Hey mister. What'll it be? Pick your poison.
Rough night. Well, most people don't choose that drink without reason.
Usually rough ones. You want to talk about it?
Hey, hey, hey, hey. I'm just the bartender.
All I'm doing is making drinks.
That's all. Your choice if you want to talk to me.
Okay. So you had a date. Now it's still pretty early for a date to end.
So either it went horrendously wrong or no show.
And I'm guessing you came from that fancy place across the street.
Yeah. It sure is where a lot of dates go.
So. How about this. You drink your drink.
I'll join you with coffee. Cause I don't drink on the job.
And you're the only one here tonight.
So. Tell me about this bad date.
15 minutes late. Yikes.
No, no, no, no, no. Of course I'm not judging. Why would I ever judge?
Well. So she's late.
Shows up looking less than appropriate for a date at that fancy place.
What next?
No.
Oh my God. Wait. I'm so sorry. I don't mean to laugh.
I've had obviously our fair share of stories that we've interchanged.
Here in particular.
And when I tell you I've heard some things, I've heard some things.
Between being stood up.
People leaving in the middle of the date. Not paying. Requesting 50-50. Splits.
So many other things.
Hearing that she shows up looking.
Disheveled.
And makeup wrecked.
You assumed the best, which was that, you know, something happened emergency wise.
Not that she had sex with her ex.
And showed up still expecting a date.
And dinner from you.
Because her ex kicked her out.
And said it was just sex.
She proceeds to cry at the table. People proceed to believe that you are the reason why.
And you've just left. And came here.
I'm going to be real honest with you.
Drinks on the house.
That has got to be the worst story I've heard.
Oh, I've had my fair share of bad dates. Of course. Who hasn't?
In this day and age between the online quote unquote me cutes. The actual me cutes in person.
And then the disaster that is dating in general.
In our time.
Whatever you want to call it.
Day and age. That's the way.
Thank you for correcting me.
Well, I don't know.
Sometimes I think that, you know, wanting a little bit of romance.
I feel like a lot of people just tend to think that's too much to ask for.
What happened to build up, you know?
What happened to sitting and sharing a drink with a stranger just randomly, you know?
Or going to a bookstore and seeing someone in the same section as you.
And they pick up a book that you yourself have read.
And you spark up a conversation about that.
What happened to the moment before a kiss?
You've never heard of that.
I think that's just a me thing, but it's the tension, the buildup.
When you stare into someone's eyes and suddenly it changes from soft to sensual.
Like all of a sudden, here you are having this conversation with someone and it's completely innocent.
Right?
You haven't had a single inappropriate thought about them.
But then all of a sudden you catch yourself staring at their lips.
You watch their breath hitch.
You watch them gently gulp.
Because your eyes have turned from neutral to predator of the thought of running your lips across their skin.
And all of a sudden that's all you want to think about.
That's all you want to do.
So you find your eyes roaming their chin down to their neck.
You wonder what that collarbone looks like, tastes like.
And that despite that comfy little sweater that they're wearing,
you wonder what it would be like to leave a couple of marks there.
That, that is the tension I am referring to.
But you know, pish posh.
It's not like that exists anymore.
Well, maybe it does, but no one's looking at me like that.
But with a someone who looks like you, oh trust me.
You have plenty of tension in your future.
Take my word on it, darling.
What?
Did you just?
I am not a liar.
Well, I mean, I work odd hours.
The last date I ended, or had I should say, ended with the guy not even showing, correction, he showed up.
He saw me and left and texted me as he was leaving that it was going to be a no from him.
Like he's fucking Simon Cowell or something.
So no offense, but nothing's inspiring anything promising in my future.
I'm very independent. I'm very much in charge all the time.
What are you doing?
I can tell that you've taken the coffee from my hands and you put it down. I'm asking what are you doing?
Am I the only person here?
Yes.
The rain.
My other bartender had to go to his place.
The pipe burst.
It was an hour before we closed, so I didn't mind.
The cooks left 30 minutes after that because they always leave before the bar closes.
So I'm here by my lonesome.
The restaurant's security guard always stops by in an hour when it's closing closing time just to make sure I'm not alone.
So yeah, I'm alone for the next hour.
Why are you asking?
Because I have to be honest with you.
I'm kind of hoping it's because you keep staring at my lips and not because you want to hack me up and throw me in the meat grinder.
Come to that side of the bar and find out.
Hi.
I forgot to say this earlier, but you have really, really pretty eyes, darling.
Yeah, I would.
I would love to go on another date with you.
I mean, this is our first date, so technically that would be the second, so maybe on that second date you get lucky.
I'll see you then.
Oh, you're going to stay.
OK, OK, well, why don't we just keep kissing then?