Stephanie breathed a deep sigh as she once again sat in traffic on the interstate. Yet another commute in a life full of them. It seemed that this was all her life had been since her divorce five years ago. Commute, work, commute, sleep, commute, work and so on and so on. At age forty-six she needed a change, but the rut she was stuck in was so deep it seemed that climbing out would be impossible. Today was just like any other day except it was Wednesday, not Tuesday or Friday or even Monday. It was just another day in a string of days that seemed to never change.
Stephanie's two kids were away at college. She and her ex-husband decided that two kids were enough and she agreed to have her tubes tied after she had her youngest. She was young when her kids were born. She missed them dearly.
"Aw, screw this," she muttered and began to carefully cross traffic from the lane she was in to get to the next exit ramp. Maybe she could find a short cut around this cursed traffic.
She took a right at the bottom of the ramp. Traffic was no better here. It seemed that everyone else had the same idea. As she creeped along and peered over the traffic, a neon sign caught her eye. It simply said "BAR". She figured a drink would be a good idea right now. She could get a little numb and wait out this horrendous traffic. She found a parking spot near the front door, locked up her car and went in.
It was a dismal little place that smelled of stale beer and stale cigarette smoke. At the bar were a line of barflies working on the next in a countless line of drinks to help drown whatever sorrows they carried around with them. Stephanie thought that she could easily prescribe to this form of therapy but it would only make things worse in the long run. She found a seat at the found end of the bar at the corner. From where she sat she could see the people coming in and going out the front door.
"What'll it be?" asked an aging bartender whose belly spoke of many after closing time beers.
"Crown and Coke, please."
"Crown and Coke, coming up."
When the drink was in front of her, she reached in her purse and pulled out her cigarettes. She knew these were going to kill her but is seemed they were the only pleasure she had left. She lit up and went to work on her drink. It went down smooth and quick and she ordered a second. Yes, she could easily join the ranks of barflies that came here to dull their woes.
As she sipped the fresh drink, she looked over the rim of the glass and through the door came a face she recognized. It was Charles from the sales support department at work. She remembered him because she had called him Chuck at their first meeting and he corrected her. Not Chuck, not Charlie, it's Charles. He was a young ambitious guy working his way into the sales force from the bottom of the ladder. At thirty-five it was time he got something financially solid underneath him. He stood at the door for a moment and looked around the bar.
She watched him but made no effort to get his attention. He scanned the bar and saw her. When she raised her glass in salutation he walked past the line of barflies and took the empty stool next to her.
"Hey, Stephanie. I'm surprised to see you here."
"I got sick of sitting in traffic so I saw this place and thought I'd come in to wait it out."
"Yeah, I had the same idea. Bartender? Can I get a whiskey sour?"
Most of the conversation was shop talk while they drank. As the alcohol mellowed them, the conversation moved to more personal matters. Stephanie told about her past marriage, divorce, no kids, and a boring life. Charles talked of his last relationship which ended two months ago. Boy meets girl. Girl moves in. Girl goes crazy. Boy moves out. Simple and painful. During the conversation Stephanie thought she had noticed Charles looking at her the way her ex-husband used to many, many moons ago. Nah, couldn't be.
Stephanie noticed that it was now past nine o'clock. Traffic would be dead now and if she had another drink there would be no possibility of driving home. She picked up her purse and laid some cash out on the bar.
"Leaving so soon?" asked Charles with light sarcasm.
"Well, yes. I think I've been having too good of a time," replied Stephanie, "It's kind of a shock to my system."
"I've enjoyed this as well," said Charles with a smile, "I'm surprised you and I never sat and talked before. Well, I'll see you back at the office."
"Good night, Charles. Drive carefully," Stephanie replied and slid off the barstool. After three steps she stopped and turned back to Charles.
"I'm probably going to have one more cocktail at home before bed. Would you like to join me?"
"Umm, sure," Charles accepted and drained his whiskey sour.
It didn't occur to her until they were on the road and Charles followed her that she hadn't had a man in her apartment in over five years. Fortunately, she had just given the place a thorough cleaning last night. She was actually pretty surprised that Charles accepted the invitation. She didn't think herself attractive by any means. She was in her mid-forties, had shoulder length blonde hair in a style that went out eight years ago, wore glasses and was just overall plain looking. Charles was a young and attractive man. Short dark hair, very tone body and he dressed to show it. Always wearing the latest fashion and more then once had been the topic of water cooler conversation among the younger female employees at work. Now, he was following her home.
During the drive to her apartment it had started to rain heavily. When Stephanie got out of her car, another car splashed through a puddle near her and now she was completely soaked. Charles was laughing when they got to the front door.
"I'm sorry, Stephanie," said Charles trying his best to keep a straight face, "If you could have seen your face. It was priceless."
Stephanie's face turned from a look frustration from Charles' laughter to exasperation and then humor. She started laughing herself which set Charles off all over again. She looked at him through her laughter and saw that same look on his face that she
thought
she had seen at the bar. Now she was certain of it but again, why would he? He was young, she wasn't. He was sexy, she wasn't. She dismissed it.
When they were through the front door, Stephanie directed Charles to the booze and mixers and excused herself to change out of her wet clothes. From her bedroom she could hear the cabinets and refrigerator opening and shutting. She stripped from her work clothes and bra and pulled a grey sweatshirt and a pair of blue sweatpants from her dresser. Before putting them on she had a brief conversation with herself in the mirror above the dresser.
"Don't even start thinking that this will be more than a drink. You'll only be disappointed. He's young and attractive. Look at you. You're out of date. Gravity has taken a hold of your boobs. You've got a belly that you didn't have ten years ago. Your ass has widened and been flattened from all those years of sitting in a desk chair. We won't even talk about your thighs. He'll leave after the drink and you will once again spend a quiet evening alone with Mr. Buzzy, which was the nickname she gave to her vibrator."
