Last Call Lounge by Stuart Spears

Author:Stuart Spears [Spears, Stuart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stuart Spears
Published: 2015-07-07T16:00:00+00:00

On the way home, I stopped at Lee’s Liquor, a small store in a strip center near the highway. It was a clean, well-lit place, narrow and long with high wooden shelves and a wall of beer coolers. It was down the street from a massive liquor store, a huge chain with a better selection and cheaper prices. But I stopped at Lee’s whenever I could, in part because they stocked my brand just for me, but also because it was quiet and calm. There was no music playing, no TV.

The hurricane panic had come through Lee’s already. The shelves were half barren. Empty liquor boxes and wine boxes were scattered by the storeroom door.

Mrs. Lee, the owner, waved to me from behind the counter as she waited on a customer. Mrs. Lee had an oval face and short black hair and thin lips coated in bright red lipstick. She and her husband bought the liquor store soon after emigrating from Viet Nam. She was proud of telling people how they slept on the storeroom floor for the first six months, until they could afford an apartment.

“Hey,” she yelled. “I still have two bottles of Blanton's.” She didn't know my name, but she knew my drinking habits. “You should buy both.”

“Both?”

“Hurricane coming,” she said. “You need both.”

I dutifully took the two bottles off the top shelf and carried them to the counter. Mrs. Lee swiped my credit card, then wrapped the bottles in paper bags.

“Where's Mr. Lee?”

“He's at the house. Boarding up the windows. Then he's gonna come back here and we will stay here. All night.”

“Why here?” I asked. “Why not at home?”

“Eh,” she said. “We can always get a new house, you know? We have to be here, make sure the store is okay.” She pushed my card and the slip for me to sign across the counter. “Besides,” she said with a wink, “that's not really my house. That's just where I sleep now. This place will always be my house.”

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