A Charitable Scandal

The Shot Glass

I headed for the elevator as fast as I could, I just had to keep moving. I even considered walking all the way to my apartment, but despite my flurry of emotions, I had enough sense not to waste my night hiking through the city. What I didn't have enough sense to do was grab a bite to eat before drinking. Instead, I dropped my things off at my apartment and went right over to the bar with the excuse that I'd just order food there. However, once I joined up with the rest of the team, I found myself more eager to lay hands on alcohol than to waste time perusing a menu.

"Whoa, did you pregame?" asked Jean with a laugh. "You look like you at least have a shot of tequila in you already."

"I don't drink tequila," I said as I took a seat next to Theo and Jean, who both looked far enough into a bottle to not be bothered by me taking up the last inch of space in our cramped booth. Across from us sat Cynthia with a glass of wine and Ryan with a barely touched beer.

"Ooh, challenge accepted," said a giddy Theo. He waved the waiter over and ordered a couple shots.

"You do look a bit rough around the edges though," said Ryan, who didn't look like he had much room to talk with his shaggy five o'clock shadow and wrinkled shirt. "Maybe we should have done this get together sooner."

"He hasn't been pushing you too hard?" asked Cynthia from over top her wine glass. Ryan gave her a sideways glance though he didn't comment on the accusation. Theo and Jean remained oblivious.

"I don't want to talk about work. I do believe we are specifically here to forget about it."

"Here, here," cheered Theo with a raise of his empty glass. "And that's why we've got shots!"

The waiter arrived with the much anticipated tequila and placed them on the table before disappearing to take another table's order.

"Someone else can have mine," said Ryan, who simply nursed his beer.

To my surprise, it wasn't Theo that jumped on the opportunity for an extra shot.

"Well, if you're going to be the adult here," said Cynthia, who finished off her wine and grabbed two shot glasses from the center of the table.

Jean then handed out the rest and passed around some lime slices. Everyone except Ryan and myself downed the tequila and bit into their limes with exuberance. Cynthia didn't even skip a beat taking on the second shot. Then she looked over at my full glass with a smirk that was somewhere between amused and pitying.

"You don't have to drink that," said Cynthia in a motherly voice. "I'm sure Theo here could step up to the plate for you."

I looked down at my glass and thought about my empty stomach which was screaming out at me not to do it. Then I thought about the past hour or so and the decision was made.

"No, I'm good. Keep them coming."

I tilted it back and the night began.

I'd lost track of how many drinks I had. I knew that at some point someone ordered me a plate of nachos. Or maybe they ordered the whole table the nachos and I just ended up being the one who ate them all. No one seemed to mind though. I felt safe with them. I felt free.

I looked around the bar and saw all the young men fresh off from a week of work, ready to sit back and relax. What better way to forget it all than to drag Cynthia out of the booth and have her play wing woman for me? However, before I could even give a single guy in the room a second thought, I cringed. I felt like I was cheating on him. I didn't even have anything with Alec and somehow I felt like I was breaking some sort of pact or trust. Then I remembered how he'd be one to talk considering the serious break in trust he made.

My head started to hurt as the little tug of war, that had been plaguing me for what felt like weeks, started all over again. I stared down into another empty glass with a groan of displeasure rolling in my throat.

"Uh-oh," said Theo, who was now leaning against the corner of the booth, watching me with heavily lidded eyes. "Looks like the demons are wiggling back into Lex. Let's get her a cute little martini." He raised up his empty pint and waved it around in order to flag down a waiter. He held it loosely and Jean had enough sense to snatch it away and pull his hand down before we had glass shattered on the tabletop. Theo didn't put up a fight and seemed to forget what he had even been doing because he made no further effort to claim me a drink.

"I think maybe it's time to slow down the drinks," said Jean with a bit of a slur. Fortunately for Jean, she was young enough to have the endurance to handle a night of drinking, but old enough to know when to stop.

"I think maybe we should get Lex another drink," said Ryan, who now had half a beer remaining. "I'm thinking, however, that we should get something more along the lines of water."

"Ooh," said Theo with a giddy smile. "Water sounds good."

"Yeah, we'll get you one too," said Ryan, who waved over a waiter.

"What's wrong?" asked Cynthia, who kept her tone low so as not to drag the rest of the table into her conversation. Though she'd drank plenty, her words were as crisp and clear as ever. "I had the impression that you weren't much of a drinker."

Part of me wanted to spill it all, part of me wanted to tell the office gossip every little detail so that the whole world knew what I knew, and part of me really did just want to leave work at the door.

"It's...It's just..." My words slurred out of my mouth and I kept restarting so I could sound just as poised as Cynthia did after so many drinks. "It's just work. Just one thing after another. You know what..."

"What I know is you don't need to add alcohol poisoning to your list of problems." Ryan took my empty glass which had once held some sort of whiskey or vodka or something, I can't remember. He then replaced it was a tall glass of water that the waiter had just delivered. "Drink up and be thankful that at least today is a Friday."

"What?" I was trying to hold on to a thought. I looked down at the glass and struggled to remember the whole slew of complaints I was about to rattle off to Cynthia. However, Ryan's interjection had thrown me from the track and I was pulling up blanks. I did have one lingering thought though, one subtle impression about what I was going to say.

"Alec," I mumbled.

"Pardon?" asked Ryan.

"He's the one thing after another. Why isn't he here so I can tell him that?"

"Yeah, where is the boss?" asked Theo, who was quickly draining his water.

"I guess he had a reason not to come," said Cynthia as she watched me from the tops of her eyes.

"Coward," I grumbled to myself. Then I noticed a waiter passing by and without thinking I reached out and stopped him from rushing off to another table. "Wait, I'd like one more drink."

"I think you've had enough Lex," said Ryan.

"I'm not driving and I have say over my liver, and I say it can handle one more drink."

Ryan leaned back into the booth, but didn't stop the waiter from taking my order. Instead, I saw him pull out his phone and do a few clicks of his thumb upon the screen.

The drink came and I called for a toast, to celebrate us surviving that far. After that it all went to black.

***

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