The Bar Manager

I cut my eyes to the right and said, “I thought you weren’t a regular here.”

The Medic grinned and said, “I’m not. I wanted to take you to dinner and since you never called me I figured I would drop by here.”

I raised my right eyebrow and said, “So, you’re stalking me?”

He laughed and said, “I thought you would see it as a romantic gesture.”

I smiled and said, “It’s a romantic stalker-ish gesture.”

He looked at my outfit and said, “You look nice today.”

I looked down and realized he only saw me once before and I was dressed in the company’s all black policy. I said, “Thanks. I’m only here because we have a company meeting in about 10 minutes.”

“What are you doing after that? Can we hang out for a little while?”

“Sure, are you still going to be here? I’m not sure how long this meeting is going to last.”

“I’ll wait.”

Forty-five minutes later our meeting was adjourned. I sat next to The Medic and he ordered me a round of drinks. I said, “One round and then I am out.  I don’t like hanging out where I work.”

The bar’s manager stood next to me and said, “I know who you are. You came in the other day.”

He looked at her confused. She said, “Ebony was working. I was sitting over there. You came in with your good hair looking one of the Debarges’ or Al B. Sure.”

He laughed and said, “Are you calling me pretty?”

She laughed and said, “You said that, not me. Do you like your S-class Mercedes?”

He responded with, “Uhh” like he was caught off guard.

She stepped closer to him and said, “That’s what you were driving when came in that day, right? I ask because it was either that car or the BMW 7 series.”

As he motioned the bartender in our direction he said, “Well, which one did you get?”

She gleefully replied, “The 7 series.”

The bartender placed two shots of Patron in front of the three of us. He handed me the shot and the bar manager looked at me and then him and said, “Oh, my apologies I didn’t realize I was interrupting you guys.”

I gave a friendly smile and said, “No, you’re not interrupting anything.” As soon as I finished that sentence I thought, “Why did I say that? HELL YEAH, you’re interrupting!”

She smiled and said, “Okay, cool.” She looked at The Medic and said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t introduce myself. I’m part owner and the bar manager here. You didn’t have to leave me out of you guys’ shot taking.”

He gave a coy smile and yelled to the bartender, “Three more shots of Patron.”

I cut my eyes at him and gave me an apologetic look as he shrugged his shoulders.

We took the shots and she got up to greet more customers. He said, “Why you so quiet?”

“I’m not being quiet.”

He sighed and said, “Maybe we should go somewhere else. You hungry? There’s a Chili’s down the street.”

“Yeah, let’s go there.”

“Do you want to drive? Or I can drive and bring you back to your car once we done.”

“You can drive.” He walked out as I started to gather up my belongings. As I walked out the door I heard my bar manager say, “Where you guys going?”

“To get something to eat.”

“I haven’t eaten all day. Can I…”

I stopped walking a turned around and said, “I can bring you…”

Before I could finish my statement she yelled at The Medic, “I’m starving too!”

He gave the apologetic look again and I thought, “He better not!”

He smiled and said, “Oh yeah, come join us. We’re going to Chili’s.”

She walked passed me and headed to the car. I stood there for a second glaring at The Medic.

She gleefully said, “I’ll get in the back.”

I mumbled, “Yeah, you better.”

I couldn’t make this ish up if I tried.