Jimmy "Sips"

“In vino veritas, where wine there is truth and that goes for not just places rooted in latin, but that also goes for all over the world, but before we go any further, be sure to like and subscribe”

Before the annoying influencer could go any further James scrolled up on the doom scrolling video player app on his phone.

“Now this shotgun is the Benelli M4 Shotgun, used by the Marine Corps to knock off the hinges on a door and is a straight up War Crime to use the extra 7 rounds on that room’s occupants. Before, I show you the carnage photos on what the Benelli M4 shotgun does to even a ballistic target replicating a human body be sure to like and subscribe.”

But, James just scrolled again to the next video, knowing full well what that ballistic target will look like made of gelatin and fake blood after it is hit with the blast of a shotgun like that. He wasn’t in the Marines, he had thought about joining the army years ago, but his father did have shotguns and took him hunting when he was a bit younger. His father lost his love of hunting after the plant shut down, and he picked golf.

“Jimmy Santino; a brutal mob boss back in the 1960s used to rule Iawanda Park Central with a ruling fist, but was also respected among wiseguys and even politicians.” As James heard that opening line he got excited to watch the video of the notorious crime boss that ruled where he lives today; his father sparsely spoke about him but James thinks he was actually named after him because his grandfather used to drive him around for his old limousine business. James already liked and subscribed to this page because he was a bit of a Mafia, organized crime buff. He’d love the movies, even his music taste was largely inspired by those gangster movie soundtracks he’d listen to on the way to work to make him feel far more important than he actually was. He’d seen this video before. Having these thoughts at this particular moment gave James a tad of existential dread. He took a deep breath and held down the button on this video app that caused him to doom scroll too much and deleted it off of his phone. He knew why they called it doom scrolling too much, he knew that’s why he lost his mind a little bit, that’s why his social skills were falling apart, he was backtracking and acting like Gen-Z and not his millennial self, he caught himself using the “Gen Z stare where you kind of just look into the world reminiscent of the thousand yard stare made popular by Vietnam veterans, but instead of being shell-shocked its caused by staring at endless videos on your phone without having to speak to any of it. He knew eventually that he would redownload, or relapse back to that app.

“re-laAPPse” he thought to himself which gave himself two little forced breaths that over text he’d type “lol.” to describe, he thinks he can be funny from time to time - the time: 7:58 AM James eyes jetted up from his phone to the car dashboard.

James had parked his car at 7:37 in preparation for it, trying to get to his new job at 7:45 a full fifteen minutes before he was expected by Lenny to be there at 8AM to start. James grabbed his keys and left the Camry. Luckily, he parked close enough on the near vacant side of the parking lot. The other side of the parking lot was where the grocery store, which was occupied by an enormous number of cars already that early on a Monday morning. He approached Lenny’s Liquor & Wine store which was sandwiched between a wellness studio and a Mexican restaurant. He fast walked up to the store and tried to open the door, and panicked because it was locked, he thought to knock, he thought to maybe call and asked to be let it because the store didn’t formally open until 8:30, but then he tried the right side of the double doors and he flung it open and walked inside to his new job already filled with existential dread, anxiety, cheap lust, and thoughts on being a gangster.

The fluorescent lights make this liquor store feel like a grocery store, not like an inner city one with bullet proof glass up in front of the register. At the counter to the right of the entrance sat a girl sipping her morning coffee.

“Hey.” She said as she looked up and gave a half smile making her long black curly hair move ever so slightly that framed her face which had what you’d call she probably has great music taste number of piercings. James thought how impractical those piercings would be, like what if you were running through a forest, the branched would grab ahold of them and then your face would be bloodied up quite quickly. She probably only looked up from her coffee and her phone because of the loud bell that rings when you open the door.

“Does that bell get annoying?” Asked James trying to make a suave first impression on the girl he just pictured with a bloodied face running through a forest.

“You get used to it.” She said in a monotone voice that he immediately knew she owned a record player at home and probably a cat. “Sorry, who are you?” she asked.

“I’m James, I’m supposed to start today.”

“Oh yeah, Lenny said we were getting someone new this week.”

-Just then James heard a familiar voice call out his name and he turned around to see an older man that looked like he stayed active in his later years.

“I’m Lenny.” The man already had his arm extended for a handshake, and James let him have a good handshake trying to show respect like in the mob movies and not like a dead fish in your hand. Lenny said something to him with just a look, a look that said I respect you and I made the right hire.

