The bartender slams down the drinks, but they don’t stop.  He knows they won’t.  He just hopes they will stop kissing long enough to give him a tip. He hopes they will finish before his shift is done.

The man’s breath smells of cigarettes.  Hers of the mint she surreptitiously put into her mouth just before they entered the bar.  His mouth engulfs hers.  His lips are hard as she presses back.  His tongue searches, she opens, his tongue digs, and her body is feverish.  They are falling.  There is no going back from this moment.

Wineberg

The bartender mumbles something about a bedroom.  They don’t hear him.  A midget sits down on the stool next to them.  They don’t see him.  All she knows is her thirst for the man and all he knows is hunger.

In the end, the bartender gives up on that tip.  He gets a different job; one that comes with a wife, two children and a house.  Sometimes he goes back to the bar, to see if the couple is still kissing and how the neighborhood has changed.  A GAP opens and is torn down; Wall Street Brokers discover the neighborhood and move in.  The economy changes and they move out.

Still they sit with his mouth engulfing hers.  His tongue explores her endless possibilities; she answers his questions with her own.  He is imposing, she is small but determined.  Her closed eyes flutter, the smell of his stale cigarettes vanished a long time ago.

The bar changes hands.  It closes for a while and then reopens for brunch with bright lights and flowered napkins.  The new owners circle the kissing couple and scratch their heads.  Finally, the new owners decide to keep the bar, the stools and the couple—for it is clear they can not be moved.  They name the restaurant Stuck Kiss.

Tourists come from China to have their picture taken in front of the couple.   Brides cut off a lock of the woman’s hair for good luck.  His mother dies and the woman’s sister has a child.  But they are oblivious to these changes.  All they know is the temperature of each other’s mouth.

Even now they continue to fall into each other.  The heat of his body inflames hers.  They are in a dark cavern; they are each others only light.  They are kissing each other.  They are kissing still.