Page 76 of Sharkbait
“You should probably get that checked out.”
I wave him off. “It’s fine.”
“Music okay?” he asks while a classic rock station plays. When we got here, he backed his car into the space right behind us and opened the hatchback so we can listen to the radio.
It’s good, yeah.” We watch aSpirit of Philadelphiaparty cruise boat float by. “So. No beer, huh? I figured when you were cool with an orgy taking over your bar tonight, you’d be wild enough to risk drinking a paper-bag-covered beer in public with me.”
He takes a swig of his Gatorade. “Not a beer guy. But you should still have gotten one for yourself.”
“Nah. I don’t drink alone. You more of a cocktail dude then?”
“Nope. No cocktails either.” He pauses. “I’m sober actually.”
“Well, I should hope so. You drove me here,” I joke.
He laughs lightly. “No, I mean I’m in recovery. Been sober for almost seven years.”
“Oh.”
Wow. I didn’t see that one coming.
“Surprised?” he asks.
“Sort of? I guess?”
“Remember when I mentioned that money I got control of when I turned eighteen?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, that existed because of my mom. She died when I was young.”
“I’m sorry.”
He waves me off. “It’s coming up on twenty years she’s been gone, so…”
“So… people should stop saying they’re sorry?”
“I don’t know. Maybe? I mean, I’ve officially lived longer without her than I did with her. So when people say they’re sorry now, it kind of feels like they’re apologizing to someone else. To thirteen-year-old James who admittedly didn’t handle things so well. That guy was way too cool to cry, so he started stealing cigarettes and wine coolers instead.”
“Wine coolers?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he says, full of mock offense. “You got a problem with wine coolers?”
“No, no problem.”
I stifle a laugh.
Because apparently, I am a wildly inappropriate person.
The man just told me his mother died, and here I am giggling over his drink of choice while he was a grieving teen?
“I’ll have you know that Bartles and Jaymes Fuzzy Navel wine coolers are a dangerous gateway drug, madam! They singlehandedly sent me down my teenage road to ruin and landed me in AA!”
This only makes me laugh harder.
“I don’t know why I’m laughing! Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I should not be laughing!”
He laughs along with me. “It’s okay. I’m just messing withyou. Life is like that, isn’t it? Sad one minute, funny the next? But somehow it all blends together to create something beautiful.”
