just a dreamer

 Sal wasn't sure what he could do about this new dilemma with Fan. After all, he was usually there to pick up the pieces. It felt like a dance he was used too. And he was usually awake all hours of the night. 

"Well, just call me if you need me," he'd said when she'd called about the Donna situation. He was certain she didn't really need him, but as a good bystander, he was there when no one else was. Not that he truly always understood her choices, but he was a good listener and she was somehow his essences of inspiration even if she didn't tell him everything.

He didn't tell her everything either. Sal thought she would laugh at him if she knew, but he was quite possibly the George R. Martin of Urban Scifi/Erotic tales. Of course, most of his work was electronic and could be bought on Amazon. Still, it was his bread and butter for the most part, and with nothing else to do with the bar in the dark, what else was there but to step into another world on his laptop.

There was his daughter, his one and only Ariel and he usually didn't see her often. She was busy with her own adventures in nursing. She liked to keep her life open to go to unchartered territories. He thought it was for traveling but she visited her mother's mother in the Philipines during the winter months and worked there at a hospital. 

Truly, she was gold and he was always pleased with her updates even if it were a text every morning or a phone call on Sunday night. This too was enough.

Sal went to the kitchen as soon as Fan clicked off. He'd start a hangover soup in the crockpot, just in case. Actually, it was cabbage soup that he'd found one day as he was tossing out newspapers. It was Requel Welch's weight loss remedy, which he never mentioned to Fan.

He wasn't sure how they were friends. Mostly, Fan used to drink her troubles away and he listened behind the bar. She was definitely a mess, although a fighter and generally didn't fall into anything with married men. Still, as a married woman, he thought she had a thousand lonely boyfriends, always waiting to play pool with her.

But the fact remained, he knew she'd bounce back, probably with someone younger and probably meaner and it hurt like hell that he couldn't do one damn thing about it.