What Happens at the Gloryhole

This bar sucked. Why did her friends drive her to this stupid honkey-tonk dive anyway? Country music blared out of a beat up jukebox and the only people besides Toni and her friends were old cowboy wannabes and wrinkled divorcees looking to score with said wannabes. Cigarette smoke hung in the air and everything was sticky. The three twenty-somethings in their skinny jeans and flannel stood out like a sore thumb in this place.

Toni watched her friends drunkenly shoot pool. They seemed to be having a good time, at least. Mira had some trucker looking guy chatting her up and Val, apparently, found the only dyke in the whole county and was on her way out to the designated smoking area to ‘chat’ with her. A few people had tried to hit on Toni but she was not having it.

“This is the kind of place my dad would hang out at,” she grumbled over her fifth long island. Tossing it back, she set the glass on the counter and called over the bartender, “Ay, y’all got a bathroom?”

The very sweet discount Dolly Parton look-alike nodded, “Sure do, sugar. Just go around down that hallway and it’s on your left. You want another long island waiting for you when you get back?”

“Now that’s what I call customer service! But no thank you, miss…?”

“Sadie, honey. How about a water instead?”

“Yes, please, Ms. Sadie.” Toni reached into her pocket and fished out a ten-dollar bill and stuffed it in the tip jar. Sadie had been the only good thing about this place. With that, Toni staggered off to the bathroom.

Down the hall and to her left was indeed the women’s bathroom, however, upon entering the women’s bathroom, Toni decided to take her chances with the men’s. It smelled as if someone had clogged the toilet and left it there to rot. Trying not to lose all of her long islands on the sticky wood floor, Toni quickly made her way across the hall.

The men’s was surprisingly cleaner. The dingy linoleum was coming up in places, missing in others, but it at least didn’t smell like the sewer; Just normal things like piss and smoke. She stopped to check herself in the cracked mirror- ruffling her short, lime-green undercut to make it messier. Her eyeliner was smudged but in a cool, edgy way that drove her parent’s crazy. Band patches and rips were used as decoration on her flannel vest and tight jeans, and her heavy boots suggested she was willing to kick someone’s face in.

She thought she looked cool. In her drunken stupor, if she had seen someone who looked like her at the bar, she’d try to fuck them.

Chuckling at her own stupidity, Toni went into the first stall and went to take care of her business.

Mike pulled up to the bar and stepped out of his truck. This would be a good place to take a break for a while before driving back to the station. He was finishing his last haul before his two-week vacation. Which he viewed as both blessing and curse.

Toni would also be on vacation at that time and she chose to come stay with him instead of buying a plane ticket to her mom’s. He liked his daughter well enough but over the years they had grown distant. She became more rebellious and did things that didn’t make sense to him. Shaking his head, Mike decided to head on into the dive for a good drink to clear his head.

The place was pretty empty when he got inside. Some small town regulars having a good time. It was just the kind of place he liked- simple, quiet, and a place to have a beer and conversation.

“Hello there, honey, what can I get for you today?” A busty blonde with hair that reminded him of Dolly Parton stepped up to his place at the counter.

“Just a cold beer, ma’am,” Mike said. “Been on the road a while, need something to clear the dust,” he added with a laugh.

She smiled at him and nodded, “Comin’ right up.”

When he got his drink, Mike turned to face the rest of the bar and relaxed.