The Garden of Eden

A Skeptic Walks into the Bar...

Eden King

My tongue felt fuzzy, my face numb and my body way to light to still be attached to my head. But I'm still sitting here so it must be. I felt the glass between my fingers but every time it raised above the counter it slipped back down. I focused hard, putting more pressure on all the pads of my fingers until I felt like they would break.

Clunk

"Bloody hell! This fucking glass weighs a ton!"
"Alright Eden, you're cut off." A man dressed in a silly colourful shirt took the glass from the counter, lifting it like nothing. I marvelled at his seemingly un-muscular arms. They were thin and rather spindly but he did pick up the glass.

"Are you on steroids?"
"No. Listen, you need to give me someone's number so I can get them to pick you up." Pick me up, I drove here myself I can certainly get myself home. I slapped my car keys down on the table but they were snatched quicker than I could ever imagine. He's a bloody wizard. "Someone or you go to the hospital to get your stomach pumped."

"You're unreasonable." Now that we are talking he definitely looks familiar. I don't see many people wearing shirts like his, an ugly orange and purple squiggly pattern, nor do they talk like that. I can't remember the last time I met an American. "and American. Does Carmine know you're here?" We don't do a lot of business with the Americans, but some. The only ones we ever bring here are usually old, crusty men who never sit quite right with me. This will sound super twisted but, Americans don't have the same values when it comes to the crime families, they aren't so concerned with the purpose and benefits the mafia can bring, just the money. They long abandoned the unity that the mafia instilled in communities, the protection it gave to the lower class.

"I'll call Carmine and tell him I'm here if you give me his number."
"Like hell, I'm calling and telling him." My fingers jabbed the little screen of my phone. Carmines contact finally popped up. I called his personal number, praying he isn't in the office.

"Garden fairy, I've been missing you." What a charmer. I allowed the little giggle to slip out, swatting at the air as if he were standings in front of me.

"Did you invite any if the icky Americans?" I have to stay on topic. This is important and our flirty banter can wait. It always has to wait but Carmine never really let's it. It's irksome to think that it's the highlight of my day.

"No?"
"Well one is working here." The familiar man just leaned lazily against the counter top. Not a concern to be seen from him. Very unprofessional.

"Where, actually let me talk to him." As always I obliged and handed my phone over.

Carmine makes it so easy for me to listen to him. Every word out of his mouth I just want to hang on to like it will be the last I hear. I hate it. He's so fucking perfect. Our little talk at the Halloween party most certainly messed with my head. Things had been good, easy even. Carmine was extra flirty and touchy, that kiss we shared was amazing but with him it should have only been a kiss. I knew that, so I sucked everything that came up back, every feeling, every extra heart beat. It was a kiss. Sure we joked about being in love but it was just one of those funny, inside jokes. With all the messy stuff going on I can't afford to think of it as more, or even indulge in the little fantasies that have become of recent.

I did so well, then he just had to come out of no where and make promises that I always needed. He had to tell me he would do all the things I so desperately want someone to do. I don't need it, I've made it apparent that I don't need anyone to do anything for me and yet he still wants to. He wants to do those things even after I've been a right cunt for the last four years. Surely the uptight attitude would have been a major turn off, it always had been and I liked it that way. It kept people out, kept people from interfering with my life. Until Carmine.