Page 21 of The Woman By the Lake

No choice but look after the woman.

Yeah.

Fuck.

Him.

Hard.

FIVE

The Hole

Riggs

Before opening time, Riggs pushed through the door of The Black Hole, one of the many bars in Misted Pines, or in The Hole’s case, on the outskirts of it, but not one of the better ones.

He did this in search of his bud, Bubbles.

The place was dark, only the lights over the bar illuminated, but it was clear the staff at closing the night before hadn’t bothered with clean up before they took off. There were empties everywhere, and as usual, the soles of his boots stuck to the floor with every step he took.

He headed to the door at the back, lifted a hand and rapped his knuckles on it, shouting, “Yo, Bubbles, it’s Doc. You in there?”

Riggs had known Bubbles since high school, so he was prepared for the door to crash open with more enthusiasm than was needed.

And Bubbles stood there, balding, stout, not short but also not tall, looking like Riggs felt before he’d caffeinated and carbed up.

However rough Bubbles felt, very little broke Bubbles’s good ole boy.

Bubbles wasn’t called Bubbles for nothing.

“Yo, buddy!” he cried like Riggs was a football field away. “You’re back in town.”

“Yeah. Got back from a job yesterday.”

Bubbles pulled a bogus frown. “Didn’t see you here last night.”

“Had a thing at my place.”

The frown that bought wasn’t bogus. “Didn’t get the text.”

Riggs shook his head. “Brother, Lucille told me if I invited you over one more time and you skipped looking after The Hole to get drunk at my pad, she’d kick your ass out.”

“Well, Lucille is history, so no worries about that anymore,” Bubbles returned, the expression on his face defiant, but hearing the words, Riggs saw the sadness it was hiding.

This was news, and not good news. They’d been together awhile, and Lucille was a kind woman. She cared for Bubbles, and Bubbles felt the same. She also had the patience of a saint, and the same capacity to forgive, something important for the woman in Bubbles’s life. Riggs had thought this time for Bubbles, it was going to stick.

Though, truth told, it wasn’t surprising news.

Even so, Riggs had been out of town for less than two weeks.

But when Bubbles was ready to make a trainwreck of his life, he didn’t fuck around.

Riggs heaved a sigh.

“Where are you crashing?” he asked.

Bubbles suddenly couldn’t meet his eyes.

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