Disco Night (open)

"Look" he said brightly pulling up some spreadsheets on his phone. "Every single thing on this page is related to mortgages and mortgage firms. I've never met any of the people who wind up with this money, but I know enough of them are those American dreamers that I am satisfied. And you know what else? During the collapse of the housing market, I refused to allow any home I had money in to be foreclosed. Even if some shady investor was renting it out. Maybe it only works sometimes, but I don't care, because sometimes is often enough. There is a global economy running through that phone right now, and it touches many people, and I do my best to make sure it touches people for good, and that is how I can wake up every night, scowl at the muttonchops that grew back on my face, and face the night."

Victor laughed at her suggestion "Maybe? You talking Roy Rogers sort of country night, or this twangy garbage about sexually enhanced tractors and rednecks procreating in corn fields while performing felatio on bald eagles?"

Drunk Victor was fun sometimes.

She leaned over to actually look at his phone when he talked, then back to her spot behind the bar and laughed.

"I was thinking somewhere in between. Like the Gary Morris/Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers era. With maybe a little Achy Breaky Heart thrown in, since that's good for line dancing."

"Count me out then I can't listen to Island in the Stream without basically being depressed."

"I followed this sort of music from Roy Rogers until about the mid eighties when it started getting weird. Anyway, you see my point about where I find my optimism? Maybe those nuts in Berlin were right. I make it out of thin air, and work some magic to make something new happen."

She laughed.

"I see where it comes from. And don't you trust me? I'll even do the Dolly Parton wig and maybe do a rendition of Jolene or something for you."

"Then I will come dressed as The Gambler" he laughed

She held up her hand for a high-five.

"Done and done. Kenny Rogers is the bomb."

"There is a bomb?" Victor said his eyes narrowing "I swear to god if it's my car again..."

She laughed again, almost falling over as she leaned against the bar.

"No! He's the bomb. It means he's awesome."

"Ahhh... yes. I suppose that is an accurate statement then. "

"Your turn. I showed you where I find my optimism, where do you find your happiness? I haven't been happy since 1945"

She pulled out her phone and turned it around to show him a picture.

"Her name is Temperance."

"Ok...." he said somewhat confused

She smiled and put her phone back into her pocket -- if you could call the little pouches on the skin-tight costume 'pockets'.

"She comes from a very not-wealthy family. But she has a big heart. Loves dancing and cooking and horses. Where she lives, she doesn't have a lot of opportunities available. I make sure she has opportunities. She comes and gives my horses love and affection."

"Good for you" he smiled "It's the doing for others that makes the difference I think."

"So tell me... no hang on... this song is weird too. This is all weird. You know I was Miyu's first lover in well, a very, very, very long time. I still kinda have hope that we'll rekindle something, or am I just being pathetic?"

She leaned over and put her hand over his.

"It's never wrong to hope. I'm not sure what all the details are behind your breakup, but I can guarantee she feels something for you, to still be with you. And it's more than just you paying her. A woman doesn't stick around someone she can't stand to be around, paycheck or not."

"I literally could not afford to pay her what she is worth." he said after a moment.

"Short story, I fell dangerously close to something we all try to avoid, and i kept doing things that hurt her, even though they were for a greater good. I became heartless and I think it hurt her more than I can still understand."

She thought about it for a moment.

"Did you put her second, when you were doing whatever it was that was causing you to become so heartless?"

"Yes" he said without hesitation. "I was so caught up in the enormity of it all, and then it came to a crashing halt, and I promised I'd stop. It was time to rebuild things... then..." he said lowering his voice so only she could hear "I had Patton killed so he wouldn't start trouble with the Russians. That was the last straw."

She shook her head.

"Take it from a woman, Victor. The last straw was the fact that she kept watching you put other people, other things, before her. She maybe doesn't need to be the big, main thing to you all of the time -- but to take the backseat all the time wears on a woman. Ask me how I know."

"Ahhh...." he said after a moment. "Maybe I try too hard now with her? That was the thing in the first place. I gave her honest attention and affection where she'd been simply ignored before. I knew nothing of her past, or her recent trauma, I simply found her fascinating in her silence, and the way she was snubbed. Honestly, the night we met, I was probably one of the more eligible single men in that room, and I took a quiet delight in snubbing her so-called betters to focus on her. And then she just stood there when the bomb went off and I was smitten. Like it was an irritation that had damaged her dress..."

She smiled and patted his hand.

"You're getting it, I think. As a girl who is currently dating a man she hasn't seen in over a week because of work, I can tell you that you don't have to think of her every minute of every day. Just a text message to say hi, how are you? and such is enough. Just to know you care, that you think of her. But going overboard, trying to focus entirely on her, can get a little creepy and irritating at times. Just let it come naturally. Don't try to force it."

"I mean I don't focus entirely on her all the time, I know not to be overbearing. But maybe our routine is just that? Too routine? "

Victor laughed at something "She knew I was going to stick around during her surgery, even though she asked me to leave and meet her at home, and since I can walk again I've been more of the gentleman, I don't think she knew what to do when I opened her car door for her. But yeah, maybe I should try that little thing stuff. "

She smiled at him.

"The little things are what makes a relationship, you know."

"I should put her favorite flowers in the foyer or something... I'm still not sure what she sees in me. She's old, powerful and has a direct line and job from God. Me, I'm just a banker with delusions of doing something big."

She shrugged.

"It's not what you do. It's who you are. That's all that matters."

"I don't know who I am anymore" he shrugged "The world I was born to is closed and passed on, and I helped close it and put it away."