Liars

She was watching him cautiously. She took a long drink, tilting the bottle up, and when she dropped it down again he was on his way to the vacant stool next to her.

“Hi,” he said, “I’m Dan.”
She smiled. “I’m Jill.”
“You’re done with your drink,” he said looking at the nearly empty bottle, “you want another one?”
“mmhmm”, she said.
He didn’t hear her answer over the bar noise, but he asked the bartender for two more of the same.

“You’re here by yourself?” he asked.
She smiled.
“What do you do Dan?”
He paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts.
“I’ve pretty much been all over the place the last couple years,” he said exuberantly. “I’m from around here, but I just got back from Indonesia. I’ve been doing the English teaching thing, you know? Since I got out of school I’ve just been traveling and teaching English. It’s crazy how much other countries want Americans, you know? I mean, they’re like just begging people to come to their country and teach them our language. It’s like super important to them for economic reasons and everything.”
She nodded vigorously.
“So I was in Bali teaching and I went to Japan—to Nagasaki, for like a year, teaching and everything, and before that I was in Italy. It was like really crazy traveling around like that, you know? But they really want people to teach English like everywhere you go, so there are always jobs everywhere.”
She nodded again.
“Yeah, so I just got back last week. I’m from around here, but I haven’t been back in like four years. Or right around there.”

He didn’t recognize her, but she recognized him. She’d seen him at the bars regularly for the last two years and remembered him vividly. Two years earlier, at her great uncle’s funeral she saw him pushing a lawn mower. She had always wondered who mowed grass at graveyards.

“What do you do?” he asked her.
“I’m a nurse,” she said.

He woke up disoriented. She moaned faintly and rolled over, and he decided to leave without waking her. He found his pants and shoes next to the bed, but didn’t see his shirt. When he found it, it was laying on her Applebee’s uniform.

He closed the back door gingerly behind him, and reminded himself never to eat there.