Mitch: "Satnam, have a great day." -D.C.

The woman before me is tremendous. Her tremulous eyes are playing up her lips in a tasteful show of extravagance, complete with #4 ran-mascara trailing an outline around her face, looking like a picture frame that exclaims art more honestly than its captive.

‭ "Look at me, Mitch! Can you blame him? I'm not young anymore, I'm not thin, I'm not happy--I've made her look so fucking good. You know I didn't want to marry him? He fucking begged me. Did I tell you that? Fucking begged me!" She laughed horribly.

‭ Her name is Lilith with one 'l'. She can talk to me like this because I'm kinder than I am cute, and because she thinks I'm paid to listen. I'm not, of course, which is why I can.

‭ "You know what? You know what marriage is good for, Mitch? Kids. That's it. One and all, its only worthwhile excuse. I never wanted kids. I got a tubal ligation before I ever met him. You know I never told him that...the funny thing is that he wouldn't have married me at all if he'd known. He always wanted kids. I shoulda said, 'Fuck marriage.' You know what I mean, Mitch?"

‭ I knew the man she was talking about, her husband. She and he were regulars of mine--loyal from the start. Kenny was always quieter than his wife, and he drank less. Presumably so that she could drink more, which she always did. His all-purpose expression was a bit of a smile that used to brighten a bit more when directed at Lilth, though she was usually looking another way.

‭ I wondered if he hadn't found out about the surgery somehow, and I wondered if I'd see him in here again. Probably, no. This was her place more than his; he was along for the ride. Leaving her was another woman's idea, I thought. But you never know what goes on between two people.

‭ "Sometimes I wish I could've had a kid for him, you know?" Her eyes were black with mascara. She looked like she'd just lost a bar fight. "He never would have left me then."