The Green Hat 2

     They sat in the barely lit bar. Quiet, staring forward at the bottles of liquor and there own reflections in the chipped and smoky mirror.  The hat sat mutely between them.  Louise played with her earring and held her drink with her other hand.  Charlie was feeling the effects of the adrenalin rush and was shaking thumb-nailing the label from his beer.  The bartender eyed them from the other side of the bar cleaning glasses with a rag.  "You know if we were married I would divorce you." Louise was the first to break the silence.  They were the only ones in the dive and the silence clung to them. 
      "I will take it back in the morning" Charlie said shaking his head. "I don't know what got into me."
       “We could be arrested for fuck sake." Louise said and turned to look at Charlie. He had a hangdog expression and she knew he was sorry, but what did he expect.
       "You didn't exactly stop me Lou." his sorrow turning to anger.
The bartender looked up; more to see if they needed fresh drinks than at their raised voices.
       "You fucking grabbed me, look at my arm Charlie." she raised her bare arm and there four purplish red marks where his fingers gripped her arm.
       "Shit Lou, I am so sorry." his anger being no match for hers he groped for an answer " I just don't know it must be the city’s getting to me. There's so many fucking people, they are everywhere. I mean just think of it the city is crawling with people above ground below ground there's no escaping them."
       "So you steal an ugly fucking hat, no you make me steal an ugly fucking hat?"
        " I don't know Lou maybe I’m going nuts."
She started turning her earring in her ear again. "What are we going to do with this thing?” Louise nodded toward the hat.
        "I will take it back tomorrow."
         "You can’t do that they will want to charge you or call the police or something."
        "I'll just say we were frightened by the fight."

The bartender moved from behind the bar and a french song came on the jukebox. Louise couldn't remember the name of the singer but she loved the song. It was something very romantic and melancholy about two lovers breaking up.
         She saw how much Charlie was beating himself up and decided to let it go for now. Besides it had been exciting and she had never seen this side of Charlie even after being together for over a year- she just wasn't sure how to react.
        "Come on Charlie, shall we?" She took the hat and placed it on in the same rakish fashion as before at the shop. She held out here hand; he smirked, took a sip of beer and started to twirl her around.  They danced tightly pressed to each other for the entire song Charlie indulging in her dark eyes and she in his tight grip around the small of her back.  He dipped her and before she was up he met her lips for a long full kiss as he turned her and did it a second time. 
The song ended and Charlie and Louise's world only consisted of each other breathing.  Louise dizzy from the dance and even more from the kiss noticed a man over Charlie's shoulder looking directly at her.
  "So- you have the hat." he said.