LOUISIANA SKY (COMPLETE)

2. Charlie

SKY POV

"I'm so sorry, Lisa! That took longer than I thought it would", I say as I hurry back behind the bar. I immediately start pouring drinks left and right until I feel Lisa's hand on the small of my back.

"Are you okay, Babe!?", she asks softly, her little southern twang apparent. "Did somethin' happen between you and Charlie? You look a bit flustered".

I want to be sad, I really do and I'm sure deep down I am. But the fact that I was more upset about not being upset than being upset over Charlie said a lot about me. "Charlie and I broke up", I say quickly. I don't even stop making drinks to look at her.

Well, that didn't come across as heartbroken as you would've liked.

Lisa just stares at me, trying to read my face. "You don't seem too beat up about it", she chuckles. "I'm sure it was that tiny dick of his that made all of this okay. Shoot, if I were you, I would've canned his ass out on the curb a long time ago".

I roll my eyes as my lips curve into a smile. She always knows what to say. That was classic Lisa, humor was her only way of making anyone feel better. I'd known that beautiful, unashamed fiery redhead since high school. People would always say she looked a lot like 'I Love Lucy'. Maybe they were right; if Lucy were 5'10", chewed way too much gum, and didn't know when to shut up. Lisa was all those things. But she was my rock, my constant in my unchanging world.

"I'm honestly okay", I tell her as I wipe down spilled beer on the bar top. "He just wasn't the one".

"Oh, honey, I coulda told you that. Hell, I been tellin' you that since you met the guy, but noooo, you never listen to wise ol' Lisa", she wags a finger at me.

"Shut up", I laugh, throwing a rag at her. "C'mon, these drinks ain't gonna fix themselves".

***

DALLAS POV

It had been a long day and all I wanted was a quiet night at home to read my books. I'd just met this guy, Charlie at a diner outside of town while I was waiting on my sponsor, Sam. He sat next to me at the counter and mentioned how he was going to break up with his girlfriend that night. He looked pretty beat up about it and against my better judgement, I bought him a coffee and we just kinda hit it off from there. Ever since I got out of prison, I made it a mission to ignore friendships and relationships altogether. I had a lot of issues and it was better to deal with them alone. People and feelings associated with people just made things complicated and complication was the last thing I needed on my list of bags to carry.

I barely knew Charlie, but he was an open book. He told me everything about his girl and what went wrong. He said she was a great woman, but he loved her more than she loved him. I think he genuinely just wanted her to be happy, even if it wasn't with him.

He asked me a lot of questions, but I would just avoid it with a joke until he'd laugh enough to where he'd lose his train of thought. Joking my way out of something was the only way I was able to communicate. I wasn't always like that. I used to have friends and have fun and talk it up like everyone else, but things change. People change. I didn't like answering questions anymore because the more a person knows about you, your darkest secrets come out and I wanted to make sure mine never came to light. I was trying to start over now and the last thing I needed was for someone to judge me of what I used to be.