“Nice to finally meet you in person.” James said trying to leave a great first impression and thinking that was the right thing to say trying to show the best human emotion even trying to make sure he smiled at the figure of authority, the boss and not give him the “Gen Z Stare.”

“Here, let me show you around!” Lenny motioned and started walking towards the back of the liquor store.

As he was about to follow, the girl sitting behind the counter goes “hey!” to get James’ attention.

“Your fly is down.” She whispered and pointed down. James blushed and pulled up the zipper on his jeans as he followed Lenny. The girl behind the counter giggled a little and sipped her coffee. He didn’t blush; he was flushed with rage.

Lenny brought him through the aisles of wine and various bottles of booze aligning the shelves and displays. He gave him a quick lowdown of the sections separating the cordials, gins, tequilas, you name it. It was self-explanatory along with the handmade signs that labeled everything throughout the store. Then he followed him into the back room first, pointing right into the bathroom which had boxes of liquor even stacked high in there opposite to the toilet. Lenny opened a large metal door that he had to unlock that opened into a back room that was larger than the store itself with boxes and boxes of everything already in the store. James’ jaw dropped when he saw it all, there were mobile stairs to get to many levels of rows and rows of shelves.

“It gets easier to find everything back here because its all mirrored in the same spot in the store for the most part.” Lenny explained.

Then in the back left corner of the backroom there was a steel staircase that led up to Lenny’s office. Lenny pulled up the chair that rolled close to his desk where he sat. He told James to pull up one of the boxes of booze to write on to fill out some first day paperwork.

“You know, my father worked for your grandfather. Great guy he was. His stories were incredible.”

“Especially the ones about the mobsters he used to drive around?” James got excited and said.

“Yeah, those were the days.” Lenny laughed.

James looking around the office that clearly has seen its time in industry going back decades. Lenny was on a hockey team that looks like he still plays in it based on the most recent team picture. There were expensive bottles of Bourbons, a tequila bottle signed by god knows who, a hockey jersey from their closest cities star goalie from when James was a kid. There were single bottles of wine in wooden boxes that just looked expensive. James asked about those, and Lenny told him that the one on top is a $300 bottle from Burgundy France. That expensive bottle made James’ mind wander at that point. He thought that would be a great gift for his mother after the recent he put her through. As James filled out the mindless paperwork he thought about how his recent DWI after being laid off from his tech job made him feel good to have a job again. Ironically enough though it being in a liquor store, he argued with his mom on the way to work about it, but his logic that since he went to happy hour every day after work that he picked up a bit of knowledge. The happy hours eventually turned into day drinking when he got laid off and then backed into someone’s parked car in the middle of the day. He now has a breathalyzer in his car to start the damn thing now. He just sips at home now. He really felt like a loser at this point in his life. He looked at Lenny as he was finishing the papers and seeing that Lenny built this store over the years earned him a lot of respect in James’ eyes. He wanted to emulate that. His Don, or Mafia boss he thought to himself. After the paperwork was signed it was just about time for the sales representatives to start trickling throughout the day, so he got to work slowly stocking shelves to make them always look full.

James started to really feel like he was working as his arms started getting tired from the upwards of 50lbs boxes, then carefully placing the glass bottles on the shelves gently placing them because if they fell they could domino themselves off the shelves and shatter everywhere. He began to fill some of the more popular vodkas near the register while the girl behind the counter just sat there. He started to resent her, and he hated how she just sat there behind the high counter on her phone; it was still early, no one had come in yet and she had just sipper her coffee sitting on her phone. The ding of the door rang and a business looking man walked in and before he even greeted her she reached under the counter and placed a 10 pack of 50ml mint flavored vodka on the counter, he laid out exact change with a couple paper Lennys and he had it in hand out the door before she even ringed it up, he said “Have a great day Stace” and he was gone. James had an amazed look on his face and Stace goes to him “Yeah you get used to the regulars, you kind of just equate it to working at a pharmacy at some point.”

“Oh, so the drunks really keep the lights on.”

“Yeah, but don’t ever point out many times a week…, or day you see them, and”

“Don’t fall in love.” James said.

