You'd Have to Ask - 35. Chapter 35

Ugly Pub and Grille

Cole directs Greg to the bar and they pull up and park. They have to wait to cross the street to get to the bar. Cole sees a police car go by. It is Mark who gives a small wave.

“Friend of yours?” Greg asks.

“Yeah, my best friend!”

“Kind of ironic he would just happen to be driving by.”

“Not really, he knew we were coming here tonight, that’s probably his 50th cruise by.”

“That’s cool, so I guess he knows?”

“Yeah, he has been a really good friend. Especially now.”

“He is just looking out for you, making sure I am not an axe murderer.”

The Ugly Pub and Grille is situated in a brick building. Greg notices when they enter the bar that is has open brick walls. The ceiling is covered with wood painted in different colours. At the back of the room is a large screen TV. The place is packed with people glad to be finished another week at work.

Cole who is totally at home leads Greg through the bar, he turns to the right and a short hallway leads them to the Grille side. Cole sees Kelly sitting at a table. She is not alone there is a guy sitting with her. He notices it is another Police Officer and his chest tightens.

“Hey Cole!” Kelly says, “Pull up a chair.”

“Hey Kelly, Matt. This is Greg a friend of mine down from Edmonton.”

“Welcome to Lacombe Greg.” Kelly and Matt say at the same time.

“So you on the job?” Matt asks Greg as soon as he is seated.

“No, not a cop. I am an Immigration Officer.”

Matt immediately cools, he is not used to hanging around with civilians. Cole knows Matt but not that well. Matt is big friends with Brent the fireman. They play hockey and fastball together and when they aren’t doing that go to Red Deer to pick up chicks. In fact Cole is surprised to see that Brent isn’t here. He would basically describe Matt as a red neck. Cole prepares himself to get ready to bail if Greg and Matt butt heads.

“Immigration that must be interesting?” Kelly asks.

“Yeah it is, it’s sort of like the import export business.”

“Seems to be a lot more importing than exporting.” Matt says.

Greg hopes someone changes the subject really fast, it is obvious he has struck out with one of Cole’s co-workers.

“How is everyone’s beer?” Cole asks, “I’m buying”
Everyone wants a beer and Cole indicates a four to the waitress. Greg notices that Matt and Kelly are both drinking Bud. Sure enough the waitress shows up and serves them four Buds. “Something I will have to get used too” He says to himself.

“To good friends and good beer!” Cole toasts.

Everyone echoes Cole and they cling bottles and take a drink.

“Nice place.” Greg says to no one in particular. “How did it gets it’s name, there is certainly nothing Ugly.”

“We aren’t really sure.” Cole says, “You seem to get a different story anytime you ask someone. It’s been here for about three years and is doing well.”

“I can see!”

“So what brings you down from the big city, Greg?” Kelly asks as she checks Greg out. She notices the man is put together pretty well. She checks to see if he has a ring, but doesn’t see one. Of course that isn’t an indicator almost all the guys she works with don’t wear their rings.

“I came down to hang out with Cole for something different. Besides, he just finished his house, had to see that!”

“You finally finished the house Cole?” Matt asks, “When’s the housewarming?”

“Haven’t decided yet, not sure if I want to have all you wild guys out there!”

Kelly and Greg laugh, Matt doesn’t know whether to be offended but laughs as well.
Greg notices some peanuts on the table and takes some. When he has shelled them he makes a pile. Looking around he sees the floor is covered with peanut shells, so he brushes his off the table to join the others.

“Have you known Cole long?”

“Actually no, but we have some friends in common, we met through them.” Greg says.

Cole is impressed and he kicks himself for not coming up with a story while they were driving here.

“Yeah, Greg and I are thinking of running a marathon.” Cole adds, “We were going to get a training plan set up and pick a race.”

“Gonna be tricky for you two to train together, living so far apart.”

“Not really Kelly, we both run anyway, we are just going to set up a plan. When we can run together that would be great. But we’ll still do our own training.” Greg says he looks at Cole for concurrence. Cole nods.

“Either of you run one before?” Matt asks.

“I have done two.” Greg says, “Edmonton and Vancouver.”

“I am still a virgin so to speak, but I am eager to try it.” Cole says. “We are going to laugh our asses off when we get back home,” he says to himself.

“I ran Edmonton’s in 2000.” Kelly says, “What year did you do it?”

“I ran it in 94, it was my first one.” Greg says.

“I think I want to do another one. Which one are you guys planning on doing?” Kelly asks.

“We haven’t planned anything yet, ideally it would be Chicago, but that is less than a month away, so we will have to plan for something in the spring.” Greg says.

