“There are two types of people in the world,” he said, without looking
up from his glass. “People who go to bars alone and people who don’t.”
I wouldn’t have known he was talking to me if it weren’t for the fact
that there was no one else around. Maybe he wasn’t talking to me, maybe he was
thinking out loud. But I was lonely and he was handsome and it was just me and
him and the sad half-empty bottles of liquor lining the wall in front of us, so
I said, “There are two types of people in the world, people who drink before
noon and people who don’t.”
He smiled, turning to look at me and then tilting his head towards the
window, where drops were sliding down the pane.
“There are two types of people in the world. People who like to walk in
the rain, and people who don’t.”
This morning I had wandered the damp streets for an hour, with no sense
of purpose or direction, eventually winding up here. I wondered if he could
smell the rain rising from my skin.
“People who drive to get somewhere, and people who drive to find
somewhere.”
He nodded in approval, took a sip of his drink. I wondered what it was.
Gin, perhaps.
“People who want to go everywhere, and people who want to stay in one
place.”
“The settlers and the restless.”
“The lovers and the losers.”
“The left and the leaving.”
“People who kiss strangers…” He leant across the space between us and
pressed his lips to mine. It was vodka he was drinking.
He slipped away, settling back on his barstool. I saw his sad eyes and
his alcoholic lips and his smile like a riptide in the ocean, like a crack in a
frozen-over lake. Outside, the rain got a little harder.
“There are two types of people,” I said. “People who understand, and
people who don’t.”
1 comment:
I need to read your stuff more often, really riveting.
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