Last Kiss: An Innocent Ex-Wife Novella

Chapter 1: Quinn and Charon

Note: This story is currently being uploaded on Radish (Info/Link on my profile)

"Son, we only wanted to-"

"No! I'm fucking done with all of you!'

"Claude, please-"

"Claude!"

"Claude!"

"Claude!"

"Claude!"

Claude slowly lifted his head from the dirty bar he had been sleeping on and looked around to find the voice who was calling his name. It was Quinn, the bartender, whom he had been ordering from for the past few hours. She at first had seemed reluctant to hand him any of the drinks he was ordering because of the rage she saw in his eyes. In her experience, customers who looked that angry usually became violent. After his fifth scotch of the night she had decided to introduce herself to him and make him tell her his name in case things got bad and she needed to call the police or something of the sort.

Men like him, the ones who came here to rage drink were usually regular customers at this kind of bar. It was small and obscure. Too far from the city lights to attract many customers but they had a true and loyal clientele that most of the time just wanted to have a drink in a quiet atmosphere away from the ruckus nightclub scene of the city. Some thought that they could abuse the quiet atmosphere to cause trouble but Charon, their bouncer, was quick to sort them out when they got too out of hand.

Quinn was the only bartender on duty because it was a Wednesday night, not many of their regulars had money to blow on the weekdays.

The minute she saw Claude, however, she knew that he was anything but a regular customer. He came in with an expensive tailored suit that probably cost more than her rent for a few months. His hair was disheveled, most likely by his own doing. She had watched him tug on his hair none-too-gently more times than she could count in the few hours she had been observing him.

He was extremely handsome and appeared to be generous from the number of times he had already tipped her with one-hundred dollar bills. When he had tipped her that amount at first, she had assumed that he was trying to pick her up. Her theory was debunked when he didn't make a move on her. Quite the opposite. He kept chugging liquor down without looking at her or really anyone around him. He was polite despite the anger in his eyes and around three or four hours ago the rage in his eyes disappeared and something much worse took its place.

Despair and Pain.

Quinn knew all about what those looked like. She had seen them in her own eyes too many times in the past few years.

Claude Bryson was going through some shit that she wasn't sure she should want to know about. After all, she didn't know him and had her own set of troubles to deal with. The only reason she was talking to him again was that it was two in the morning. The bar was due to close in less than an hour and he was pretty much the last patron left inside. Everyone else who had decided to go out on a Wednesday had left a while ago because most of them had a job they had to go to the next day.

Claude, however, had seemingly fallen asleep on the bar without any intention of leaving.

Quinn was tired and she wanted to go home, she was hoping that Claude would leave soon so that she could finish cleaning up and leave.

"We close in around forty minutes. Do you have a way to go home?" Quinn asked with concern in her voice. She probably shouldn't care. He seemed to have enough money to be able to pay an Uber or a taxi. Whatever he could get. But still, she wasn't a monster. She wanted to make sure he would be able to get home alright after all of the hard liquor she had watched him drink all night.