Wine, Women, and Psalms

He dropped his matches and stumbled off the stool to pick them up.

Mariana beat him to it. She put them on the bar top as he sat down again. "Everything alright, Mr. Angel?"

"Why not?" He lit his cigarette and glanced back up at her. He didn't know anybody else who hated their last name. "How many times do I have to tell you to call me George?"

Mariana looked away embarrassed. On some guys, the name George made them seem older. Somehow, it made him seem younger--like he was a little boy dressed up in a wrinkled Oxford shirt and olive green slacks. She pretended to wipe down the bar while he fidgeted with his collection of napkins and tray of half-finished cigarettes. "Can I get you another drink?"

George shook his head and swished around the last of the whiskey he was making last. As a general rule, he tried to get belligerent on no more than four drinks in an afternoon. He felt it would be fiscally irresponsible to go through more than that, since his generous advance was paying for every drop. Especially since he'd not yet told his editor he was starting the book over entirely. "You're a pretty lady."

Mariana smiled. "Thanks."

George nodded. Mariana had a kid. That's why she worked during the day, when bad tippers came in and business was slow. "Sit down for a bit."

Mariana looked back at her only table--an old man and a young lady in a power suit. She took the stool beside George and took out her own cigarettes.

"Parliaments." He slid his matches over.

She lit one and smiled. "I'm trying to quit."

George smiled that self-defeating smile of his and toasted her with his half-swallow of whiskey. "Aren't we all?"

Mariana blew smoke at the ceiling. "You celebrating something?"

George had downed a few more than usual. "I've decided on the title for my new book."

Robbie brought him another, then walked around the bar. Mariana glanced up, but Robbie motioned for her to stay put as he went to check on her table.

George noticed their exchange and smiled, embarrassed. "Robbie's a good guy."

Mariana nodded. "Yeah, he is." She studied George. "What's the book called? Or what's it going to be called?"

"Wine, Women, and Psalms."

Mariana smiled.

"What? Is it too cheesy?"

"No, I like it."

"Me too."

"What's it about?"

"I don't know. It was about a bad man doing something that matters because of love. Now, I think it's about him losing everything important to him while pursuing dreams he'll never achieve." George laughed at himself. "I guess it's really just about murder and politics. That's what the readers buy them for. No one ever reads them for the reasons I write them."

"How much have you finished?"

"All of it."

"And you can't decide what it's about?"

George smiled. "I'm rewriting the whole thing. I didn't like my first go at it."

Robbie came back and placed a few glasses and plates in the sink. He glanced over at George and Mariana before washing the glasses and lighting a cigarette of his own. It was one of those bars where everyone smokes.

Mariana tried to smile reassuringly. "I guess that can be frustrating."

George shook his head. "No. That's not why I'm celebrating." He glanced over at her, wishing he wasn't talking so much. "Celebrating" had taken on a new meaning.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know. Maybe I'm just tired." He took a pull from his drink and laid it down, the hard glass connecting with the bar top. He never took ice in his drinks. "This girl told me she couldn't help wanting to change me and thought we should stop seeing each other. She said she'd never be happy until I wanted to change."

Mariana wished she knew what to say. "I don't think people who go through life trying to change other people ever find the happiness they're looking for."

George finished his drink. "You said it, there."

She couldn't help but smile. His cynical resignation came from a real place, but he always made a little show of it, trying so hard to be amusing, even when he was sad. She glanced back at her table. They were still laughing. The young lady trying to show her boss a good time, earning a raise in her own friendly way.

She turned back to George. He looked at her with hopeful eyes, glancing over her shoulder at the neglected customers. She smiled. "They're alright."

George nodded, gratefully. "You've got a kid, right? Boy or girl?"

Mariana frowned. It wasn't the time or place for getting that personal. "A boy, Alexander."

"Alexander. That's a good name." George swallowed hard. Why had he brought up her kid? She didn't want him asking about her kid.

"John Alexander, after his father. I started calling him Alex after his father left."

George nodded. "Is he an Orioles fan?"

Mariana nodded.

"Good. It's important kids learn to root for the local team. Unless, of course, they live in New York."

She laughed. He was so quiet when he drank alone and so animated when he showed up with friends. She'd never seen him there with a woman. She wasn't sure why it mattered, besides all the reasons she watched him and talked to Robbie about him when he left each afternoon.

He stood up, stubbing out another cigarette. "I guess I'd better get back to the office." He frowned. "That's the problem with working from home. Even when you're asleep, you're stuck at the office."

"It must get lonely." She hadn't meant it that way. He hoped he wouldn't take it that way. She turned a little red.

He put a couple bills on the bar. "Sometimes." He shrugged it off. "Some people are lonely no matter where they are."

She put a hand on his arm and took it away, surprised at herself. "You're a good writer."

He winced at the compliment. He'd never gotten used to hearing that sort of thing from people who'd never read his books. He never quite knew what to say to empty compliments. "Thanks."

"I read 'High Court Indecision.' I liked it."

George sobered up for a moment and looked her over again. He'd always hated that title. It had been his editor's idea. It wasn't one of his better books. "You read it?"

She nodded.

He'd have to reconsider it. "That's nice of you. Thank you." What's her name had never read anything he'd ever written. Mariana looked at him, trying to figure out how to say something.

"Would you like to go out sometime?" She closed her eyes. Where the hell had that come from. "Sorry."

"I'd like that."

Oh god. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

He laughed. "Okay."

She watched him walk out and turned around. Robbie looked up as he cleared off the bar. Robbie laughed. "So you finally did it. Nice work, playa." He dumped out the ashtray.

"How'd he know I had a kid?"

Robbie shrugged. "He always asks about you. I must've told him. Sorry."

"No, it's okay." Mariana smiled. "He asks about me?"

Robbie laughed, shaking his head. "Go take care of those guys."