Riley's Bar

I was introduced to Riley's Tavern on my first day at Woodbine Industries. As I was dropping my time card into the slot to punch out one of the guys asked me if I was going to stop for a beer with the guys. I felt no crying need to hurry home so I said okay. He told me that the group usually stopped at Riley's and if I didn't know where it was I could follow him. I wasn't that familiar with that part of town so I followed him and it turned out that Riley's was only three blocks from the plant.

From the outside it looked like any neighborhood bar, but looks were deceiving. Inside there was an "L" shaped bar the ran the length of the west wall and part of the south wall. The rest of the south wall was taken up by a small bandstand and a jukebox. Booths lined the north wall and part of the east wall. Part of the east wall was a recessed alcove where there were four pool tables and a hallway that led back to the restrooms. In the center of the room there was a fairly large dance floor surrounded by tables.

My new co-workers had pushed four tables together next to the dance floor and I wondered why they had put four tables together for only six of us. I took a seat at the tables and looked around as I got to know my new associates better. There was a sexy looking busty redhead behind the bar. The waitress, I found out later that her name was Tina, came over and took my drink order and as she walked away I commented on the fact that the place sure didn't match its outside appearance.

"You ain't seen nothing yet" Vern said. "In about ten minutes the crew from the wheel plant will start to come in."

"What is so special about that?"

"The women who work in the office over there are real party animals. When they show up the jukebox starts up and the dance floor fills up in a hurry. If you play your cards right you never have to leave here alone.

"I don't think my wife would care for me doing that."

"You can still have a good time even if you do leave alone."

I was on my second beer when a bunch of women came in. Several of them came over and sat down with us at our tables. I was introduced to five that sat down with us and almost immediately the jukebox started playing and people got up to dance. In less than a minute I was the only guy sitting at the table with two girls. One of them, Ursala, looked at me and asked:

"Don't you dance?"

"I'm the new guy and I'm just sitting here and watching to get a feel for the place."

"First Rule of Happy Hour is that single guys have to dance with single girls."

"I'm not single, I'm married."

"I am too, but that isn't what I mean. If you are here alone you are expected to dance with someone like me who is also here alone."

She reached out a hand to me and said, "Come on. Time to trip the light fantastic."

I got up and danced with Ursala and then with three others before I got up, said my goodnights and headed for home.

+++++++++++++++++++++

As I drove home I wondered why I was bothering. I'd told Ursala that I was married and I was, but it was a marriage that was on its last legs and I knew it. I had been enjoying myself at Riley's so why did I leave just to go home to a deteriorating marriage? The only answer I could come up with was that I would not allow it to be my actions that ended the marriage. When it went down it was going to be Elaine who killed it, not me.

I met Elaine at a party at my Cousin Lou's house. It was one of those parties where there was a large mix of people who didn't know each other. Lou's wife Shelly had invited several people that she worked with; there were a bunch that Lou worked with, some friends and neighbors and even a few other relatives.

It was my first party in a long time and Lou and Shelly had worked hard on me to get me to come. I'd been pretty much a 'stay at home' since my wife had taken off with some asshole she met while taking evening classes at the local community college. She had come back home three weeks later begging for forgiveness only to be told that all of her stuff was in boxes in the garage and that Goodwill was scheduled to pick up those boxes up on Thursday. I suggested that if she wanted any of that stuff she better get it out of the garage before Goodwill got there. Then I handed her the divorce papers and told her I hoped I'd never see her again.

Anyway, after nine months of not dating or going out Lou and Shelly decided that it was up to them to get me back out into the world. What they didn't realize was that I wasn't holed in my place because of any great hurt. I just didn't trust women anymore. At the same time I was going through my divorce with Bev my older brother caught his wife cheating on him with the next door neighbor. I also had several friends who were going through divorces at the same time because of cheating.

