You Might Think

She didn’t Uber as she wasn’t sure where she wanted to end up, so she drove around town for half an hour before parking on the almost empty street in the late afternoon in front of her regular haunt from college. She recognized the bartender as soon as she walked in. He was there when she’d last been in ten years ago and almost every night she came in the three years before that. The moussed-up hair and string tie were gone, replaced by a a grey streaked short cut and a vintage t-shirt, but the prominent Adam’s apple and generous nose were still there. She ordered and felt disappointment when he nodded and turned to pour the pint without a hint of remembrance on his face.

A moment later though, he came back and put the glass on the bar in front of her, “It’s been a while. You back for good or just visiting?”

She raised the glass in salute and almost launched into the story of her dad and the funeral and breaking up with her boyfriend back in the city, but she realized she was weary from talking about herself and weary of the mourning of her dad and the relationship, so she took a long drink and the flood of memories from the taste of the beer so cold that the foam froze on top took her back to a better place for a moment where her Dad was alive and boys hadn’t broken her heart yet. Setting the glass down, she replied simply, “Yeah. I just moved back to town.” 

“Well, it’s good to see you again.” he said. The only other patron raised an empty glass and he walked towards him without hurrying. 

She watched him and searched her memories for his name. His real name. Everyone had called him Rik, but she assumed he had dropped that moniker along with the new wave look. She smiled as she remembered the Halloween she and her roommates had come into the bar, all dressed as Paulina Porizkova, arms wrapped around each other as they did their best runway walk into the place, wearing long wigs and their boobs taped up high to show out of the top of slinky dresses. They had researched and found old pictures of her and Rik Ocasek together and picked looks that matched the one he had been wearing for years.

Rik had been working that night of course and had gone extra on the rock-star persona with a black, slim-fit suit, hair at full attention, and the dark Ray Bans in place, the picture of diffident rock star. The place was packed with college kids and those who still wanted to live like one and he was swamped with orders which was affecting his usual aplomb. When he looked up and saw them standing at the corner of the bar, he did a double-take and his face broke character. He raised his face and arms to the ceiling. “Finally,” he screamed, “I knew it would work!” They had drunk for free that night and for the rest of the semester. 

Lost in thought, she sipped slowly on the beer, the thick glass holding the cold for the duration, and didn’t notice him until he had come back and set a shot glass in front of her. He waited for her to take it before he raised the one in his hand. “To Paulina and Rik.” 

She raised hers in return and then they tapped the bar in unison and took the shots together. “Welcome home,” he said. 

“It's good to be back.”

He smiled and took her glass. “Come back and tell me that in two weeks and I’ll believe you then.” 

“Are you going to be here?” She asked. 

He smiled and sighed simultaneously. “I’m always here. Don’t see where two weeks will make a difference.” Then, he took her glass and walked away.