Forever and Always

Chapter 19

       "Welcome to the best bar in Brooklyn." Andrew held the door open her Clara, who walked right into the bar. She wasn't sure what was so great about the place. It looked like your average bar. It was a small, dim room, lit up mostly by all the neon signs on the walls. The actual bar was up against side of the building, and on the other side were about five different sets of tables with two chairs. At the very end of the narrow building we're restrooms. The place was empty, except for the bartender.

         "Wow, uhhh, nice." Clara tried not to offend the bartender, and not hurt Andrew's feelings.

          "Here, take a seat." He led her over to two seats at the bar, and she followed and sat down in the chair closest to the exit. "What will you have?" Andrew asked.

          "Nothing special. Just a beer." Andrew turned to the bartender, who was listening, and he held up two fingers.

           "Two of your finest beers please?" The bartender put the glass down that he was cleaning and went over to all the levers and filled up two glasses. He brought them to us, and left us alone. Clara took a sip of her beer, and sat there. She could hear Andrew's heart racing, but tried her best to block it out.

          "Sooo...uhh. Wha made you change your mind?" He built up the courage to start a conversation, and she shrugged.

          "I guess I realized that I don't get out much, and you didn't ask nicely." She took another sip.

          "Well, I'm glad you changed your mind."

          "Yeah," He took a sip, and she did the same. They sat there in silence for a good thirty seconds.

            "So uh, I feel like I rarely know you. Where are you from?" Clara was afraid this was gonna happen. This was why she didn't want to hang out with him originally. She knew it was gonna get personal. She was just gonna have to be as broad as possible.

           "Uhh, I was born in D.C. Lived there most of my life, then came here." That was okay, right? Clara took another sip.

             "Cool, I was born in Idaho. There is literally nothing in Idaho, so I thought, why not come to the big apple. Of course, Manhattan was a bit expensive for an Idahoan like me, so Brooklyn. Do you have siblings? I have two sisters. One of them is living it up in LA 'pursuing her dreams' as she would say, and my other one was a teacher before...well you know. The blip." He took a giant sip of his beer this time, most likely to wash down whatever tears were coming up.

         "Oh I'm an only child. Never had the experience of having a sibling." She didn't take a sip this time. She just watched the foam at the top of her beer.

         "How about your parents? You must be pretty close to them then, huh?" Parents. That wasn't a good topic for her. She thought about what she would say.

         "Ohhh, uhhh my parents. I was more close to my dad. My mom was always away for work. My dad was a surgeon in D.C.. He was one of the best in the state actually, but he died from a heart attack. I wanted to be a surgeon like him for the longest time. I had the brains to do it, but some things came up, and that delayed me for a bit. And then, the blip happened, and I realized, I was lucky to not have been one of the ones to disappear, and I should really take advantage. I learned that J was good with kids...and well, here I am now."

           "Oh, I'm sorry about your dad. How about your mom?"

          "What about her?" Clara wasn't sure what more he wanted to hear. "She was just...always gone. That's it." Andrew must've realized that he hit a sensitive subject because he took a giant gulp of his beer, leaving the glass half empty. She suddenly felt bad for making him nervous. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I'm sorry if I'm coming off cold. It's just...I haven't really hung out normally in five years. And to be honest, I never really had any friends in highschool or college."