“I still want to do Chicago sometime though.” Cole says, “Maybe next year.”

“Why Chicago?” Matt asks.

“Two reasons Matt, its flat and the city is an architectural wonder. Lots to look at while you’re running.”

“I could think of a lot more interesting things to look at then buildings!” Matt chortles.

Cole picks up his bottle and has a drink he notices that he has almost completely finished his beer.

“Anyone for another beer?” Cole asks.

Kelly and Matt both indicate they want another beer. Greg says he is ok.

Cole has his back to the small hallway but he notices Kelly look up and smile.

“Hey guys behaving yourselves?” Mark says as he walks up to their table.

“We are Officer.” Cole says, “What brings you in here?”

“Just doing my job, making sure the town is safe.” Mark says as he looks at Greg.

“Mark this is my friend Greg, he is down from Edmonton.” Cole says.

Mark steps over and offers his hand, Greg stands a bit and shakes it, “Pleased to meet you.”

“Come down to see the sights?” Mark asks.

“Yeah, I figured I’d make a getaway before the snow falls.” Greg says.

“Supposed to be nice this weekend.” Mark turns and looks at Cole, “You should take him to the Maze.”

“Is that still open?” Cole asks, funny he can’t remember when the damned thing closes down.

“The Maze?” Greg asks.

“It’s a maze, you know, but this one is in a corn field.” Cole says

“Come to think of it I haven’t been there either.” Kelly says.

“Maybe we could go there tomorrow afternoon.” Cole says and looks at Greg and then Kelly.

“Well I’d love to but I am heading down to Calgary again.” Kelly says.

Mark says good-bye to everyone and takes a tour of the bar.

“So your heading down to Calgary again parts. Is there something we should know?” Cole asks with a big grin.

“None of your business Wheeler! I am allowed to have a social life.” Kelly protests.
“Besides I haven’t found a reason to shop locally yet.” She looks at the three men as she says this.

“Fraternization, its in the manual, what section Matt?” Cole says.

“Haven’t got it handy but I sure don’t want to be in front of the Sarge and explain bopping in a cop car.”

“Well here’s to finding a bopping partner!” Cole says and they all take a drink.

“Speaking of which guys, I gotta head er.” Matt says with a wink.

“Got something lined up?”

“Oh yeah!” Matt says and downs the rest of his beer. When he stands he waivers a bit. The guy has obviously been drinking for a while.

“I hope it’s within walking distance.” Kelly says.

Cole knows better than to say anything, he is walking on pretty thin ice bringing a date here as it is.

Matt puts on his leather jacket and then heads for the door.

“You staying for another beer, Kelly?” Greg asks as he gets his wallet out.

“Yeah sure, it’s Friday night, not much else going on. Besides I live close.” Kelly says and looks at Cole. She remembers bumping into him at his girlfriend’s in the same building.

Greg gets the waitress’s attention, she makes a circle sign and he nods.

“So have you met Kat yet Greg?” Kelly asks.

“No, I haven’t had the pleasure.” Greg tries to remember if Cole had mentioned her. It is obvious though that Kelly is trying to get some info.

“Our coming out tonight wasn’t planned at all Kelly, in fact I sprung it on Greg after dinner.”

Kelly’s intuition reacts to the coming out part of that sentence. She looks at both of them and they just don’t seem as relaxed as most guys are. “Are they hiding something?” She asks herself, “Or does this have something to do with Cole’s project which she heard involves his going to Edmonton.”

The waitress comes and puts down the bottles and Greg pays her.

“Well I have to go to the washroom guys.” Kelly says and gets up. “Be right back.”

When she has entered the Ladies Cole quickly says in a low voice, “Mark knows, Kat is a lesbian pretending to be my girlfriend and Kelly is getting mighty suspicious.”

“Got it.” Greg says.

The two of them talk about marathons. They are still talking about it when Kelly gets back.

“I was just telling Cole about this father and son that were running in Vancouver.” Greg says and looks at her. “I passed them several times by this point and the son, I think he was about 14 or so. He looks like he doesn’t want to do it anymore. We were over halfway through at this point anyway the Dad keeps telling his son ‘don’t let it get to you, its just a thing and no thing can beat you!” Greg puts on a fake Texas accent as he quoted the father.

The three of them laugh. Cole and Kelly each try to say it with a Texas accent.

Greg tells some more stories from his marathons and Kelly joins in and tells some from the one she ran.

Cole enjoys listening to them. But something else is bothering him. He thinks that Kelly is just about to figure things out so he prepares himself to confirm her suspicions. He feels it is only fair as she was his partner until today.

“Well guys after all that talk of healthy stuff I have to go do something gross.” Greg says as he flashes his pack of cigarettes and puts his coat on.

