Charlie was as good as his word, hastening to prepare, he changed his shirt but kept his jeans after what he swore was the fastest shower in the world, his hair was still wet when he rushed outside the apartment and down the stairs, he put his best smile on his face and slapped his chest twice with open palms, partly to show his readiness, partly just because his hands were damp. “See, ready to go! Just like I promised.” Charlie said with a toothy grin on his face. “See, I even shaved so I no longer look like either a hippy, a hipster, or a homeless guy.”

Josef scratched his head for a moment and looked Charlie over before asking, “When the former two don’t have girlfriends… aren’t they the same as the third one?”

“That depends on whether they have rich parents or not.” Charlie said and they briefly shared a common laugh.

“Anyway, you look fine,” Josef said when the laughter faded, “but weren’t you going to bring some wine?”

“Right, yes I was… sorry, I forgot!” Charlie exclaimed.

Josef let out a mocking sort of huff, “Seriously, you forgot to buy it? The liquor store is barely a block or three away.”

“No! I didn’t! I went straight over there. I mean I forgot it upstairs… just ahhh… give me a second.” Charlie flushed with embarrassment and hastened back inside the building, the echo of his feet pounded on the steps as he rushed up, he was huffing and puffing before he reached the door to his apartment. ‘So- out- of shape-’ Charlie thought to himself with no small amount of resentment towards his negligence of self care. His gut bounced when he jogged, and a brief moment of self loathing filled him up like water in a glass, but he shoved it aside to focus on his intended task.

“Can’t believe I forgot to bring the wine… the hell is wrong with me…?” He mumbled and made his way through the path of garbage, kicking things out of the way as he went until he made it to the kitchen.

He pulled out the key and unlocked it, then opened the door and pulled out the drawer where he stored the wine. “What the…?” He asked nothing around him, the drawer was empty.

He shoved it shut hard enough to rattle the wine fridge and yanked out another drawer.

Again, nothing.

Nothing.

Not a thing.

Still nothing.

He checked each drawer and the wine was gone.

“I could have sworn…” Charlie frowned and checked his other fridge, predictably it was mostly empty, definitely no bottle of wine there when he cracked it open. He yanked open the crisper even though he could clearly see it wasn’t there.

He muttered and mumbled and yanked open drawers, a flurry of activity and noise rattling around in the filthy kitchen. Without thinking, he reached into his pocket and fumbled around for the receipt, ‘At least I’ll be able to prove I bought it…’ He thought when he realized what he was doing.

But, his fingers fumbled, wiggled and grasped around at nothing but the fabric lining of the interior and the denim of the pocket fold.

“Shit.” Charlie swore just as the knocking began.

“Hey, did you go back to sleep in there or something?!” Josef shouted through the door, “My wife is expecting us, you’ve been in there for almost an hour, she’s going to start thinking we’re ‘both’ skipping out on her.”

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“Yeah it’s just… I can’t find the wine!” Charlie exclaimed with annoyance, “I swear I bought some!” He shouted through the door and, giving up, he headed back toward it to leave. “I even picked out your favorite… I put it in the unit I got as a graduation present and…”

Charlie rubbed his forehead and opened the door, he didn’t look up at his friend, instead he could only look down, “Sorry… I must be mistaken.”

“Meh, don’t worry about it, it’s only wine. We’ll snag some from the store downstairs on the way up, and you can make it up to me next time.” Josef replied and they walked out of the flat together.

“Sorry about keeping you waiting, I really didn’t realize I took so long.” Charlie said when he looked over to see the sun slowly setting on the horizon.

“Yeah no sweat, Charlie. I told my wife you’ve been ‘off’ lately and need some extra time, she knows something bad happened, and she’s very understanding. Still irked at you for missing everything, and for not ever giving her the chance to meet you in person of course but… whoever marries an unforgiving wife, has a very unhappy life.”

“More of your grandfather’s wisdom?” Charlie asked as they walked along beside the quiet street under the orange glow of the setting sun.

