One of the Best

by James Babbs

of course
it was saturday night and
there wasn’t much going on
I was into my third or fourth drink
when I called the bartender over
and told him
I wanted to buy one for the lady
sitting at the other end of the bar
from where I was sitting
she looked better than alright
she looked like
one of the best I’d ever seen
at least around there anyway
when the bartender
set the drink down in front of her
and pointed over at me
I raised my glass
and gave her smile
she came bouncing on down
and took the stool next to mine
her jeans were so tight
they looked like
they were holding on for dear life
a few hours later
when we were back at my place
she peeled them off
and I felt like
I wanted to hold her the same way
and it was good
really good
it may even have been great
I was too drunk to know for sure
but she ended up spending the week
then she told me
she needed to go get her stuff
and I told her okay
we brought everything back to the house
and got her all settled in
so there we were
just the two of us
staring at each other
from opposite sides of the room
let’s have a drink I said
and I took down the bottles
and started mixing things up
she said oh that’s nice
after she tried it
and she asked me what it was called
I said sometimes love’s beautiful
but it’s mostly a pain in the ass
and then I held my breath
but when she laughed
I knew it was going to be okay
so we drank all night
and she danced for me
and then I danced for her
and the next morning
we rolled ourselves out of bed
and started all over again
endless days and nights
until she started getting restless
and wanted to go other places
and meet other kinds of people
what’s so great about people I said
and I laughed
then I emptied my glass
well she said
it’s just because you think
you’re better than everybody else
and I said so
what’s wrong with that
and she stormed out
and slammed the bedroom door
I mixed another drink
and I sat there drinking it
I didn’t have nay place to go
I didn’t want to go anywhere
I felt warm
I felt pretty good
and I knew
it was going to be a long night