No Smoking

It was well after midnight at the Iron Bar.  Steve and Bob chuckled when they saw a young man walk up to the oak bar and light a cigarette.  The bartender hurried over to him and gave him a stern look.

“Sorry, pal.  You’re gonna have to put that out.  You can’t smoke in here.”

“Whaddaya mean I can‘t smoke in here?”  The young man shrugged.  “ Where am I supposed to smoke then?”

“Anywhere but in here.”  The bartender glared at him and waved his thumb at the door.  “Take it outside.”

Steve and Bob gave another chuckle as the young man slumped his shoulders and headed for the door.

“Cigarettes are terrible for ya’,” said Steve.  “He really oughta quit.”

“I quit smokin’ once,” Bob said as he took a sip from his glass and set it back on the bar.

“Did you?”  Steve was giving him as much attention as he could through half-lidded eyes.

“Years ago,” said Bob.  “I got the shakes, sweaty hands, and these terrible headaches.”

“Not good,” Steve replied.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Bob said.  “I couldn’t be around smokers, so I had to stop going to the bar.”

Steve looked stricken.  “Oh no!  What did you do instead?”

“I spent more time with my girl,” Bob replied.  “I’m cranky when I stop smoking and drinking, so we had a huge fight.  She told me I was miserable and broke up with me.”

Steve shook his head.  “That’s terrible!”

“I was so upset, I wasn’t watching my step, and I fell down her stairs and broke my leg.  Wound up in the hospital.”

“Damn!”  Steve’s eyes had actually opened all the way.  “All that grief because you quit smokin’?

“Yep,” said Bob.  “It was the longest night of my life."




WC: 300

Prompt: include the line "It was the longest day of my life."