our house. But they carded me and wouldn’t let me buy a case of beer. And that’s when I met Captain Tate.”
A bartender with a braided, gray beard walked over to them. “You guys need anything?”
“Can we just get two waters?” Liza asked. The bartender looked annoyed but filled two glasses.
Liza couldn’t let Miller’s last statement go. “You were arrested by Captain Tate?”
Miller shook his head. “Miraculously, no. I threatened the guy working and he called the cops, but Captain Tate didn’t arrest me. He drove me home. I sobered up real quick in the back of his patrol car. He asked why I had been trying to buy beer. I told him about my dad dying. He told me that his daughter had passed away the year before in a car accident. Then he invited me to work out with him. Said it helped him channel his grief. And… I’ve never touched alcohol since then. Never wanted to.”
Both their gazes zeroed in on the beer bottle. Miller reached out to hold it again and ran his fingers along the cap.
“Until tonight.” Liza finished his sentence for him.
Miller nodded and looked over at her for the first time. The way his eyebrows pinched together in pain drilled a hole in Liza’s stomach.
