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Kenshin takes another drink from his beer as the bar blurs around him. His favorite bartender isn’t even in town this week, so he doesn’t get to have his favorite cocktail or talk with someone.
Without her here, he just sinks into the background of the bar as people chatter, expecting to drink until closing and be ignored, as usual.
“You can look right through me, walk right by me, and never know I’m there,” Kenshin sings to himself against the latest idol music the drunk college girls wanted to sing to is.
“Hey, here by yourself?”
Kenshin turns to see a woman with orange hair and a smart suit sits down next to him at the bar.
“You talking to me?” Kenshin asks.
“Is anyone else here worth talking to?”
Kenshin snorts. “No, obviously.” He sticks out his hand. “Kenshin Suzuki.”
The woman takes his hand. “Yoka Tono.”
“So, Yoka-chan, what brings you here for the first time?” Kenshin asks.
“How do you know it’s my first time? Maybe I just come on the days you’re not here.”
“I’m here every day,” Kenshin says. “From work gets out ‘til my sister’s kid gets home from cram school. My sister doesn’t want him seeing me coming home in the middle of the night.”
“Haven’t missed a single day?”
“Nope, not in three years, so I know you’re not a regular.”
Yoka chuckles. “Ok, you caught me. Yeah, I just heard about this place and wanted to get the vibe.”
“The vibe is it’s cheap and they don’t kick you out no matter how much you drink.”
“Sounds like my kind of place,” Yoka says. She orders a beer and chugs it.
“Whoa, now I like a woman who can handle her alcohol.”
“Really? Most men are put off by it.”
“I mean it!” Kenshin says. “I don’t care for all the prissy shit women like my sister are worried about.”
“Tell me about your sister?”
“Ah, she’s a pain in the ass,” Kenshin sighs. “I busted my ass to pay her way through college, and now that she’s a successful corporate bigwig she thinks she can tell me how to live my life. Ungrateful bitch.”
“No wonder you’re here all the time then.” Yoka takes another swig of her beer. “Whoo, strong stuff! I should call a taxi for tonight, don’t wanna be driving after a glass of this.”
Kenshin laughs. “Eh, don’t worry about it. I can take you home.”
“Oh, that gonna be your last glass?”
“Like hell. Nah, when you’ve been drinking as long as I have, as long as you’re awake you’re as good as a sober man. I drive home all the time, no one’s ever noticed.”
“Never? Really?”
“‘Cause I’m not stupid . I know how to drive, even when I’m drunk.”
“Still, seems risky,” Yoka says. “Car accidents cause a ton of deaths and–”
“Oh my god stop it, you sound like my sister,” Kenshin says. “I know the damn statistics, and they happen when people are sober and when they’re drunk. The difference is I’m smart, and know to be careful.”
“Oh,” Yoka says slowly. “So if you were driving home late at night, trying to get back to your apartment before your sister’s kid came back from cram school, and saw a couple of kids crossing the street, you’d slow down right?”
“Brats oughta get out of the way,” Kenshin says. “Pedestrians have the right of way, it’s a load of crap. What are they gonna do if I hit them?”
“But you’ve never been in a situation like that?”
“No,” Kenshin says. “Never.”
“Even last week?” Yoka asks. “Last week you weren’t driving home in a white car with your license plate, jumped the curb, hit a young man, and then drove away?”
“Lady, the fuck are you talking about? You a cop or some shit?”
“No,” Yoka says. “But I am an attorney, and the mother of the boy who was with the one you hit last week. The one who now needs extensive surgery because of you. And I look forward to seeing you in court.”