“Exactly.” Stace said, she secretly hit her electronic cigarette under the counter and blew the vapor into her sleeve. “So, are you excited to be starting at a liquor store the week before The Fourth of July holiday? You’ll have help because it will be all hands-on deck, but It’s goanna be so busy and you’re the new guy.”

“Yeah, I suppose I’m up for the task, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Oh yeah, first it’s all going to start tomorrow when the delivery trucks start getting here and then with Lenny’s motto.” “He didn’t mention the motto.” James had a puzzled look on his face as he simultaneously placed more bottles on the shelf.

“Lenny’s Liquor and Wine, where the shelves are always full.” She said waving her arm and making her voice deeper to mimic Lenny’s. “You better wear sneakers that day because you’re probably going to make at least a thousand trips to the back room.”

This is my penance, my punishment for being a loser he kept thinking to himself. He was mad at the tech company for letting him go even after he took a pay cut after Covid, then he was mad at himself for backing up into that Jeep and not just driving off.

The day went on and Lenny took James to lunch at Eduardo’s for a burrito and introduced him.

to the Mexican that opened the place called Eddy.

“I had to see the look on the new guy’s face when he had his first Eduardo’s burrito.” They brought a bowl back for Stace and she still hadn’t moved, and James had to get right back to work feeling heartburn each time he bent over to lift another case because he ate entirely too much. He had to take his first #2 at work at his new job staring at a box of bagged Cabernet Sauvignon. He got back from the bathroom and started to stock some of the Cordials nearer to the register.

“Hey, James, could you watch the register for me while I go use the restroom? Don’t worry it’s slow right now, I’ll try to move quick.”

“Sure.” James said begrudgingly.

Stace got up slowly revealing to James for the first time that she has a boot on her foot from a fracture and she limped every step to the bathroom he just defecated in. As she was walking Lenny was coming back from the back of the store and asked Stace to hold on a second.

“Mr. Andrews is coming in tomorrow morning, I’ve called in Keith early to have him help James and I make the store look perfect.”

“I’ll stay late and help as much as I can.”

“Thank you, Stace. James, I can throw you some extra cash today to make your first day a little longer, probably can let you go at 7, but Mr. Andrews, he owns the whole plaza and he basically is our lord, we have to make sure the store looks perfect, he can raise the rent, he can do anything he wants.”

“Yes sir.” James said as a call to arms. He stayed late and got home quite exhausted after moving so much product and rearranging displays to look perfect. He felt like a gangster in the 1920’s doing this like they were moving all this booze during prohibition. He was exhausted that he didn’t even relapse on his video scrolling app when he got home.

The next morning James was in Lenny’s office helping him with some inventory discrepancies in the system when who could only be Mr. Andrews walks in. He wanted to meet the new employee and he for sure intimidated James with his tall slender presence that just looks like he owns every boardroom he could step into.

“Lenny, I gotta tell you, after looking over the financials, how’s Carol by the way? The Wellness store next door is outselling you with their legal marijuana next door ¼ the size of your store. They need more storage to keep it fresh and amp up on their inventory. Bottom line is that they’re outselling you 10 to 1 and you guys are simply going to exchange places where you do business.”

“Carol’s fine, her hip healed nicely.” Lenny said as James watched him piece those words together.

“By the end of July, have a blowout sale, I don’t care I just want it done or I’ll just kick you out. Cheers.” He said that and then left. Lenny sat behind his desk and opened one of the more expensive bottles behind his desk and drank that Kentucky bourbon straight in one of the used sample cups from yesterday that one of the sales reps left behind. Lenny offered him one too. James took a sip and knew that this would ruin Lenny.

“I can only have a sip, sir.”

“Jimmy ‘Sips’” Lenny jokingly called him. Jimmy loved his new moniker and he embraced it feeling the liquid courage and the inner rage how this bully Mr. Andrews just thinks he can knock them off like this.

“I’m going to my parents for Sunday dinner, the Fourth is the day after and you’re entertaining people at your cabin about an hour away, right?”

“Yes?” Lenny said as he took a sip.

“I can take my father’s hunting shotgun and break into the store Monday night, and since you’re further from the store Mr. Andrews will be the one to have to come and investigate the silent alarm. I’ll leave the office light on, and when he comes in to check, I’ll ambush him and kill him for you, I respect you and don’t want you to lose your business.” James said with almost a demonic look on his face.

“What do you say boss?” Jimmy 'Sips' asked.

Lenny took another sip of his bourbon.