I'm not at all naïve and when my buddies told me that the divorces were because of the wife's cheating I accepted it - tongue in cheek – even though I knew (or at least suspected) that in all cases it wasn't the wife who was the guilty party, but in the majority of cases it was the wife who got playing with someone else. This led to my avoiding women in social situations and that meant parties that I didn't go to.

When Lou asked me to his party I was in a fairly good mood so I decided to go. I was introduced to some people that I didn't know, said hello to some that I knew but hadn't seen in a while and in general walked around and socialized. About an hour after I arrived Shelly came up to me with a tall blond – and I do mean tall. She was six foot to my five eleven and she had the bluest eyes I'd ever looked into. Shelly introduced me to Elaine and then said:

"Excuse me. Joan just came in and I need to talk to her."

As Shelly headed for Joan Elaine said, "Do you have the feeling that this was just a bit contrived?"

"I'm not surprised if that is what you mean. Lou and Shelly seem to have made it their mission in life to see to it that I lose my confirmed bachelor status."

"And why is some one your age a confirmed bachelor?"

"Long, long story and not one for a party. But what about you? You obviously don't need anyone fixing you up. You have to be holding off guys with a club."

And it was true. She was about one hundred and forty pounds and it was very well distributed on her six foot frame. Long blond hair down to the middle of her back and even without a smidgen of makeup she had a radiant face.

"Thanks for the compliment, but it is another long story not meant for a party."

I changed the subject and found out that she worked with Shelly and Shelly had pretty much twisted her arm to get her to come to the party. Then someone else who worked with her came up and they started talking about something that had happened at work and I wandered off.

Shortly after that Allison Collins showed up with some guy. Allison had been married to one of my friends and he had caught her cheating on him with her boss. It pissed me off that Lou and Shelly – who both knew how I felt about cheating whores – would invite one to a party that they had invited me to. Allison spotted me and headed my way with her escort no doubt intending to introduce me to him, but I gave her a look of disgust, turned away from her and then left the party.

The next day Lou called me and asked me where I had disappeared to. I told him and he told me that Allison hadn't been invited. She came as Charlie Stone's date and he hadn't known that Charlie even knew Allison. I apologized for my abrupt departure and he invited me to a poker game on the next Friday.

When I got to his house on Friday I found that while I would be playing poker with him and four others Shelly would be playing Pinochle with the wives of two of the poker players and Elaine. When I saw Elaine there I cast a glance at Lou and he looked back at me with an innocent expression on his face.

An hour into the game we took a short bathroom break and Elaine came up to me.

"For what it is worth I didn't know you were going to be here tonight."

"Not surprising. No one mentioned to me that there would be ladies here tonight either. I do have to wonder why Lou and Shelly are so determined to stick you with me."

"Actually I know why."

"The please share it with me."

Just then Lou came and got me because they were ready to start and it was my deal. I took my place at the table and forty minutes into the game I was sitting there with an empty beer bottle in front of me and staring at two pair – kings and tens – and wondering what to do. It was five card draw, jacks or better to open, and Hal had opened so I knew he had at least jacks. The betting had gone around the table and then Hal had drawn two cards and then bet again. Did he have three of a kind to draw to or had he done what he sometimes did when he had a high pair and an ace and kept the ace as a kicker?

And had he helped himself in the draw?

And then there was his pair. It was jacks or better so he could have had jacks, queens, the other two kings or aces.

When Hal bet Harv had called. Harv had drawn three so that meant that he felt he could at least beat Hal's openers and knowing the way Harv played he probably felt he could beat Hal's openers and any help Hal might have gotten in the draw. Next was Sam. He had drawn one card and when the bet got to him he raised. Sam was known to draw to inside and open ended straights and four card flushes. Was it one of those and he had hit on the draw or did he have two pair and one of those pair higher than jacks? Plus, Sam had been known to bluff.

