Page 13 of Lucifer's Hounds

I don’t see his bike when I pull in, but I don’t let that disappoint me. He gets to be the late one tonight. I smile, thinking of him intentionally making me wait for him the way I had made him wait last night. Although it wasn’t my intention, I’ve started to catch onto his sense of humor, and I figure this is his way of joking back at me.

I walk inside and sit down at the bar, greeted by Lacey. “Good to see you again. How are you feeling today?” She asks, laughing lightly.

“Much better now that I’ve recuperated all day.” I hang my head, wondering if I did anything stupid last night in my drunken state that I can hardly remember, but the fear of embarrassment keeps me from inquiring.

"Where's your boyfriend at?" Lacey asks.

"Oh no, he's not my boyfriend. Just a friend. He’s on his way.”

"I sure couldn't tell. The two of you look like you've been together for years. Y’all just kind of fit." She says the words as she’s called to the other end of the bar by one of the already drunken patrons.

Lacey has planted a seed. Sitting at the bar alone, I lose myself in the thought of the possibilities of being with Cass in more ways than just the bedroom. I shake it off just as quickly as I’d entertained it because there is no way anything comes of this.

Hell, he probably has a wife and like eight kids at home or something.

"You want something to drink?" I look up to find Lacey standing in front of me.

"Ah. Um, yeah, a drink. Can I have that Blueberry Bomb? I may as well go ahead and bite the hair of the dog that bit me." I hand her a twenty. Lacey fixes the drink and brings me my change. Setting a tip on the bar, I walk over to the same table that Cass and I had sat at last night. We talked for hours, just the two of us.

I glance up at the clock hanging across the bar. Seven. He should be here any minute now. I get two dollars in quarters from the bar and shoot a few games of pool by myself, trying to kill time. I finish the second game and concede, walking back over to the bar. I order a shot and get a few more dollars in quarters. I spend the next hour and a half shooting pool and drinking alone. By the time nine o’clock rolls around, I am now convinced that Cass isn’t going to show up.

I don’t understand. Did I say something stupid while I was drunk that steered him away? If so, why hadn’t he just left last night instead of this morning? But he told me this morning he would meet me here tonight, so what happened? What changed? So many thoughts flitter through my head.

I give up and grab a seat at the bar.

"Lacey, can I have two shots of Crown, please?"

Lacey grabs the bottle and two shot glasses. Pouring the two shots, Lacey gives me a puzzled stare.

“Where’s your friend at?” Lacey sets the shots in front of me.

“I don’t know.” I down one shot and grab the second one before I can talk myself out of it. The bitter taste of the whiskey makes me gag on the second shot and I take a slow, deep breath to keep it down.

"Ugh, that's rough. I'm getting out of here. If, by chance, that mystery biker shows up, tell him I waited for four hours and I went back to my room."

"You got it, babe," Lacey chirps. "Have a good night.”

I walk out of the door with a slight buzz, nothing compared to what I was feeling last night. I make it back to my room and curl up in the empty bed feeling cold and alone. The empty spot beside me a constant reminder Cass stood me up. I snuggle into the pillow in an attempt to shake it off.

It isn’t like I thought we were going to the chapel or anything, so what did I expect? It was a one-night stand that lasted two days. Shit happens. He probably found someone else to stay with. Now that I think of it, I didn’t see his bike in the parking lot when I pulled in.

I try my best to block out all thoughts of Cass in a fugue attempt at sleep. I finally am somewhere blissfully between asleep and awake and the last image that flashes through my mind is Cass smiling up at me from the pool table.

I wake in a haze, still in the world of my dreams. Dreams of Cass and the last thing I recall was being in his arms. Reality smacks me across the face when I wake up and realize it was just a dream. I’m still alone and Cass still stood me up. With a lack of any creative motivation, I shower and head down to the main office to checkout. It’s time to head back to my own reality, no matter how uneventful that may be.

On my way out, I stop in at Skeeter’s. Lacey isn’t here, but I figure I could ask the girl behind the bar anyway.

"Hey, did Lacey say anything about a biker showing up last night to meet a woman in here?" I ask, without much hope.

"No ma'am. She didn't.”

"Okay. Thank you.”

I turn and walk out of the door. Of course, he never showed up. With that, I focus on closing that door.

My drive home is long and filled with thoughts of the wonderful man I had the pleasure of spending two nights with. I need to just be happy that I even got to meet him, and I won’t stress over this. Throughout our time together, everything meshed. We got along and really hit it off. I hadn’t realized that I may have wanted to get to know him until it was too late. He was gone. At first it was fun, but I didn’t even consider what it would or wouldn’t be after Houston. And now I’ll never know.

“Fuck!” I bang my hand on the steering wheel then force the thought away with the radio. I cannot harp on this, or it will drive me insane.

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