It was a Friday night and after months of unsuccessful attempts at the dating site scene Billy Goodbar decided to visit a bar or two. He went out alone as he really had no friends to accompany him - a fact Bill had failed to consider in his failed attempts to make friends with the opposite sex on eHarmony, Match.com and Desperate and Lonely.
So where some might leave in a huff, Bill chose a cab to take him downtown to the busy bar district. Bill walked up the sidewalk of one side of the street and down the other, not unlike a tourist on brightly lit Bourbon Street New Orleans. A shy, lonely fellow with no friends Bill was in the third season of binge-watching TREME and he felt like a character in the show as the soundtrack flooded round his head over and over
Bill decided he could not wait any more and as he looked up at the fancy lit signs chose Alphonse's Bar - Live Music. He suspected the Dead had been through town last week. Bill tripped over the doorsill as he was still looking up at the sign but he picked himself up and dusted himself off as his eyes became accustomed to the darkly lit interior. He chose a seat at the bar with a good view of the stage and ordered a beer. And then he saw her.
She was sitting at the end of the bar. No one was sitting with her. Small wonder. Her flowing locks were piled as high as a pyramid on the top of her head but many snakes of the Nile drifted down to her shoulders. Oddly enough she wore a kerchief to hold it all together. Her glasses sat askew on the end of her nose and it was a wonder she could see through all the fingerprints on each lens.
As Bill rounded the bar getting nearer and nearer he noticed her apparel. And how could one not. She wore an orange cardigan sweater - a colour louder than the band on the stage. Over this she wore a cowboy vest which was somewhat odd seeing this was a blues bar. Her jeans were a size or two too large and on her feet she wore argyle socks and penny-loafers with quarters in them. Around her on the bar were what looked like a week's worth of peanut shells. The the week before''s lay at her feet. As he crunched quietly toward her to introduce himself he tripped over her purse, something the size of a shopping bag. Oh, wait, it was a bowling ball bag as she'd just come from the aisles.
Bill was not deterred. He introduced himself and offered to buy her a drink. She smiled, indicating a dark gap in her upper gums wider than the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel.
"My name's Bill, what's yours?" he shouted as the music started up.
"Desiree" she spat into his face, her chewing gum bouncing off his nose.
"Disarray. I should have known."
The Studio30+ prompt this week was shambles/disarray.
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