I was contemplating raising when an arm went by me and a hand picked up my empty beer bottle and then set a full one down in front of me. I turned and saw Elaine standing there smiling at me. I don't know why, but I took that as an omen and I called the bet and then raised. Lou dropped out and both Hal and Sam called. I put down my two pair and Hal muttered "shit" and threw in his cards. Sam smiled and laid down a heart flush. So much for Elaine being a sign.

Hal, Dave and Jim called it a night and since I didn't care much for three handed poker I called it a night too. Elaine was getting ready to go also and on a whim I asked her if she would like to stop for coffee somewhere.

"I could do that" she said. "How about the White Castle at Grant and Steele?"

"Ten minutes?"

"See you there."

After we sat down and had coffees in front of us I said, "Earlier I said I wondered why Lou and Shelly were trying so hard to stick you with me and you said that you knew. Care to enlighten me?"

"Shelly thinks I need you or more accurately I need what you are."

"You need what I am?"

"A nice guy. Shelly thinks that what I really need is to meet a nice guy."

She saw the questioning look on my face and went on. "Shelly is a real close friend and as a result she knows a lot about me and my personal life. My fault; I can't hide anything and when she sees me down in the dumps she asks why and I end up telling her."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"To put it bluntly, the guys I seem attracted to and end up with usually turn out to be assholes. I've had so many of them that I'm down on men in general. Shelly keeps telling me that I need to meet a nice guy and since I seem incapable of finding one on my own Shelly has decided to do it for me. You are her pick."

"I suppose that I should be flattered that Shelly thinks that I am a nice guy, but I'm not all that sure that she is that good of a friend if she is trying to saddle you with me."

"Why is that? What is wrong with you that getting us together wouldn't be a good thing for me?"

"Because I'm pretty much down on women" and I told her about my ex and all of the other cheating whores I'd seen and knew about. "I just don't trust women anymore and it is hard to have a relationship when you go into it all ready expecting it to turn sour."

"Maybe that's why Shelly thinks we are a pair. What you have said about women pretty much sums up the assholes I've been going out with. Every single one of them cheated on me and then acted like it was no big thing. Maybe Shelly figures that since we have both been there and felt the pain that it isn't likely that we would ever inflict that pain on each other."

That sounded almost reasonable and the more I considered it the more I thought that Shelly might be onto something.

"So how do you feel about Shelly trying to fix you up with a bitter divorced man?"

"If she is right and you are really the nice guy she says you are I'm okay with it. How about you? How do you feel about a women who has nothing but failed relationships behind her?"

"I think we need to test Shelly's theory."

To shorten things a bit Elaine and I dated for almost a year before I asked her to marry me. She said yes and Lou was my best man and Shelly was Elaine's maid of honor.

+++++++++++++++++

The marriage was a happy one for a little over six years and then it all went to hell. The job I had at the time entailed a lot of travel and sometimes I would be gone for weeks at a time. I came home from a three week trip and found out that Elaine had replaced me.

Not with another man, but with a religion.

While I was gone Elaine had opened the door one day and let a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses come in and visit. At first I didn't think anything of it. If she wanted to waste her time on what I considered a stupid cult let her have at it. Then it started to intrude on my life. First it was birthdays. I asked her what she would like for her birthday and she told me that we didn't celebrate birthdays anymore since it was against her religion. Next to go was Christmas. She kept pushing me to join with her and I kept telling her no. I've never had any use for communists, but I believe that it was Lenin who said that "Religion is the opiate of the masses" and on that I agreed with him one hundred percent. The more Elaine pushed for me to join with her and the more I said no the farther apart we became.

She had meetings at our house and when I would walk through a room where they were sitting and talking everything would go silent and I could feel the stares on me.

We had a real nasty argument one night when I came home and found four volumes from our set of Encyclopedia Britannica sitting on top of the trash cans in our garage. When I asked her what in the hell she thought she was doing she told me that they couldn't be in the house because they contained lies and misleading information. When I asked for specifics I was told that the volumes in question contained information on evolution. I blew up at her and told her that if she ever again threw anything of mine out of the house without talking to me first I would throw her and her stupid assed religion out on the street. Things got even chillier between us after that.

