Page 69 of Kane

Kane was nowhere near that intoxicated.

Given the amount of practice at drinking late into the night and then on into the early morning he had, Kane was more than able to hold his own. True, he didn’t drink anywhere near as much as he did.

But old habits die hard.

‘Don’t worry about me, Doctor,’ Kane said. ‘I’m still more than capable of drinking your Med School ass under the table every day of the week and twice on a Sunday.’

But with the benefit of a clearer head, Kane was beginning to figure that drowning his sorrows may not have been the most effective way to deal with the situation.

In truth, he knew it rarely was.

‘Okay, okay, enough coffee,’ Kane said, grumpily finishing off the last drips of his espresso. ‘I think I can handle another beer.’

‘You heard the man,’ Leon said, motioning to Raul, the bartender. ‘Make them light beers.’

‘You’ll do no such thing!’ Kane barked, half-serious and half-smiling. ‘You know, Leon… I think I might have made a big mistake.’

‘Two regular beers coming right up,’ Raul said, providing the bottles of beer before attending to an unruly customer over on the other side of the bar.

Things were livening up at the bar, and in more than one way.

Leon slid the new beer bottle over to Kane.

‘Mistake? How so?’ Leon enquired, before taking a slug on his fresh beer.

‘Cassie is a Little, right? Well, they’re sensitive. All of them,’ Kane continued. ‘But Cassie more than most. And the fucked-up thing is that I knew that. I knew she’d had family issues growing up. Shitty treatment from her parents. From stepdads and figures in authority. I knew that and I still went steaming in like a crazed gorilla.’

Leon laughed.

‘Bro, I hear you,’ Leon said. ‘I’m not laughing because I think the situation is funny by the way. It’s more the image in my head of you in a gorilla outfit.’

Kane shook his head and grumbled something under his breath.

Leon was a great friend.

One of the very best a man could wish for.

But his ability to find the funny side of almost any situation was sometimes hard to deal with.

‘Come on, admit it… you, in a gorilla suit?’ Leon pleaded, just about stopping himself from bursting into laughter yet again. ‘Come on…’

Kane relented.

Despite not wanting to, he cracked a smile.

He wasn’t exactly rolling about laughing, but he had to admit that it was a funny image.

‘Okay. Okay. You got me. Me as a gorilla. Ha-ha,’ Kane said, sipping on his beer. ‘But seriously, I got it all wrong.’

‘Listen, we all make mistakes,’ Leon replied, a look of true empathy on his face. ‘I’ve been there myself. You just have to try and forgive yourself. Move on. You know,right?’

Kane could see that Leon was doing his best. Leon didn’t like to see his friend suffering and was trying to say the right things to make Kane feel better.

Kane very much appreciated Leon’s efforts. He really did. He also knew that he would be doing the exact same thing if the roles were reversed.

But Kane still had more he wanted to get off his chest.

‘What’s so messed up is that being sensitive isn’t a weakness,’ Kane continued. ‘It’s what makes Cassie so creative. It’s what makes her so funny, so great to be around. It’s also why she’s so good at being intimate. Fuck. I screwed up, man. There’s no other damned way of saying it.’