Chapter Seven

"Gray, could you come here for a moment?" an unusually sweet voice called out to me. I inwardly groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose in frustration, but there was no doing anything about it. It wasn't like I hadn't expected this... After all, it was pretty damn common in this hell hole I knew grudgingly as 'the nine to whenever the fuck' shift.

Although I seriously considered the option of pretending not to hear the perpetual bitch's beckoning, I reluctantly turned from the open doorway and headed back inside just like the corporate lap dog that I was. Though there was nothing more than the warm glow of her desk lamp to illuminate the space, the woman was standing in her office per usual, her back to me just as I expected. However, instead of her usual business attire, she was garbed in a rather upscale, black evening dress. However, when she happened to turn, I realized that the neckline went clear down to fucking navel, and not surprisingly, my entire face flushed.

Didn't this woman have any damn shame?

"Yeah?" I asked gruffly, averting my eyes from her and towards the floor. It was bad enough that I had to deal with Kai bragging about her curvy figure in the break room, but for me to see this kind of thing was... too much. The woman already looked like a damn slut with all that lipstick and eyeliner. Why the hell did she have to go around town half dressed as well?

"Were all those files taken care of like I asked?" she pressed doubtfully while trying to put in her oversized, gold hoops. As if her 'outfit' wasn't gaudy enough...

"Claire and I just finished a little while ago," I assured her with a curt nod. I also wanted to mention that it'd taken us an extra three hours to do so, but I was quick to bite my tongue, past the point where I thought I could taste my own blood. Even though she was the one who forgot to tell us until the day before the deadline about that progress report that needed sending out to the higher ups, I knew better than to call her a dumb bitch or something equally disrespectful. It wasn't just about keeping my job, either... because that didn't amount to shit anymore. What it came down to was that I wasn't going to let myself be that kind of man.

After all... calling any woman a bitch, at least to her face, was something only someone as worthless as my father would do.

"That's just what I wanted to hear," she chuckled, reaching into her bag and taking out a pack of cigarettes. Although I knew she smoked from the many times I was called into her office, I still had to raise an eyebrow to see the brand name. I nearly whistled, too, since being a smoker myself, I knew Dreams didn't come cheap. However, I couldn't say I expected anything less from some woman who's thought a deal was a pair of shoes that cost under a grand. Even so, it might explain that faint scent of vanilla that always followed her... which until now I'd always considered to be Elli's perfume.

"Well," I sighed, "I guess I ought to be going then." The woman made no reply at first as she was too busy lighting up with one hand and putting up her hair with the other, but when I noticed she was struggling a bit, I stepped over to help. She eyed me curiously through the small mirror hanging just inside of her coat closet while I took her brittle, two toned hair and put it into a simple, though elegant, bun. A single lock fell right alongside the gentle curve of her face, and with that, I considered the 'look' to be complete. At least it was an improvement on her usual appearance...

"You didn't tell me you knew how to do hair," my boss snickered, taking her cigarette out from between her teeth and offering it to me. Although I cringed slightly, I still took it from her and snuffed it out in the ashtray resting on her desk. I could only hope she hadn't expected me to take a puff off of it... "Any other hidden talents I should know about?" she teased which caused my face to warm slightly once again.

"My little sister always asked me to play dolls with her," I lied tentatively, knowing full well that I didn't have any siblings to begin with. It was just easier that way, I guess... than telling her the whole story.

Though I wouldn't dare explain to anyone around here my ways of knowing such a trade, with the exception of maybe Elli or Claire, it was really no big deal for me. The only reason I knew how to do such a thing in the first place was because it was all I'd been able to do for my ailing mother as a child. She always praised me for it by telling me what a wonderful job I did, how happy it made her... but even at the tender age of eight, I knew she was only doing her best to comfort me instead of herself.

However, I did find some reassurance through the nurses' gossip of how she only seemed to be able to smile during my visits.

Once she lost her hair to chemotherapy, though, I remembered feeling so devastated since I no longer had anything to offer her. When she died a year or so later, I'd gone so far as to blame myself. After all... in some strange, not to mention childish way, I felt like I'd failed her somehow.

"As much as I'd love to sit around and chat, I've got to run," the woman dismissed me abruptly before tossing her keys over my way. "Don't forget to lock up when you leave."