Kelly looks stunned, “But you’re a runner, you know better!”

“Been telling him the exact same thing Kelly.” Cole says.

Greg gets up and walks to the bar side, he finds room at a stand up table and lights a cigarette. He didn’t want to smoke at the table, besides Cole was nice enough not to say anything when he smoked in the car.

Cole and Kelly get down to some shoptalk. Kelly asks about her new partner and Cole tells her is he a good guy and she should have no problems.

“How is the house?” Kelly asks.

“It’s great! I finally got the deck finished. Now I just have to fill it up!” Cole laughs.

“It has been my experience that you don’t have to fill it up, it just does.” Kelly says, “My ex and I accumulated tons of shit while we were married.”

“Did you guys own a house?” Cole realizes he never did ask her too much about her life.

“Yeah, we did. The ex bought me out. I did pretty good.”

“Well that’ll help you get started here.”

“It sure will. I should really start to look now.” Kelly smiles, “Now that I know I will be staying.” She takes a drink. “By the way I never did get to thank you, that was a great evaluation you wrote!”

“Thanks, but I was just telling it as it is.” Cole smiles.

“Can I ask why you are switching shifts?”

“Nothing personal Kelly, I am just used to working with Mark. We have been together for several years and have a great relationship.”

“Actually my ex had the same partner for a long time too and he did everything he could to make sure that didn’t change. You’d think he’d do as much for his wife.”

Cole doesn’t say anything but he does know that Kelly should hit it off pretty well with her new partner. They may test that fraternization policy. He smiles.

“Why are you smiling?” Kelly asks.

“Oh nothing!” He answers. He is glad that the conversation went this way. He actually was thinking of tell her the truth about himself, but he has had enough change in the last month. He wants to sit back and let things normalize for a while.

“Really cool bar, I got to speak to some guys and put some loonies in the jukebox.” Greg says as he comes back to the table.

“Did you get your fill?” Kelly says sarcastically.

“Sure did!” Greg says.

“I am sure you get asked this a lot, but why don’t you quit?”

“Well its kind of a pile of things, but don’t worry I think the time is coming soon.” Greg says as he flashes a smile.

Cole nods and takes a drink. Kelly is oblivious to the interaction between the two guys.

“Oh yeah, besides if I am going to kick your ass in that marathon, I better quit!”

They all laugh and drink some more.

“Well Guys I am getting tired and I sure don’t want to drink anymore. Maybe I should head off home and let you loose on the local women.” Kelly says.

Greg looks around and then says, “Nice timing I think you waited till all the single ones were gone.”

Cole laughs as he notices this too.

“More than just a pretty face!” Kelly says.

“Well, we should be going too.” Cole says, “May we walk you home?”

“Sure Cole that would be nice.”

The three of them put their coats and stand. Cole stops at the bar and pays his tab as Greg and Kelly head outside.

“He’s a good guy isn’t he?” Kelly says while the two of them wait on the sidewalk. Kelly takes this moment to see if she could put a finger on what is bugging her.

Greg is aware of what she is trying to do and he thinks carefully before he answers, “Yeah he is a great guy. He seems to have a things set here, a good job, his own house. I think he is going to make someone really happy.”

“Yeah he is going to make someone a great partner.” She intentionally used this word to see if she could trip Greg up.

“That’s kind of a dual purpose word to use Kelly.” Greg says as Cole comes out and joins them.

“What’s that?” Cole asks.

“Oh nothing, we were just talking.” Greg says and smiles at Kelly.

“Well from the look on your faces I don’t think it was about the weather!”

“Your right Cole, we were talking about you!” Kelly says and starts to laugh.

“Well as long as it was good!”

They laugh as they head down the street. Kelly is in the middle and offers her arms to both men and they take them. They window-shop whenever they pass a store, making comments about the various wares on display.

They arrive at Kelly’s building and stop. Kelly invites them up for a nightcap.
Cole fakes a yawn and Greg says he is at his limit as he is the designated driver.

“Well I think you still have to wait some time yet.” Kelly says, “Why don’t you come up?”

“We can take the long way back to the car besides it’s nice out.”

“And I want another cigarette!” Greg says with a fake whine.

“Well then good night boys.” Kelly says as she puts the key in the lock.

“Night Kelly, it was nice meeting you.” Greg says.

“Nice meeting you too, Greg. Don’t make yourself a stranger.”

“I’ll try not too, if we are going to stick to the training plan you should see a lot more of me.”

“Night Kelly.” Cole says.

Kelly turns and goes into the building. She looks back at them before she gets in the elevator. They wave and turn to walk back to the car.