"
Look, the tickets weren't cheap," Felix said. He and Chris sat at a small cafe table sipping blueberry vodka mixed with sweat tea. "Believe me, I'd much rather have had the $250 back, but she insisted on coming with us."
His friend nearly choked on his drink. "You dropped almost a grand on this? Jesus Christ, you have to let me pay my share. Especially now."
"
Why especially now? You think I wasn't footing the full bill when Krissy and I were still dating?" He leaned back in his chair, looking up at the sky. They'd come all the way to Oak Grove for the show, a two hour drive. It seemed hard to imagine a burlesque show worth $250 a ticket in such a mundane looking town. Felix hoped to bring a new girlfriend to make it especially awkward for Krissy. If she insisted on pushing the idea of going to the show no matter what, the least Felix could do would be to make it as awkward as possible for her. Mike came along as a last minute replacement after Felix struck out with every girl he spoke to for a solid month. As a small consolation, Krissy always hated Mike.
"
No," Mike mused, "but she was sleeping with you, at least. At least let me take care of the drinks. I'll even buy hers. That should help piss her off. Though, I would say at this point we've gone well beyond the realm of petty spite."
Felix knew his fried was right. It would have been much less of a hassle to simply let the tickets go unused or even hand them to some passerby on the street, but some small part of Felix liked holding on to the idea that he and Krissy could have one more normal night. The burlesque show had been her idea in the first place. She spent so much time talking it up and teasing Felix with the big plans for the weekend trip that he got too invested. When she wanted to pull all of it back from him, he resisted. So now, he and his best friend sat a few blocks away from the Hee-Haw Club getting day drunk.
Mike picked up one of the tickets on the table and looked at it. "Why's it called the Hee-Haw Club? Like that old variety show from like forty years ago? Burlesque honky tonk?"
Felix shrugged. "Dunno. Lots of businesses in this town have weird names. We're at the Cat-fe, for fuck's sake. That's the dumbβ"
"
Can I get you two another round?" the waitress said as she walked over to them. She lavished her gaze on the two young men, and they returned the favor.
"
Yes, please," Mike said. "And our offer stands for you to join us."
She leaned forward onto the table, letting her ample cleavage dangle in front of their eyes as she grabbed the empty glasses. "Oh, you boys flatter me." As she neared them, Felix thought he heard a low rumbling from deep inside her, a purr. "But I don't think you're my type." The waitress turned to go back inside the cafe and let them watch her wiggling butt as she walked.
"
Yeah, this town is a little weird," Mike agreed. "Name of this joint has got to be part of the gimmick. There's probably a cat walking around who 'owns' the place. Or maybe the cat actually owns the place, and it's one big tax evasion scheme."
Felix didn't listen too closely to his friends rambling. He was once more thinking about Krissy. The waitress's remarks set him off. She clearly thought Felix looked good enough to flirt with. Mike, too. Sure, maybe Felix let himself go a little once he and Krissy passed the six month mark, but so had she. Five pounds shouldn't have made the difference, though. He dressed well. He paid more than a reasonable price for his haircuts which always wound up looking the same anyway. He made sure to spend time with her. Complimented her on the right days, her "good hair" days as she called them. Sometimes Krissy's curls looked a little bigger and sometimes a little redder. With practice, he divined which days she preferred over others. To him, though, it always looked roughly the same, a state which he thought of as "fine" which apparently differed greatly from Krissy's "good".
"
You're doing it again," Mike said. "Did you even notice her bringing back the drinks? Her left nipple almost popped out. Not sure she's wearing anything under that dress."
Felix had noticed the arrival of more booze. "Doing what?"
"
You keep getting this far off, sour look on your face. I figure you're thinking about Krissy since it started happening about the time you stopped bawling about her."
"
I never bawled. I had one night which we agreed not to discuss."
Mike sipped his drink. He thought they were getting stronger with each one. The waitress might not think of them as their type, but she certainly didn't mind flirting or boozing up the guests for better tip. "I believe we decided not to discuss it shortly after you rage kicked a hole in my wall."
"
Slander and lies," Felix said. He looked at the time on his phone. "This'll be our last one before we head over. We're supposed to meet Krissy at the door."
***
The sun set while he and Mike took the much needed walk down to the Hee-Haw club. Street lights clicked on, casting a charming orange glow over the bar district. They followed directions on Felix's phone, leading through the twisting alleys between the more popular bars. They passed other dive joints which each had a throng of people milling around the entrance. Felix thought he could spot other out of towners like himself by the way they dressed. The citizens of Oak Grove seemed to wear provocative clothing, no matter what. Mike nudged his friend several times to point out a woman in a high skirt or a very low top, tempting the two guys over like hungry dogs. They stayed on course, though, meandering down to the Hee-Haw Club where a small group stood in line outside of the bar door.
Felix hoped to feel nothing when he saw his ex girlfriend. Instead, the booze and his own morose thoughts pushed up a wave of emotion the second he laid eyes on her. She stood a few feet away from the crowd with her head down looking at her phone. Krissy chose a pair of pastel, high-waisted shorts and a green peasant blouse for the evening. Though it was remarkably sexy and outgoing for her, compared to the other women in line at the Hee-Haw club, she looked near prudish. Krissy's thin, petite frame stood a short distance from two women at least a foot taller and proportionally thicker in every way. These women wore tank tops which squeezed their D-cups into almost pouring out while tight fitted skirts struggled to hold in their hips and ass. While Felix attempted to ignore the women in favor of his ex, Mike maintained no qualms about gawking.
"
Krissy," Felix called out.
Her head snapped up, and she smiled with relief. "Oh, thank god. I thought you were standing me up."