Since I have the week between Christmas and New Years off, I picked up a couple guest bartending shifts at a few bars to recoup from my holiday spendings. And I will say this about the season, it makes the bars unusually crowded on a Tuesday night. But I was doing God’s work, I was helping to push along the holiday suicides. This is how I came to met Carol. Carol’s a waitress at a bar/restaurant I picked up a few shifts because I was friends of friends of the owner and they needed somebody. Quite frankly, I could see why other people can’t stand Carol, as the other bartenders gave me the immediate heads up. Carol would pester me for her drinks while I was taking care of my half of the bar…and she was impatient about it. Of course, this forced my hand into making her customer’s drinks stronger than they should have been, as to cut down on the time between their drink requests, while I was handling my own customers. Eventually we developed a sort of banter, and a sort of playful pushing/shoving of each other. She kept insisting that she didn’t have to take me seriously, as I wasn’t sticking around. And I told her that I didn’t have to worry about pissing her off, for the exact same reason.
Carol and I shared a sparse, awkward dinner together. We made chit chat over Chinese food. I made her a cape codder, and served myself a beer while we ate at the far end of the bar while we waited for last call. It hit me that I didn’t even ask her age until after serving her her drink, but I honestly didn’t even bother to care. I vaguely recalled her talking about applying to grad school…and I was correct as she had just turned twenty one. Most of the dialogue contained joking wise-assness, and talks of her being on my hit list. She talked about wanting to be a nurse, and I pretended to pay close attention. I was distracted. Visions of not quite sugar plums were dancing around in my head. I thought about other girls, and I picked apart her facial jewelry.
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