*Author's Note: Any and all persons engaging in any sexual activity are at least eighteen years of age.
Disclaimers: This story has been edited by myself, utilizing Microsoft Spell-check. You have been forewarned; expect to find mistakes.
*.*
“Well, this is about all the unimaginative manufactured crap I can stomach. Hey, Ozzy? Getting a half-ass wannabe rap artist doesn’t make you relevant; it just makes you ridiculous. This is Marie Antoinette Dahmer; thanks for listening to ninety nine five KLRV, the leader in rock,” the overhead speaker announced.
Edwin Dillard’s eyes gravitated from the compact buttocks and golden brown legs in front of him to the ceiling’s recessed speaker. He wasn’t sure he’d just heard the DJ trashing the music and the artist, but he almost put down the fifth of Everclear and the two pint bottles of Mark’s Cinnamon Liqueur and Mark’s Cherry Liqueur to applaud.
“Deer season starts this weekend,” the scruffy looking man explained to Edwin and the Asian-American woman in front of Edwin as he HEFTED the four cases of Gratchley’s beer and the two fifths of Iron Barrel Whiskey.
“Good luck,” Edwin smiled as the man lumbered toward the door.
“ID,” the morbidly obese woman snapped when THE Asian-American woman put a bottle of wine onto the counter.
Edwin watched the girl’s floor length black pony tail swish slightly back and forth as the girl absently bobbed her head along with the music bleeding from overhead. Her slim legs shuffled as she waited for the woman to verify her ID.
“Uh, license expired two years ago, Honey,” the woman snapped, slapping the piece of plastic onto the counter.
“Expi…oh no! Oh! You sure? I, I’ll get that taken care of, what time does the DMV close today?” the girl exclaimed.
“Uh huh, got any other ID?” the woman snapped, not buying the girl’s act.
“I, let’s see,” the girl said, fumbling through her wallet.
The woman refused to ring up the wine. The girl turned to leave, face drawn tight.
“Stick around,” Edwin hissed at the girl as she walked past him.
Edwin put his three bottles onto the counter, then picked up the girl’s bottle of cheap wine. He looked at it, pretending to read the label. Whit a shrug, he added the bottle to his other purchases.
The woman didn’t bother asking the forty four year old man for his ID. She ran his credit card and placed the bottles into four separate plastic bags.
The Asian-American girl was waiting outside, looking around nervously. Edwin opened the door and the girl ran up to him. Edwin motioned with his head to the side of the store, out of the sight of the surly cashier.
“Where you plan to drink this?” Edwin asked, not relinquishing the bottle.
“I, shit, Kent Park,” the girl pointed in the general direction of the park, anxious for her wine.
“Where they busted up that Meth ring? And you don’t think they got cops patrolling that?” Edwin snorted. “Come on; my motel’s two blocks this way.”
“But you did get my wine? Right?” Kim Yang May, May Kim asked.
“Mm hmm,” Edwin agreed as they walked the two short blocks to the Home Comfort Inn.
“So, you some kind of salesman or something?” May asked, noticing the suit and tie.
“Mm hmm,” Edwin agreed. “Had a couple of meetings today, got a few tomorrow, then I’m out of here.”
By the time they arrived at Room 212, Edwin found out that May Kim was eighteen years old, she was using, or trying to use her sister in law’s expired ID, had been living with her older brother and his wife, Paula Kim since their father’s death from cirrhosis of the liver; their mother had died nine years earlier, died from ovarian cancer
“Wait here,” Edwin orderd and entered the room, leaving May out in the hall.
Edwin emerged with the ice bucket. May continued with her very nervous chatter as they walked to the ice chest in the alcove of the second floor. Her rambling monologue continued until they returned to Room 212.
Entering the room, May suddenly grew very quiet. Edwin put the ice bucket next to the four bags on the dresser and grabbed one of the plastic cups from the small plastic tray. He pulled the flimsy sanitary paper off the tumbler and filled the glass with ice. He then made a drink from the three half full bottles of Everclear, Mark’s Cherry liqueur and Cinnamon Liqueur.
“I, you, you already had…” May commented, looking at the three bottles.
“Mm hmm, and if I waited until these were empty? Then I would have been too fucking drunk to walk to the store and back,” Edwin agreed somberly.
“So, need ice with your wine?” Edwin asked, indicating the second wrapped tumbler.
“I, uh, no, no,” May whispered, glancing around the room.
Edwin looked at the girl in the dimly lighted room. She had a round face, small nose, a few dots of acne on her golden brown skin. Her dark eyes were almond shaped, her nose was snub, and her mouth was a small one.
She was short; probably no taller than five feet, and probably didn’t weigh ninety five pounds. Her legs were slim legs, the legs of someone used to walking. Her torso was hidden underneath her bulky sweatshirt that had ‘Myndee University’ emblazoned on the front.
“You go to Myndee?” Edwin asked as he took a seat at the small table in the motel room.
“No; brother teaches there,” May admitted, unscrewing the cap of her wine bottle. “What you drinking?”
“Hmm? Ever…I call it a ‘pinch my cherries,’” Edwin smiled. The cherry liqueur cuts the harshness of the Everclear and the cinnamon adds just a little bite, a pinch.”
“I try one?” May asked, replacing the cap of her wine.
“Hmm? Oh, oh absolutely,” Edwin smiled, taking her empty glass from in front of her.
Deftly, he made a ‘Pinch My Cherries’ for the girl. He dropped some ice into the glass and put it on the table in front of her.
“I, oh! Oh my God!” May coughed at the harshness of the booze.
Edwin sipped his own drink, watching the cute girl drink. He recognized that she was not drinking for the taste, but rather for the effect. Her choice in wine had hinted at this, and her actions right now confirmed it. May Kim, Kim Yang May, whatever her name was, was drinking to get drunk.
“Yeah; it’s a little harsh,” Edwin thought, watching the cute girl wiping at her eyes. “Helps me forget what a failure I am.”
Harsh or not, May picked up the glass and took another sip. She gave that familiar shudder as she swallowed the strong drink.
“I uh, I get another one?” May giggled a few moments later, draining her glass.