My Buddy Archie [3]

78..

Not proofread but it's pretty long!!!! Sorry for the wait :/ 

enjoy!

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"What are you doing here?"

I looked up, noticing the bartender was standing right across from me on the other side of the counter. She was staring at me with her green eyes, as she put her long blonde hair in a ponytail. For two weeks, five days a week, for six hours a day, I drove two hours to Birmingham and sat at this very place at the end of the bar, watching the endless stream of sports on the five TV screens. I was used to no one speaking to me when I came here, so I was a bit caught off guard when the tattooed, dark lipstick bartended actually said anything.

"What?" I finally muttered.

"Don't you have Christmas shopping to doing? An office to be in?"

"What makes you think that?"

She snorted, "You come in here every day in a white button down and dress pants. You definitely have somewhere better to be than this bar." I wear this so Connie will think I'm going to work.

"Not until later this afternoon."

"Ooh, I see."

I quickly shook my head, "No, no I don't mean it like that. I'll just go home."

"So you do live somewhere," she grinned, like she finally put in the last piece of a puzzle, then just as quickly, she looked skeptical. "What are you doing here then? You can watch sports at your house." She was looking at me like I was crazy. "You do know that right?"

Annoyed, I said, "Look, I just come here to pass some time. Are you going to kick me out for it or not?" She leaned back, surprised at the bite in my tone, but I truly didn't care. I didn't want to talk to this woman; I don't want to talk to talk to anyone. What I really want is for it to be three o' clock so I can head home and be there by five.

She eyed me, amusement seeping into her features. Her eyes flickered to my hands folded together on the counter and a smirk tugged at her lips. "You're lying to wifey about something, aren't you?" I tensed. How does she know that? She crossed her arms, "And you're staying here all day while she thinks you're somewhere else."

"You don't know any—"

"What if she goes to that place where you're supposed to be?" She taunted, leaning her elbow on the counter. "You look like the kind of guy that would marry someone that visits him."

Before I could stop myself, "She won't," slipped past my lips. I don't know who this woman thinks she is, but she knows nothing about my life or Connie, and I don't appreciate her guessing. She doesn't know about my situation or my family or—anything.

"Listen, I see a lot of men come through here." I raised an eyebrow. There was, on average, about six people in here, including me, every single day. "You're not here at night, or on the weekends, so it wouldn't surprise me if you didn't believe me. But it's true, and I see a lot of guy who you are turning into."

"You don't know me," I snapped.

"I know you're scared that once wifey finds out you'll lose her. Secrets do that to men. And when men get scared, they get desperate. And when they're desperate..." She grabbed the cigarette from behind her ear and a lighter from her pocket, making quick work of lighting it. Once she took a deep breath and blew smoke up towards the ceiling she said, "They fuck their lives up. They do more bad than good, despite their intentions."

"I'm not going to fuck anything up." I gritted, "I'm taking care of my problems. Who the hell are you to judge me?"

"You sound desperate."