The War For Attention That Ended In Alienation

   Struggling, straining, focusing as much as he could on the afternoon when he first met her, he was still unable to recall many of the details of the meeting.

   He was sure of the basics; her dirty blonde hair was cropped short to somewhat form a frame around her face, her lips were painted with the shade of light pink lipstick that was popular at the time, and her eyes were a light blue that suggested Nordic ancestry.

   She was also dressed in a casual business pantsuit, which suggested to him that she had either taken off work early or had just been fired - one of the two was usually the only reason people who had jobs ever showed up in that bar that early in the afternoon.

   It was a dive, close to the beach and heavily patronized by the locals, but tourists usually avoided it due to the less-than-inviting appearance and the fact that it was down a bleak side street, and if one did not know where it was, stumbling across it was rare.

  She had ordered a Long Island Iced Tea, that much he clearly recalled, but only because it caused him to leave the front of the bar for almost 10 minutes to search for a bottle of Triple Sec in the back room - this was not a bar wherein customer's ordered drinks that had more than two ingredients, it was a tap beer or Whisky or Rum and Coke kinda place, with the occasional Kamikaze or Tequila Mockingbird.

   Simple drinks for simple folks, usually with house liquors as the mixer. 

   Fuzzy Navels, Sex on the Beach, Tequila Sunrises, and Long Island Iced Teas were the staple of the bars on the main drag that catered to the tourists or inlanders, those that lived east of I-5. The locals either didn't know those drinks existed or hated the pretensions that went with ordering one of 'em.

   As she was one of three customers in the bar at the time, and the only one actually sitting at the bar, he had struck up a conversation with her that naturally resulted in an exchange of names, something he thought nothing of at the time as it was pretty much just part of the job.

   He recalled that when she left after about two drinks and maybe 45 minutes of small talk, he did not think he would ever see her again - short interactions with people who were never seen again was also pretty much just part of the job.

   However, he was wrong about that, very wrong. She returned to the bar at about the same time in the afternoon three days later, and was wearing a sundress and sandals, and her hair was up in a small knot of a bun. He remembered how easily he fell into a conversation with her that crossed into a little more personal territory.

   She stated she was single without even the slightest attempt to soft-sell her intentions, and inquired into his relationship status. That was when the deception, at least on his part, began.

   He told her that he was unattached, single.

   The affair lasted 87 days, which was long enough to permanently alter not only the one relationship he valued more than he ever cared to admit to himself or anyone else, but also his perception of his own self worth.