"Why would I hang around here?" I asked, perplexed and raising an eyebrow towards her. She merely gave me a curious wink and lifted her leather jacket off the chair just inside her door. Given the mischievous glint in her dark, brown eyes, I knew I wasn't gonna like her answer, and I could barely swallow the heavy lump that had formed my throat just to think of what she might say.

"Because I need you to finish cataloguing those sales Kai made for us today by tomorrow morning," she replied as she slipped around the corner and out the door. Of course, I tore after her since I wasn't about to let her ditch me like that. However, by the time I got out into the parking lot, she was already in her car. Its bright red finish shone in the amber glow of the fluorescent lights overhead, but as I ran over to the driver's side to give her a piece of my damn mind, I stopped dead in my tracks. Then I had to ask myself if its driver was my boss at all or some other, god-forsaken wench from the bowels of hell given that wicked grin of hers.

"You selfish, bitch!" I snapped as I brought my fist down on her roof.

She simply rolled down the window, blowing her sweet-scented smoke in my face, while she continued to bare her teeth at me. "Just remember you said that when you come asking me for a raise," she warned, giving me another smart-ass wink.

Then, out of no where, she revved the engine with a mighty roar and threw it into reverse. I was barely able to jump out of the way before, in a split second, her tires squealed and she flew backwards, nearly taking out a lamp post clear at the other end in the process. I continued watch in horror as she proceeded to cut off some poor, unfortunate soul while tearing out of the parking lot, having the audacity to lay on her horn no less, and only once her taillights were out of sight was I finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Jesus Christ..." I muttered, shaking my head in disbelief. "I swear to God she's gonna kill somebody one of these days." Knowing her as well as I did, I most likely wasn't all that far off, either. Dumb ass broad...

--

It only took me about a half hour before I had to give up on the task that had been handed down to me from the devil herself. Although I hated to admit it, I knew I had to face facts, and the most obvious one was that I couldn't focus on this kind of shit unless Claire was around to keep me in line. She just had that way with me, I guess... Like one of my better teachers from my far off days in the country school of my youth, she seemed to understand how to peak my interest and, more importantly, keep it which was the sole reason I still had a job in the first place.

Surely that... other woman would've preferred to have me gone by now.

Even so, I was grateful Claire didn't have to be here for this level of white-collar drudgery. Even though I'd told the head mistress up front that she and I had finished together, the truth was I'd sent her home 'early.' After all, she'd been looking mighty sickly as of late, and I pitied the poor girl for it. It wasn't like she didn't work hard enough without doling out overtime. She worked just as many hours as I did, but she also had to pick up a lot of my slack as well which was something I ought to have been ashamed of...

Looking around my office, I sighed. There wasn't much to the place other than a stack of take-out containers from Shirley's, some of which actually held what was to be my dinner while others were empties. Then, of course, there were the many open files that cluttered my desk ranging from that week's overall profits, to months old memos, and even last year's tax documents...

"God, I need a drink," I lamented once I finally realized what a mess my office truly was, styrofoam coffee cups an' all. Glancing at the clock, though, I found it was just after nine, and despite the nagging thought that this evening may end very badly for me by the next morning, I could not rid myself of the idea of stepping over to the liquor store for something to take the edge off.

"One is all I really need..." I reasoned, already lifting myself up from my chair. Snatching my trench coat off the back of the door, I slipped on my ball cap as well. I barely even remembered to lock the door behind me before all but sprinting to the nearest place that might be open at this hour on a week night. Of course, I told myself I was just hurrying because there could be rabble-rousers out and about, but even I couldn't convince myself of that entirely.

I knew what I was after.

The streets are awfully quiet tonight, I observed absentmindedly while slowing my pace. Indeed, there wasn't a soul to be found in either direction, save for myself, but it wasn't like I hadn't expected that to be the case. After all, most people were with their families, or at the very least, they were snuggled right up close to someone special. Of course, there were others like me... out and about somewhere, but none of us really wanted to be out here in the first place.

Even so, I don't think that I've ever seen anything more pathetic than the front of a liquor store in the heart of the city. The mesh, metal fencing that covers the windows, the tacky advertisement for beer, cigarettes, and lotto plastered on the bulletproof glass like a capitalist freak show... It was all just so damn...

Depressing...