Why did I put up with it? Because I loved the silly bitch and I was hoping that she would eventually come to her senses. It wasn't too bad on me when I was traveling, but then the company I was working for was bought out and the new owners did a reorganization that put thirty of us out on the street. My new job at Woodbine was eight to five and very little traveling and I wasn't sure what that was going to mean as far as my home situation was concerned.

+++++++++++++++

The first couple of months after I started at Woodbine I stopped at Riley's once or twice a week for a beer or two and then headed on home. Things at home were not getting any better and my outright refusal to have anything to do with Elaine's new found religion was just making things worse. Elaine and I hadn't made love since the encyclopedia incident. Any overtures I made along sexual lines were rebuffed with all of the usual excuses women make when they try to use sex as a weapon and I was getting a little frustrated.

I started stopping at Riley's more often and staying longer rather than going home. My sexual frustration had me starting to look at the women who came into Riley's and I began to wonder what my chances might be with some of them. That's all it was – wondering – because I didn't cheat on my wife. Never had and never expected that I would, but I was a man and I was going to look, fantasize and wonder.

And then on a Thursday night everything changed.

The house we lived in did not have an attached garage. There was a walkway from the garage to the side door of the house and when you went in the side door you walked onto a landing. If you walked straight ahead you went down the stairs into the basement. If you turned right there were steps leading up to the kitchen. I had just walked in the door when I heard:

"You know that you are going to have to divorce him."

The voice was Maria's. She was a Witness who lived nine houses down the street from us and was probably one of the Witnesses that Elaine had opened the door to that first time. They apparently had not heard me pull into the drive or come in the house. Elaine said:

"I'm not ready for that just yet. I still think that I can bring him around."

"You are in denial Elaine. That man despises our religion. You can see the disgust on his face every time he sees us meeting here. I can tell you from experience that mixed marriages don't work. He will never be one of us. You need to put him behind you. You know our precepts. The man is the head of the household and you are subservient to him. How can you be subservient to a man who despises our God?"

"I just need time. He will join with me. I know I can get him to."

"I think you are fooling yourself Elaine. The longer you put it off the harder it is going to be."

I'd heard enough and I slammed the door and called out, "Elaine, I'm home." Maria was standing and putting on her coat when I reached the top of the stairs. I nodded at her and took off my coat and was hanging it up in the hall closet as Elaine walked Maria to the front door.

I spent Friday at work thinking about what I'd overheard and what it meant. To me it meant that my marriage was over. Elaine hadn't said "No way will I divorce the man I love." What she had said was that she was not ready for that "yet." That she needed more time to try and drag me into her cult, but the inference was there in that "yet." If I didn't come on board she would eventually go for a divorce and there was absolutely no way I would ever get involved with her fruit cake religion.

But I did get one thing out of her conversation with Maria. Friday night when I made overtures to get something started in the bedroom Elaine pleaded 'headache' and I said:

"Not tonight Elaine. I have gone almost two months without making love. I am the head of this household and I have certain rights and needs. Now get in bed and take care of your wifely duties."

I think it shocked her to hear me say something like that, but she did take off her nightgown and get on the bed. It was a hollow victory however. She just laid there and let me use her, but I didn't much care. I got some physical relief and mentally I felt good at using her religion against her in almost the same way she had been using her withholding of sex against me. When I finished I said:

"From now on we will have intercourse on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Make sure you remember that and plan accordingly."

I got off the bed and went into the bathroom and showered and when I came back to the bedroom Elaine wasn't there. She had taken her pillow and a blanket and gone to sleep in the spare bedroom.

Saturday morning I was out on the driveway washing the car when Elaine came out and walked up to me. She stood there looking at me until I turned off the hose and turned to her. She looked down at the ground and then back up at me and said:

"I want a divorce."

It wasn't a shock. I knew it would be coming, but I hadn't expected it quite that soon.