A Fair Question

Photo by Eeshan Garg on Unsplash

Ezra cradled the empty Budweiser bottle in his left hand as he concentrated on extricating the metallic glazed label off the sweaty brown bottle with his right- all the while placating himself by thinking, “If the damn thing comes off in one piece I go home, eat crow and tell her she’s right. And if it don’t…” -problem was, he hadn’t quite figured out what the ‘and if it don’t’ course of action was- before the center of the label stuck solid and ripped away from the edges, he had so cleanly liberated.

“You ready for another un over there, Tiger?” Kaitlyn, the twenty-something pink haired, tattooed college student who had just recently taken up tending bar a couple afternoons a week asked as she made her way over to the beer cooler, pausing for his response before sliding the lid back into the refrigerated chest with a whoosh of rubber flashing gliding atop the units cool steel exterior, “Or are ya aimin’ to just play with that un all afternoon?”

“Lemme ask ya somethin’,” Ezra started hesitantly, pausing as he gathered his thoughts into a bundle before continuing, “Whadda think is more important, havin’ a guy that you know, is loyal to ya, would do anything for ya, ok, even loves ya, or one that might do any or all them things when it’s convenient, but fer sure is always gonna bring home a paycheck?”

“Ok, lemme ask you somethin’,” Kaitlyn countered with a smirk, as she tucked a long shock of pink bang behind one ear whilst snapping the lid cleanly off an ice cold Budweiser longneck with the other, “What exactly is this loving, loyal, do anything for ya type guy doing all day while he ain’t workin’ and the old lady is slaving away making the money that keeps a roof over his head? Cookin’- cleanin’- and fixin’ her dinner or hangin’ out here drinkin’ beer?”

“I woun’d say that’s a fair question.” Ezra countered as Kaitlyn set the frosty bottle of beer on a fresh bar-nap directly in front of him. “I didn’t say nothin’ about that- I’m serious now, this here’s a real question!”

Just then the bar door swung open and a blinding bolt of sunlight punctuated the midday darkness immediately obfuscating anything that may or may not have resembled ‘real’ in the seconds before. “Line ’em up there, Kaityn,” Trever roared as he entered, “I’m a buyin’!”

This is my entry for this week’s Six Sentence Story. The word prompt this week was Wound. 

37 thoughts on “A Fair Question”

  10. Damn if Ezra doesn’t already know the answer to his question. Methinks he’s asking the wrong question.

    As for new bartender Kaitlyn, she’s yet to realize that all the meaningful questions she might pose or advice offered (to all the Ezras), winds up lost between one bottle to the next.

    Good Six, Violet.

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