Page 23 of The Player in New Zealand
Tane glanced at me and then toward the back of the bar, where Nina was outside demonstrating. I held out my glass at a tilt and Tane poured the rich brown liquid in. He hesitated, vulnerability flashing over his face before his features hardened. “One of my mates said something the other day. And I realized I’d become the butt of a joke. The washed-up loser whose sister has to take care of him.”
“You need better friends. This was those schmucks you drink with all the time?” Anger sharpened my tone and Tane smirked in amusement.
“Nah, one of my friends from the game. The guys around here are all right, you know. But they’ve got lives. Kids. Wives. I need to change.” He nodded at the glass. “I think it starts with this. Giving up the drink.”
“I think that sounds great,” I said softly. “And this”—I gestured to the empty bottles—“will keep you hanging out with your friends. Will you be able to get these from a distributor?”
“Maybe. I’m not sure; Nina handles all of that. But at least we will have a basic foundation, right? We will know how bad it can be.”
We clinked drinks again and brought the rims to our noses. Immediately my eyes watered as a foul, stale smell hit me.
“What the fuck?” Tane shouted. The smell was so bad, he stood up from the bar, holding the offensive bottle aloft as far as possible. I choked on the smell and dumped my glass down the drain as quickly as I could. “How is this shit legal?” Tane asked.
The door to the deck opened and Nina walked in. Her face flipped like a switch from laughing with the customers to seeing me and Tane, empty bottles surrounding us and pint glasses full of amber liquid. All traces of humor disappeared.
“Tane...” she said, low and disappointed.
“Oi, don’t fuss,” Tane said, gentling his voice. “It’s non-alc.”
The switch flipped again, and Nina’s face lit up.
“Here, you wanna try one?” Tane offered the half-full bottle to Nina and I bit down on a laugh.
“Oh, I’m so proud of you.” Nina took the drink from his hands and pinched his cheek. “How’ve they been so far? I bet...” She tried to take a sip and choked, not expecting the foulness.
Tane bent over laughing as Nina gagged and slammed the bottle down on the bar, sloshing beer—in name only—over the surface. She shoved Tane out of the way, reaching for a handful of cheese and crackers from the plate.
She shoveled them in, chewing furiously and giving her brother the stink eye. He was still laughing, even as Nina started to pelt him with crackers. Tane ducked a few and then started catching them, swatting them out of the air and into his mouth.
Nina eventually ran out of ammo. “That was just grotty,” she said, sticking her tongue out as if trying to get rid of the flavor. “Ugh, I can taste it in my tonsils.”
“We’ve still got one more,” I said, wriggling my eyebrows at her.
“Fuck no. Sorry, bro, I love you, but not enough to drink that. ’Sides, I need some drinks for the couple outside.”
Tane cleaned up crackers while I shook a cocktail and Nina pulled from the kegs. She carried the drinks off, and I came back to stand opposite Tane, who’d removed our final non-alc from the tattered bag.
He twisted the cap off with his bare hand and picked up my glass. Tane watched the pour, tilting the glass like a pro to avoid the head. He didn’t meet my eye, but he was still flushed from the laughter over pranking his sister.
“Here’s to the last one,” I said.
His eyes flickered over my face, but he said nothing as we clinked glasses and sniffed and tasted the last beer.
He waffled his hand. “’S all right.”
I nodded. “Not as good as the Bavarian, not as bad as the rest.”
“A middling beer.” He reached across the bar and tasted the Bavarian again. “Makes this one taste better, eh.”
The front door opened and customers entered. I excused myself from Tane and took care of them, settling them in a booth with drink menus.
When I came back, Tane was behind the bar, washing glasses and draining bottles.
“I can take care of that,” I said. “It is my job.”
“Nah, she’ll be right.”
The door opened again, and the slow trickle of guests for the day began. To my surprise, Tane stayed back behind the bar. When he didn’t have anything to do, he cocked a hip on the cooler and sipped his non-alc.
