novelesque i sat there on my stool as i had so many nights before and watched him order round after round. always the same...a bud light with a shot of yeger. he always drank too much.

i forget how we met. it was so long ago. maybe it was by chance. maybe not. he talked. i laughed. i liked him as i knew i would those nights before we met. he told story after story always smiling with his mouth. his eyes didn't smile...i notice these things.

night after night we met there. always the same place. always the same story. he'd drink too much. i'd drive him home. we'd smoke on his balcony overlooking the city. we talked about our pasts, about our futures, but never about our present. the sun was usually making it's way over the horizon before we made it to bed. it was what we both needed to be committed without a commitment. i knew it wouldn't last. i didn't care.

it was a month maybe two before i grew tired of us. he knew. i knew. we never talked about it. we'd meet night after night. i'd drive him home. sometimes i'd stay. often i'd leave...walking back to my apartment along the bank of the mississippi river, i wondered how he would take the news.

i sat on my stool as i had so many nights before and i watched him. it was his 12th round of budlight and his 14th of yeger. i drove him home. we talked and smoked. i was leaving for good. my car was packed and parked next to his. he told me he loved me sometime before the sun came up. i knew he didn't. i told him i'd miss him. he smiled with his mouth. his eyes never smiled. i notice these things.   ¶ 2:11 PM