Midlife // Joji

One

For the 4th night in a row I sat in the same bar, on the same stool, but with a different drink.

"Carlos, I liked the drink I had last night more." I stated clearly after taking a sip from an extremely skinny straw.

"Yeah?" He questioned. "I like vodka sodas more than gin and tonics too."

"Is that what this is, a vodka soda?"

He nodded simply, as he began to roll up the sleeves to his flannel. Carlos was a large man, like very large. At first his giant beard and large stature intimidated me, but 4 days of me generously tipping him bribed him into being my friend, sorta.

Once again I stuck the skinny straw into my mouth, this time sucking on it until the small glass was empty.

He grimaced, knowing that tonight, I was once again going to get overly tipsy and bother him for the entirety of his shift. "What do you rate it?"

I thought for a moment, "probably a 4/10."

"And what's been your favorite so far?"

"The cherry wine I got for $3.00 at the liquor store on the corner."

"Why don't you just drink wine at home then if that's been your favorite?"

"Because, drinking at home, alone is depressing." I replied quickly. Pushing my glasses up from the tip of my nose.

"You're drinking alone right now, Ella." He replied rather rudely.

"No, I'm drinking and talking to you. Now, I wanna try a shot a tequila with a lime."

"Okay," he hummed.

That's the thing about Carlos, he gets tired of me very fast. And regardless of how much I tip him, it's obvious he would just rather me not be here.

Only a moment later, he handed me a tiny glass of clear liquid with a piece of a lime stuck on the rim of it.

"Wait, what part do I try first?" I blurted out before Carlos could walk away from me.

He turned around, clearly annoyed, "take the shot, then suck on the lime."

"Okay. Shot, then suck. Got it."

"Yes Ella, shot then suck."

A large group of guys came in, causing Carlos' attention to be dragged away from me. Without another word he wandered over to greet them.

Shot then suck, got it.

I raise the tiny glass to my lips and dumped the liquid to the back of my throat. The feeling of the hot liquid trickling down my throat caused goosebumps to appear all over my arms. Tequila was the worst one yet.

I hurriedly grabbed the slice of lime, cramming it into my mouth. When I bit into it the taste of the vile liquid nearly left my mouth completely, but the look of clear disgust was still plastered across my face.

I frantically looked around the bar for Carlos, I needed to ask him why he allowed me to order something this vile. I spotted him near the sound system with the group of 5 guys he left me for.