A bottle of whiskey flew past Luke Haggert’s ear and smashed into the alleyway behind him as he opened the door to the Pocket-change Pub. It wasn’t quite the homecoming he was expecting after two years in prison, but when he saw who was doing the throwing it started to make a bit more sense.
The filthy pub was empty except for the menacing figure standing behind the bar. Annie Aldridge. The love of Luke’s life and quite likely the person who wanted him dead the most.
“You get out of jail and the first thing you do is pay a visit to your crew?” she screamed as Luke narrowly sidestepped another flying bottle.
Luke had promised Annie two things: to marry her and to give up his life of crime. Two days after that he told her he was going out to buy wedding invitations buy instead ended up getting arrested while attempting to rob a train. In hindsight he probably should have called her with his last quarter when he was released that morning instead of spending it on the ten-cent taffy lady down the street.
A third bottle smashed in the doorframe, showering Luke with broken glass and rum. Not the rum, he thought. “I came to see you!” Luke lied before Annie could arm herself with another projectile. “Dalton told me that I’d find you here and I wanted to surprise you!”
As if on cue, Dalton Lane popped his head out of the back kitchen. “Is that you, boss?” Dalton said, dropping the papers in his hands to give Luke a bone-crushing hug. As Dalton’s massive hands squeezed the air from his lungs, Luke wondered if it might have been safer had he stayed in prison.
“I got the maps like you asked, boss,” Dalton said, pointing at the stack of tattered documents on the table next to them.
“Came to see me, did you?” Annie said as she reached for another bottle. It was difficult to tell in the dim light but Luke was sure her face had turned a deep purple. “You’re planning a job, aren’t you?”
“A job?” Luke said, feigning surprise with a nervous laugh. “Of course not! I’ve only been out of prison for five hours.”
Just then, a shaggy haired kid walked through the door and slapped Luke on the shoulder with grease-stained hands. “We’re going to need those security codes if we expect to pull this job off, Luke,” he said, as if Luke had never been gone.
Luke cringed at Mickey the Mechanic’s poorly timed entrance and greeting. But instead of hurling the whiskey at Luke’s head, Annie drank the contents, slammed the bottle on the bar and stormed off into the backroom without another word. Luke actually wished she had thrown it. A silent Annie was a far more dangerous thing than a raging Annie.
"If I'm not back in twenty minutes, I'm probably dead," Luke said with a sigh as he headed to the backroom to confront Annie.
Nineteen minutes later Luke emerged from the backroom with a painful goose-egg over his left eye. "I don't want to talk about it," he said, leaving no room for argument. Dalton looked relieved to leave it at that as well.
Your turn! Submit a scene!
So what really did happen? That's up to you! Submit your scene in 500 words or less on what you think transpired in the backroom between Luke and Annie. Have fun with it and the best entry will be posted on Plot Party.com.
Congratulations to Lisa Merrick for submitting the following scene:
Luke Haggert stepped hesitantly into the storeroom where Annie Aldridge was waiting. The room was dimly lit and full of all manner of boxes, kegs and barrels. The one window was so covered in grime that very little sunlight penetrated through.
For two years Luke planned what he might say if he ever saw Annie again but now, when he was finally face-to-face with her, his mind was an utter blank. It was too much to hope that this encounter would end in reconciliation. The best Luke could hope for was to survive her wrath.
Luke kept his distance between him and Annie, bracing himself for an attack.
“I’m leaving, Luke,” she said after a minute of staring at each other. “I’m going to stay with my sister for a while. I don’t think us being near each other is a good idea right now.”
Luke was thrown off guard. Annie had never been one to run away from her troubles. Even trouble as big as him. She didn’t even sound angry anymore. Luke cautiously allowed himself to think he may yet be able to get away from Annie unscathed.
“Before I go though” she said with a familiar sultry tone that drove Luke wild. “I want to leave you something to remember me by.” Annie’s hips swayed seductively as she crossed the filthy storeroom, her eyes heavy with desire. She pressed herself against Luke’s chest and looked up at him. Luke inhaled deeply as the stink of the slaughterhouse next door was replaced with Annie’s sweet perfume.
Luke took her soft chin in his hand and lifted it slightly so their eyes met. The corners of Annie’s tender mouth lifted into a pretty smile. Luke closed his eyes and leaned in to kiss the woman he had promised to marry.
Before their lips met however, Annie clobbered Luke with a devastating punch to the face. Luke saw stars and staggered out of Annie’s reach, struggling to stay conscious. A tender goose egg was already forming above his eye.
As his vision cleared Luke saw Annie smiling with a look of great satisfaction across her beautiful face. “Now if you’ll excuse me, Luke,” she said casually, “I have some packing to do.”
Luke was happy to oblige and staggered back the way he came.
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