“That guy? He was married three times before my grandmother, so probably not.” Josef chuckled, but Charlie shook his head.

“No, actually it sounds right, I mean if his first three wives were very unforgiving and his last one was… it means he learned his lesson, right?” Charlie pointed out with a smug smirk.

“Yeah… Maybe so.” Josef rubbed his chin as he thought that over and reached the entrance to his store.

“So, tell me a little about her before we go up.” Charlie asked and Josef began to chatter while he locked the door behind them both.

“Oh, she used to be a student at our old University, graduated with the same degree you got, we actually got to chatting over a bottle of wine, it was funny, she’s positively brilliant, she plays volleyball for a local team and…”

Charlie interrupted when he found the bottle he wanted, “Here! I’ll buy your most expensive kind.” He raised it up as Josef took his place behind the counter briefly.

“Cash, check, or charge?” Josef asked at the same moment the register’s ringing noise went off and the drawer popped out toward the gentle giant.

“Charge.” Charlie replied and took out his wallet, he slid the black card over to Josef, who ran it a moment later and handed it back.

Josef had the bottle halfway into the noisy brown paper bag before he saw Charlie’s crossed arms and the quiet stare, and Josef’s olive skinned face blushed just a little.

“Right, force of habit.” Josef set the bag aside and handed the bottle back.

“Uh huh, you’re just thinking of your wife again, are you sure I’m not interrupting?” Charlie winked.

Josef’s blush deepened. “You’re always welcome, man…”

Charlie kept staring.

The blush went bright red. “Not like that! Jesus this isn’t college.”

“We didn’t do that in college. Or at least… I didn’t.” Charlie replied, “Does your wife know about your experimental phase?”

“I didn’t have an experimental phase!” Josef exclaimed, and a soft feminine voice came down from beyond a door leading to a set of stairs.

“What was that dear, are you back, what did you do in college that you didn’t tell me about?” She had a hint of laughter in her voice, even muffled behind the thick wooden door, and even without meeting her, Charlie had a feeling, ‘I’m going to like this one.’

“Charlie… you’re going to get me in trouble…” Josef muttered out of the corner of his mouth and headed toward the door.

“What are friends for?” Charlie retorted.

“Good god…” Josef mumbled, “Nothing dear, nothing at all… just a genius pretending to be a complete and total idiot.”

“Do you mean you, or me?” Charlie asked when Josef’s big hand set on the doorknob and turned it open with a click.

“I can mean two things.” Josef answered and ascended the stairs, “Get the door behind you, will you?” Josef asked.

“Sure thing.” Charlie stopped, closed the door and flipped the latch to lock it at his back before following Josef up the narrow hallway. The hall was narrow and dimly lit, a single lightbulb hung down with a little white pull string. Josef’s head smacked the top of it and it swayed back and forth, casting their shadows along the faded yellow walls. Charlie held the wooden handrail as he went up.

The door to the apartment was already open, “Hi!” The woman’s voice was now much clearer, though still a bit obscured as she was shouting from the kitchen, “Have a seat at the table, I’ll be out in just a moment. Josef mentioned you’d be hungry so I thought we could eat first, is that alright?”

“Yeah… yeah thanks!” Charlie said and touched his stomach when it growled.

Josef sat at the table and Charlie took the opposite place, the table was small, intimate really, round and with only four chairs. It was a dark wood shade with a smooth polish, the chairs matched the table, and overhead a small fan spun slowly. Three lights glowed luminous as bright as daylight, the apartment was more or less just as Charlie remembered it, but with a little touch to it that added a distinct feminine flare.

There were double curtains on the far on either side of the window, and clearly everything had been thoroughly cleaned.

Before he could comment that the place looked great, Josef’s wife emerged, the swinging door of the kitchen opened and she strode to the table holding a large white pot with a steam clouding the glass cover.

“Mileva?” Charlie asked with his mouth briefly dropping open before he could make it snap shut.