All the times I'd been to places like this... and yet the sight of them could still stir up feelings of what was to be a forgotten sadness at this point of my life.

Stepping into the small establishment, I was immediately assaulted by the heavy scent of tobacco, and even though it was still winter just outside the door, the air inside was thick and stagnant like the eternal dog-days of summer. The man at the counter looked up from the register, his black eyes glazed over with something other than the weariness of working the night shift, but I tried not to let it trouble me any. Since his name tag read 'Duke' and the sign out front was 'Duke's 'n' Nukes,' I figured I didn't have a say in the matter anyway.

My mentality was rather simple: his store, his rules, his business...

"Need somethin'?" he drawled, staring at me with a blank and deadened gaze. Although I seriously began to wonder whether or not I should even be here with the salt-and-pepper haired fellow, I didn't really have a whole lot of options left open to me. Sure, I could've just walked back to the office, finished my work, and gone home, but I came so far and got so damn near what I desired most that I wasn't about to leave empty handed.

"Have any vodka around here?" I asked, not really wanting to scour the crowded shelves myself. He nodded as he eased himself off of his stool, and using the counter as a guide, he made his way over to the other side. When he passed me, I caught a wiff of what I could only assume to be the toxic odor of both whiskey and sweat. It rolled right off of him in nauseating waves with every move he made, stumbling through the store at a snail's pace, but I still did my damnedest to ignore it.

If he was drinking that shit, I knew better than to piss the man off.

"Buying cheap?" he mumbled, a burp following soon after. Given that the scent of the outside of him was enough to take a man down for the count, the inside nearly offed me completely, yet I simply had to grit my teeth and bear it. God... I needed out of there something awful.

"Anything will do," I replied stiffly. 'Duke' laughed then, with a mighty roar that I swore shook the bottles above and around us, and while I didn't know what was so damn funny, I cracked an uneasy smile all the same. Weird ass drunkard... I thought irritably as I shoved my fists deeper into my pockets. This was getting pretty fucking ridiculous...

"Just fixin' to get drunk, eh?" he snickered, reaching out for a bottle of Five O'Clock on the bottom rack. However, once he caught sight of my disapproving glare, he put it right back on the shelf. "A man who knows his drink," he mused aloud as he stepped back for another look through. He scanned his stock once more and lay his grubby hand on a bottle of Bernettes. Of course, he glanced back to be sure it was what I wanted.

"That's fine," I assured him. Sure, it wasn't the best, but it was good enough for now. Wasn't like I could afford better anyway...

"Glad to hear it, my boy," he laughed, clapping me on the back. "You know..." he began wistfully as paused on his way to his usual post, "I just want you to take that with you- free of charge." When I opened my mouth to protest, though, he swiftly cut me off. "I know, I know... we don't even know each other, but I like you, kid. We alike, I think. The quiet type... you know?"

Somehow... I doubted that very much...

"I can't do that," I said at last, just before he shoved me right out the door, bottle in hand. "That's stealing," I added lamely which made the man stop dead in his tracks. He spun me around then and brought his hand down, hard I might add, on my shoulder.

"Listen here now, boy," he chuckled. "It ain't stealing if I give it to you." He paused for a moment, and soon enough a wide grin spread across his aged features. "Just don't tell my wife, eh?" He gave me a wink then, his once glassy eyes now as bright and lively as an eager child's, and shut the door behind me with a definite clink. Although I stood there in something of a daze for a moment of two, I soon regained my senses. However, I wasn't just going to leave it at that and take off with my booze, but I wasn't going back inside to demand that he let me pay, either.

Taking a quick look around, I soon found the security camera that was aimed at the door. All I had to do was wave a ten dollar bill in front of its lens, and with that, I slipped it in the mail slot.

"Even if you don't want it," I grumbled with a faint smile, "you've got it now." As I turned from the place, resting a cigarette on my chapped lips, I chuckled quietly to myself and shook my head. After all, I had to admit it must've been a good life for a man in his golden years, selling and drinking booze with nobody to answer to but himself and, apparently, his wife. Maybe that's what he meant when he said we were alike.

At least... that's what I was hoping he meant...

--

Author's Note: 'Duke's 'n' Nukes' was an actual name of a liquor store in my old neighborhood. It was named such because there was the liquor store and right next to it was a gun shop. Classy. XP