Mr. Tan

Chapter 12: Confessions In The Rain

 It was obvious that Earl had a little too much to drink. He climbed off of a bar stool and stumbled into his office closing the door behind him. I sat near a window long enough to see the first flashes of lightning from an on coming thunder storm and droplets of rain pelting the windows. The middle aged couple that left rushed out to their car as the man held a newspaper over his and his woman's head. I sat there picking at the last remains of my rib tip sandwich and sipping more ice cold water. Janet had since got done cleaning up the bar once Earl stumbled into his office, closed it and left. She stopped and gave me a quick hug before walking out the door into the thunder storm that raged outside. I decided to check the ladies room one last time before I went to go check up on Earl. The ladies room was still in pretty tip top shape, so all that I really did was spray some air freshner after I got done relieving myself. Christina was nice enough to take the bathroom garbage out for me since she was about to take a trip to the dumpster herself.

 "Is Mr. Tan drunk?", I asked Christina.

 "I dunno, maybe", she replied. You wanna go and check on 'em?

 "Yeah, I guess", I replied.

  I reluctantly walked up to his office door and knocked twice before I heard him reply.

 "Yeah, what", he replied.

He sounded drunk.

 "Um, its me Alexis, are you okay?", I asked.

"C'mon, come in", he said with a drunken slur in his speech.

I opened the door and entered his office to find that he had his head down on his desk with an open bottle of beer next to him. He looked up at me with bloodshot eyes and saliva in the corners of his mouth. When he saw me he quickly straightened up as best as he could wiping the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand.

 "Hey....uh.....Earl, are you okay?", I asked.

 "Yeah, yeah, yeah", he said. What's up.

 "Can you still take me home?", I asked.

He looked confused for a moment like he didn't know what I was talking about.

"You said a few days ago that you'll take me home once I get done working today", I reminded him.

He shook his head no.