Prairie City Social Club

Free For All

"Hear me out, Frank. You can, again, always say, 'no.' What if for my remaining time, we have no restrictions. I can do what I want. You can do what you want. We can do what we want together..." trailing just so on the last part. Frank didn't notice.

"If I start drinking again, Liv, I won't be able to stop. I won't be able to live on like you want afterwards. I'll be as gone as you," Frank replied with the fear of certain death in his eyes.

"Rehab, you'll go to rehab," Liv suggested as if she'd already planned it.

"I want to do everything I can for you but that includes living, doesn't it? I have a job to go to and I can't afford to miss it for rehab. I can't afford rehab," Frank said.

"Don't worry about it, Frank. I'm meeting with my lawyer this week and making arrangements. Remember "the money" when my mom died? She wasn't much of a mother but she had squirreled away quite a chunk of cash. I was her only heir and now you're mine."

"Jesus, Liv," Frank replied, shocked. He didn't know what to think but he was pretty sure he was about to go on a two month bender and wake up on the other side, friendless, in rehab and rich? "This is crazy, Livvy. Crazy."

"It's what I want," she said.

"It's what you get," Frank replied with ALL the emotions coursing through his veins.

"This means everything to me. You mean everything to me," Liv said with tears in her eyes. Shall we celebrate?" Liv asked.

Frank replied with a nod and a newly lit sparkle in his eyes.

To say that Liv & Frank were like two kids in a candy store would have been cliche. It would also have been very true and probably an understatement. It's not that they hadn't drank recently. Each had had a cheat day in the past year. However, it'd been closer to 15 years since either had purchased alcohol to keep at home. Their prior arrangement wasn't conducive to buying many different bottles as money had previously been a consideration and, after all, they planned to be sober the remaining 364 days a year. Their arrangement was really best suited for revisiting an old favorite or two. Upon entering the store, which would best be referred to as a "mega" liquor store, each grabbed a cart. "Today's on me, Frank. Have fun with it. Just, um, don't spend your entire inheritance. If you can help it," Liv reminded.

"Right. Where to start, where to start..." Frank muttered to himself as he walked toward the whiskey section. He'd start there with a couple bottles, grab a gin or two, then through the wines and finish with the cave-like beer cellar. When it was all said and done, Frank's cart contained: a favorite high proof KY bourbon, a fairly ordinary Irish whiskey that reminded him of an old friend, a bottle of London Dry gin, a bottle of Old Tom Gin, a few old world red wines, one boozy CA red, a bottle of moderately good Champagne, a six pack of India Pale Ale from a local brewery that opened after he quit drinking, a famous Saison, or two, and some tall boys of a respectable but ordinary "yellow" beer.

"Thirsty, Frank?" Liv asked with large eyes.

"You don't know the half of it," he paused, "or perhaps you do," nodding toward Liv's cart. Liv's cart contained a comparable volume as Frank's but it was decidedly clearer. It contained high end vodka and gin, a variety of liqueurs, artisanal vermouth, an even split of white and red wines from both old and new world, a few sixes of craft beer but stylistically more European than Frank's and the exact same bottle of Champagne that Frank chose. "Nice bottle," Frank stated as he gestured toward it. "We know how to celebrate."

"But not how to share," Liv giggled as she thought about keeping the entire bottle to herself.

Questions, and possibly judgments, raced through the cashier's mind but he offered only, "You two look to be enjoying yourselves."

"You don't know the half of it," Liv replied quickly.

Frank smiled as Liv paid for both carts in cash.