"Sir?"
A familiar voice rattled inside of his head. He groaned.
"Sir. I'm afraid that I have to ask you to leave."
As the voice spoke again, this time with a more assertive tone in it, the man slid an arm from the counter, to clutch his head. He let out another exhausted groan. "Leave? What time is it?" he asked rolling his head to its side, trying to make shapes out of the blurry blobs smeared across his vision.
"It's 4am. Closing time. I need you to leave. I don't care where you go, you just can't be here."
He swore that voice sounded familiar.
He carefully sat up in his seat. "4am? What the hell kinda bar is still open at 4 am in Austin?"
The voice didn't respond straightaway.
"Sir… You said your name was Mr. Fink, right?"
Despite not being able to see the person before him, he still managed to lift an eyebrow in confusion. "Fink? No no no... It's Ramsey… Call me Geoff."
"Oh, pardon me, Geoff, but we aren't anywhere near Austin. This is New York."
That certainly cleared Geoff's mind. "What? New York?" He furrowed his brow. "What the fuck are we doing in New York? I don't remember us having to do anything there. Ray, are you playing some kind messed up joke with me?"
With that sentence, something in Geoff's head clicked. He knew who he was talking to, but as his eyes cleared, he realized that he had no idea where he was. But one thing was for certain. He wasn't in any part of Texas that he knew anymore.
"Sir, I don't know how you got here, and I don't really care, but you have to leave. I can't just let you lay here all night."
Geoff looked up to see Ray, standing above him with a half empty tumbler of whiskey in his hand, and an annoyed look on his face. There was no mistaking it. This was his coworker, but the look in his eyes was unfamiliar to him.
"Ray… What are you even doing here? You don't drink."
Ray looked at Geoff, a twinge of irritation plain in his eyes. He was grabbing empty, abandoned glasses from the bar, and dumping the remaining liquid into a sink. "I work here, Mr. Ramsey, and it's closing time. I have to ask you to leave."
"Then what are you doing working here?" What Ray was saying didn't make any sense. "Did lose your wallet or something? You do know you don't have to work it off. We'll pay for you. Just pay us back tomorrow or something." Geoff was seriously beginning to feel concerned with how his co-worker was acting. He was taking this whole 'working at a bar' thing far too seriously for comfort.
"I'm sorry, sir, but I have no idea what you are talking about..."
"You know, you don't even have to pay me back. I mean, we're friends, right? C'mon Ray, I know I'm your boss and all, but you do know that you don't have to call me 'sir.' Sure, we're co-workers, but we're all friends, here. Now c'mon. I'll pay for your drinks, and we'll get back to the hotel."
The look on Ray's face drained any kind of previous joy from his. He was confused, but even more than that, Ray looked down on him with a longing sense of pity. It was plain to see. Ray had no idea about what Geoff was talking about.
"Sir? Exactly how much did you drink today?"
The sadness in Ray's eyes was killing him. Geoff was struggling to keep a smile on his face, but it was all he could do to try and combat that look. "Ray… Stop looking at me like that. We're friends." He was stumbling over his words. "Who put you up to this. It's really starting to freak me out."
"I'm sorry, sir, but when you came in here earlier this night, that was the first time I ever met you."
"Did Jack or Ryan put you up to this? Ryan would be sick enough to come up with something like this," Geoff began to accuse, but Ray simply shook his head.
"I'm sorry, sir, but I don't know anyone by those names."
"You… You don't remember Jack or Ryan?"
He shook his head.
"Not even Gavin or Michael?"
Again, the answer was no.
"Kerry? Caleb? Lindsay? JJ? Monty? Gus? Barbra? Joel? Matt? Burnie?"
Ray didn't react to any of these names.
Geoff slumped back into his seat.
When Ray spoke again, it was in an almost tender tone. "Sir, I still need you to leave, but I can call you a cab, if you need it."
Geoff stared at the floor for a long moment. "... I don't have anywhere to go…"
"I'm sorry, sir, but that isn't my problem. I don't care where you go, really, but you can't stay here." Ray wasn't paying full attention to the man at the counter anymore, and was instead cleaning the remaining glasses sitting next to the sink.
"I… I need somewhere to stay for the night." Even if Geoff had a hotel room, he didn't know where it was, or even if he had enough money to pay for it, and it certainly wasn't an appetizing thought to spend the night passed out of the street.
"I can call a taxi to take you to the nearest hotel, if you would like," Ray suggested as he began to stack some of the clean glasses behind the counter.
Geoff sighed. "I… I suppose that… I'll just have to stay with you."
That certainly caught Ray's attention."What?"
The life returned to Geoff's eyes as his mind concocted a plan. "Listen to me, Ray. I'll work for you. I'll help you work here, at the bar. I'll clean the dishes. I'll serve the drinks. I'll do whatever you want me to! I'll do it, and in exchange I'll live with you!"
"What? Why would I want to live with you? What exactly would I be getting out of this deal?" Ray looked at Geoff like a madman.
"Why not?" Geoff looked Ray straight in the face. Ray was taken aback. This man was serious about this idea.
"Why not?" Ray let out a flustered breath. "Because you're a complete stranger to me! How about that!?"
"Well, it's not a perfect plan..." Geoff muttered with a shrug.
"You think!" Ray's patience was beginning to wear thin.
Geoff paused for a moment, furrowing his brow in thought. "You still like video games, right?"
Now that question threw him off guard. "What?"
"Answer the question."
"Yeah... I like video games. But what does that have to do with…?" Ray began, but Geoff interrupted before he could finish
"Then I challenge you! If you win, then I have to stay, if I win, then I'll go, no questions asked."
"What? Shouldn't it be the other way around?"
"Of course not! I know I'll lose to you! I'll even pick the game! I know that you can't live far from here. We'll just play at your house. So come on, let's shake on it. We'll make it a bet!"
"How do you…? What is going on!? What makes you think that I will actually agree to this crazy bet?"
Geoff held out his hand with a straight, though perhaps slightly intoxicated look on his face. "Why not? Nothing is stopping you. You're free to do whatever you want."
Ray hesitated. "No… I mean how can you honestly expect me to take this on? I'm not exactly in the best position myself right now. Why would I even want to help you?"
"You don't have to. It's your choice. But, aren't you at least a little curious as to how this could go?"
Ray stared into Geoff's eyes for a long moment. This man must've been crazy, but after thinking it over for a second time, he must've been crazy too. Ray took Geoff's hand, and they shook on it. "Okay, fine."
"Great!" Geoff grinned at the younger man. "Now I hope you're prepared to get your shit pushed in!"
"What? But I thought that you were trying to lose?"
"You might be, but I'm in it to win!"
Ray sighed. "What did I get myself into?"