Nate told himself he would be cool about this as he grabbed the handle to the door of Taylor’s Bar. He would take the tiny table in the back, as he did more than a year ago when he first met Lewis here. Nate would order himself a scotch rocks, cross his legs, and wait patiently for the boy.
But upon stepping into the darkened bar and heading toward his usual table, Nate saw that Lewis was already there.
Nate halted in his tracks. The smell of cigarette smoke drifted around him. Lewis looked directly at Nate, smiled, and waved him over. Nate stepped toward the table. On it, Lewis had a bottle of beer set on a coaster before him, and on the other side was a dark drink in a short glass. Nate assumed it was the scotch he would have ordered.
“I thought you said you stopped drinking beer out of the bottle,” Nate said.
“Naw.” Lewis smiled, raising the bottle and taking a sip. “I just wanted to see you jump.” He lowered the bottle. “Have a seat,” Lewis said, nudging the chair across from him with the toe of his shoe, then gesturing toward it.
Nate sat. “I assume this is mine?”
“Scotch rocks, right?” Lewis said, in good spirits.
“Right.” Nate picked up the glass with two fingers, examined it.
“Go ahead. I ain’t spit in it or nothing.”
Nate took a sip. It was good. The boy had obviously gotten the brand right. Nate settled into his chair a little more. It was early afternoon, so only a few patrons sat at the bar, hunched over their drinks.
Lewis took a swallow of his beer and then leaned over the table closer to Nate. “So how many times did you jack off to those photos of my girl?”
“What kind of sick motherfucker are you?” Nate said, keeping his voice down.
“I ain’t sick, Nate. I just want you to know what’s what. Things ain’t the way they used to be, and what you really need to know is they ain’t ever going to go back to being the same.”
“Why are you with her?”
“What kind of question is that?” Lewis said.
“If it’s the money, I got money.”
Lewis laughed, banged the table with the flat of his hand, as though he could not control himself, then said with a straight face, “It ain’t the money. Don’t get me wrong, Nate. The money’s nice. Whatever me or my child wants, Monica gets. But it’s way more than that. It’s love, Nate.”
“You’re just some down-on-his-luck thug off the street, looking for a warm spot for him and his bastard child to lie down in for a while,” Nate said, feeling himself getting riled. “What the hell do you know about love?”
Lewis frowned and then worked a smile back to his face. “I ought to fuck you up for that comment, but I’m working on controlling my temper,” Lewis said. “What I know about love is that when you have it, you don’t pay some thug off the street to fuck your wife so you can lose it. I know that when a woman loves you, wants to give you everything she can, you don’t kick her ass to the curb just because she can’t have your fucking baby!” Lewis said, raising his voice.
Two of the men drinking at the bar looked over their shoulders at Lewis.
“I know that it’s fucked up of you to try to come back and put yourself in that woman’s life after she’s finally able to get over your punk ass.”
“I still love her,” Nate said.
“Don’t matter, ’cause she don’t love you. Now get outta’ here.” Lewis raised his hand for the bartender. “Another beer,” he yelled across the room, then slumped back in his chair.
Nate didn’t move.
“You act like there’s more to say. We done, motherfucker. Pull up from my table.”
“Look, I’m sorry that got out of hand, and I’m sorry for referring to your daughter that way. That’s not what I came here for.”
“Then what?”
“I want to…,” Nate started, pausing, while the bartender set Lewis’s beer down on the table. Lewis pulled a five and a single from his wallet and gave it to the bartender.
“Go on,” Lewis said, taking a drink from his beer.
“I came here to ask you to leave her alone. Whatever you need, I’ll provide for you. I’ll set you up like I did last time, a place for you and your daughter to live. I even know the head of a construction company. He’ll put you on right now, give you a steady income. You can start all over. It’ll be a good life. All you have to do is leave Monica alone and promise not to come near her again.”
“That’s it?” Lewis said.
“That’s all.”
Lewis sat up in his chair, rubbed his chin like he was seriously thinking it over. “And you’d do all that. Buy me a house and everything?”
“Yeah,” Nate said, feeling like this man might actually be willing to consider his proposition.
Lewis paused for another moment, then finally said, “The answer is no.”
Nate stared at Lewis for a few seconds. “I see,” he said, then dug into his back pocket for his wallet. “How much for the—”
“I got that. It’s already paid for.”
Nate stood, slipped the wallet back in his pants. “I asked my question, and you gave me an answer. I guess I’ll leave now.”
Lewis stared up at the man, emotionless. “Naw,” Lewis said.
“What?”
“I don’t believe you. I know who you are, been on the receiving end of what you’ll do to get what you want.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Last year, I remember lying in an alley after getting my ass beat almost dead. Three, four men standing over me, wearing masks and all black. I was bleeding out my mouth, ribs felt broke, wondering if I was gonna make it, wondering who would do that to me. Then one of those men bent over, looked down at me, and pulled off his mask. He said not to fuck with his wife no more, or else next time I wouldn’t live through it. That was you, Nate, remember?” Lewis said, looking up at Nate, a little bit of the smile still left on his face.
“Yeah,” Nate said, his voice soft.
“A man that does all that to get what he wants doesn’t just walk away after being told no.”
“Things have happened. I’ve changed.”
Lewis chuckled a little, took another sip. “Let’s hope so, Nate. Because if you haven’t, this time it’s gonna be you looking up from the ground, bleeding.”