Lou and I

Chapter 4

"We were friends for decades." Lou swallows. "we did so much together. 'The melon drop' , 'the false good Samaritan', 'the fiddle game'." She said with gesturing air quotes with her hands. 

"There are just so much more. Oh we also rigged bingo." I looked her at blankly. "what?" Lou asks. 

"I just didn't know my boss, I mean Lou, is a con artist. And I think I only understand the last part of your sentence." 

Lou looks at me up and down. "so you're the good girl. Huh." I looked away and take a sip. "anyway, so how did you guys got together?"

"hmm." Lou plays with her drink. "I joke about it... I said we did so much together, we are basically married." I can see her tearing up. 

"Deb just giggled. Probably she was drunk. Then I went up and kissed her." I hand over a tissue. But Lou ignored and wipe her tears with her hands. 

"she just looked at me after I pulled away." She sigh. "she said. I'm her best friend. Nothing more, nothing less." 

Ouch. I feel so sorry for her. " I'm sorry to hear that." 

"yeh well. So do I." Lou nods. "and guess what?" 

I look up straight at her blue eyes. "She left me for some guy, because she said rigging bingo is not enough... I guess ... she means I'm not enough for her." 

"that's not true." I whisper as if I was talking to myself. Lou turns around and look towards me. I ignore her gaze and just stare at my glass. "sometimes, when we fall in love, we do a lot of things for our partners. The good. The bad.... Sometimes we even downgrading ourselves. To think that we are not better or they don't deserve us. So we make an effort to make ourselves better." I turn towards Lou. "During that process , we might become better or we just lost ourselves in the middle of it. Then you realized 'oh, she didn't even care.' Then the heartbreak. The tears. And at the end. We just lost who we really are." 

Lou laughs. "you sound like a fucking therapist." 

I chuckle. "you just look like me when I was younger." 

"younger? You still looks like a baby if I didn't know your age." Lou starts to smile. 

"if this is a height thing, don't talks to me." I joke. 

"oh honey, of course it's a height thing. What are you? Like 4 feet?" she looks at me with a jokester smile. 

"excuse me! I'm taller than that." I tried not to laugh. 

"so, like 4'1"?" 

"No!" I look at her with my arm cross. "I'm 5." She chuckles. "same difference." 

Now she is being mean. I got off the stool and start cleaning the glass. 

"you know." Lou starts. "I don't know what to do now.... Now that she is in jail." She playing with her hands. 

"You still have your club. And your ladies." I tell her. 

"Why is she in jail?" Lou hands me a empty bottle. "Because that guy she left me for, put her in jail." 

"is that why you were drunk tonight?" 

"no. She's being in jail for a year now. I just went to our old apartment and clean up some shit ... and saw a photo album." She stands up, wobbly. 

"Don't fall, Lou. If you do. I don't think I can carry your drunk ass." 

I finish up and look at my phone. "oh woah. It's already 6 am." 

Lou leans on the counter. "yep. No wonder I hear birds." 

"no... you can't." 

"I heard it." 

"you're drunk." I start getting my stuff and get ready to leave. 

"come on, blondie. I need to lock it up." Lou grabs her jacket and follows me out. 

As I'm locking up the door, Lou put her hands around my shoulder and lean into me. She smells sweet. I laugh. "do you even know where you live?" 

Lou lean into me more. "I do. But I'm too tired." 

"then sleep in the club." I pull my keys out and tries to unlock the door. Lou stops me by holding my hand. "no. The club don't have beds. I'm sleeping with you tonight." 

I turn around with a 'not gonna happen' look. And Lou just yawn like a little kitten in front of me. 

"Fine. But you sleep in the couch." Then I walk towards next door but Lou just stands there. 

"so, you do live here." I open the door. "yeh. 2B.... you coming?" she didn't answer. She just looks blankly at me. So I go over and grab her hand. "come on." I said.

We go up stair and open the door. "This is so small." I roll my eyes. "it's one-bedroom apartment. Of course. It's small." 

I put my keys down. And Lou starts to wander around. I go over to the closet and get a blanket and pillows for her. "here. This is where you sleep now." I gesturing the couch. 

I look around she is already stands in front of my bedroom. "no. That's my bed." She looks at me and pretend to be sad. "oh come on. I'm tired." 

I ignore her and goes inside to change. I didn't realize how tired I am till I got home. I need to take a quick shower first. 

"Lou. Do you want to shower? If n...." she interrupts me "together? Sure." 

"I take that as no." I walk toward the shower. Before I go in, I said loudly, "don't sleep on my bed!" Lou rolls her eyes as she start making her couch comfortable. After I finished shower, I see Lou already felt asleep. I go over to her and put more blanket on her shoulder. I smile, and goes to bed myself.