The itch started at the ball of her foot and made its way to her heel like it was an organism, a worm with muscles.
It was her damn socks.
A fast food mascot, vintage, a gift from her mom.
Andrea Wielhelm had been collecting novelty socks forever and thought maybe it was time to abandon the hobby.
Not because of the itch, because it had become too much of a chunk of her identity.
Everyone got her novelty socks as gifts. She had triplicates of every Muppet, and had given away all her Disney quadruplets and… What was the word for five of something? Quintuplets. Yeah.
She wanted to go home, soak in the tub, cry, but Dezzi demanded they go out. Dezzi swore it was because she had hit a scratcher for 500 bucks, but Andrea was certain she made the story up to divert Andrea from the fact that she had to put Ransom down tomorrow.
Just thinking the name Ransom gave her a lump in her throat that she would rather choke to death on than put down her kitty.
Maybe the vet had a package deal, human and cat for one low price.
She should be home snuggling Ransom, not drinking at The Copper Nail.
Dezzi’s cousin bartended and always insisted on novelty drinks.
Andrea looked in the mirror behind the bar. Ricardo would make some awful concoction and she would wind up with a blue mustache for the rest of the night, or a flame would singe her hair or some minor catastrophe.
Fuck this.
I just wanna go home.
Dezzi hung her coat over the barstool and shivered.
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