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Because the way you're staring at it makes me doubt you.” Vince let out a deep, raspy laugh, closing his eyes and shoving the unknown piece of meat into his mouth.
    I sat quietly, still focused on Charlie as Vince rambled on and on about what he used to eat. The filets, the caviar, all the expensive cuisines that most people couldn't ever afford.
    My head nodded as if I was listening, but inside, her face loomed. I couldn't wait to see her again, it was unbearable. I felt obsessed with these mental images, I wanted to see her now.
    When we'd been together last, I'd thought about running my hand up her thigh and over her curves. The chance had been there, she'd come so close to me when her pen had fallen.
    I wanted to know what it felt like to have her lips touch mine. Would they be as soft as velvet?
    “Hey, you there?” Vince asked, his words cutting into my daydream.
    “What?” I snapped.
    “I said I heard Ricardo has been causing a lot of problems with that guy Chris, supposedly he's planning something, not sure what yet, but I guess he doesn't like him. I was told he thinks Chris needs to learn a lesson, he doesn't like his mouth.” He chewed, his jaw open to expose his teeth grinding down.
    I found it ironic that someone with so much class and refinery ate like such a pig.
    “I don't really care what Ricardo does, so long as he doesn't bother me,” I said.
    Ricardo was here for double homicide, he'd gotten two life sentences. He'd already been here for more than twenty years. When this is all you have, you feel the need to own it.
    He'd once tried to 'show me my place.' It didn't work in his favor. The guy ended up at the infirmary, while I endured a few days in solitary.
    I hated that fucking place.
    After I came out of confinement, Ricardo never glanced crookedly in my direction again. The guy in charge had been knocked off his high horse; my status here was set.
    From that point on, no one messed with me. People who had previously snuffed my existence gave me praise. Those who were weak attempted to gain my friendship.
    For the first time ever, I was not the man in the shadows.
    I had been recognized.
    “You say that now,” Vince scoffed. “But when something goes down you'll probably care. I get it, just don't cry to me later that you missed out on something good, I know how sensitive you are,” Vince said as he let out a chuckle.
    I laughed slightly at this; he was good for that, always busting my balls. “I'm pretty sure you're the one who's sensitive. If I remember right, didn't you cry when we watched Bambi?”
    “No! I had something in my eye, I told you.” He shook his head while looking down at his plate.
    “Oh yeah, that's right, the eye issue. I forgot that,” I said with a laugh.
    “And even if I did, there are some sad moments in that movie! Maybe I'm just a man in tune with my softer side.” He motioned his hand towards his heart.
    “I'm sure that's it,” I said with over the top sympathy. Vince gave me a dirty look.
    The bell sounded to end our dinner and the guards did their ritual line up to escort us all back to our cells. Vince stood behind me as we walked back. I could hear him breathing from his nose, it sounded like a mouse squealing between two pillows. 
    His cell was to the left of mine, so I knew that noise well. It used to bother me but after so many years, I was used to it.
    The bars clanked shut and the guard released my cuffs. I rubbed my wrists to ease the soreness. The assholes always put those things on too tight.
    I wondered if I would still feel their presence once I was free. Didn't they have a name for that, phantom sensations or something? Like when you lost a limb, but could still 'feel' it attached to you?
    As I sat on my bed, her face appeared in my mind. Charlie seemed to satisfy my need for relief, an escape from my own demons. She was magnetized, drawing me in the more time we spent together.
    She's amazingly tough, I thought to myself. It took a lot to