Love and Hamburgers [Rick and Liz Saga, Season 1]

[S01E18] "One Drink too Many"

After they finished digesting their buffet spoils, they went walking along the main strip. They watched a circus show and had many drinks. Then they watched the pirates fight and had more drinks. They were having extra drinks because everywhere they went, they gambled. Win or lose, they at least got a free drink out of it. In a few hours of time, they found themselves sitting in artificial daylight under the Eiffel Tower, drinking away the little winning they had made.

Rick was trying not to look at Liz. He couldn't look at her because she had that gushy look in her eyes. It was a look he was not unfamiliar with. It was the look he had wanted to see from her this whole time. Now that he could see it, he was not sure that he should.

Rick stared deeply into his glass of whiskey with no ice. No ice.

"You know, you can never trust the ice in Vegas. Reclamated water, you know."

"Reclamated?"

"Yeah. You know, from poop water."

"Reclamated! More like Rectum-aid-ed!" Liz shouted way too loud.

A wave of uncontrollable laughter took them over. People turned heads to see if the couple would suffocate from laughing.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Rick! Here we are sitting under the god damn Eiffel Tower, in what appears to be the middle of the afternoon, but in the middle of the night, drinking booze, with a beautiful woman I might add, and you're sitting over there talking about poop in the water! Can you please stop playing rock 'n roll tour guide for a second and talk to me?"

"Sure, Liz. What do you want to talk about?"

"Why are you all moping in your drink over there, while I'm over here enjoying imaginary Paris?"

"Well... You're giving me the look over there and I don't want any feelings to get hurt."

"Wait... What? Are you dumping me? You can't dump me, we haven't even fucked yet!" Liz shouted even louder than before.

"Jesus Christ, Liz. Are you trying to get us thrown out?"

Heads were still turned in their direction, but now it was to see if someone gets strangled. Liz and Rick, however, were completely oblivious to this as they were completely drunk. They both took another big sip of their whiskeys.

"No. It's not like that," Rick said in what he thought was a whisper but was actually almost as loud as Liz's voice. "It's just. I've been with a lot of girls, Liz. Not everyone turns out to be a Mandy. Most of them won't have anything to do with me after we have sex a few times. I never found that one that wants to keep on going forever. I really like you, and you're right, you're beautiful. I'm not sure if I want to throw the dice on that yet. You know? I mean. I really like you."

They both quietly finished their drinks. The gawkers moved on with their own lives. Liz and Rick thought about moving on with their own lives too, although they were now even less sure about in what direction.

"You know I don't care, Rick."

"What is it you don't care about?"

"I don't care if I'm on some kind of rerun of an adventure you went on with Mandy. Ha! Yeah! I figured it out. You know, if this is just a rerun for you... Well, that's too bad for you. For me it's a brand new episode. And you know what! I'm not a fucking Mandy! I'm Liz. I'm gun-na do what I'm gun-na do and who's to say you got a choice in it?"

Liz went to take another drink but instead hit the bridge of her nose with an empty glass. She snorted and the glass filled with fog. She took a deep breath and the fog cleared from the glass. She put the glass down on the wire-frame table in the false Parisian park.

She closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose as she took a dry swallow. Her lap felt wet, but not because she had spilled her drink.

"So, are we going to get that fucking room now?" asked Liz solemnly.

"Definitely." Rick said without hesitation.