6 idiots at a bar
a monday night scene
I like to walk down to the Village, sit at the bar alone for a glass of red or tequila…
Binge Twitter, journal by hand, or work…
Last night, I brought my laptop down the street to a restaurant I used to work at back in the day to wind down and finish dumping my notes in the CRM.
This guy I know is working the bar.
He walks out from behind immediately, does a goon ass little dance and picks me up for a hug…
I remember the first time I walked back in here and saw him working.
My old coworker Ann Marie goes to intro me to him and we just bust out laughing.
“No fucking way,” I say.
He and his cute red-head gf used to be my regulars…
Like years ago before he ever worked here.
He must’ve started sometime after I left.
They have great taste in food and wine.
He’s super libby though and I get the sense he’s a pathological liar...
Like he’ll bust out these random, tiny stories that don’t do much but feel like he’s ego-stroking himself via fiction… but he’s cool otherwise I guess lol.
My left-end nook spot is taken by 3 older gentlemen eating a line of hanger steaks. Probably in their 50s or 60s.
The corner of the bar turns only a seat or two from them so I grab that… a couple away from a blonde woman sitting alone where the long horizon edge of the bar starts.
Crack open my laptop, smile and mingle a bit with the bartender.
He hands me a menu.
I’m browsing reds by the glass as he asks what I’m going for tonight, “red or tequila?”
(He knows.)
((Every human loves that.))
“Glass of red for sure… should I go Italian or Malbec?”
He responds recommending the more expensive one saying I’ll like it more.
I don’t remember which it was but I fire back, “Sold.”
Start dumping notes in my CRM…
A couple sips in I peripherally notice the blonde girl on my right mingling with the bartenders about how she got “abandoned.”
I grin. They’re humoring her and making her feel comfortable.
I zone back out.
Sometime later, I notice her bringing a plate of ribeye to the gentlemen on my left as one of them goes IN hitting on her…
I’m an age gap respecter but this one is a little uncomfortable.
She’s gotta be around my age, and 50s/60s is too much a stretch imo.
I exchange a couple jokes with the bartenders amidst this, give some short answers about “what I’ve been up to” and go back in my zone…
Trying to finish ordering some Wall Art with the final moments of Cyber Monday…
Soon, the girl strikes up a conversation with me… telling me all about how some guy she “went on a date with once but we didn’t sleep together” was here. And how “some other guy she slept with” was also here.
“They knew each other?” I ask amused.
“I know right!!… Anyways, they were SO drunk and they left me… I mean I am obviously tipsy but can you believe it?”
“Haha how lame!.. but whatever. If you’re gonna get left alone at a bar, this is a great one to be left at… You’re safe here.” I smile at bartender friend. He starts participating in the convo. We talk about how I used to work here. She’s eating it all up.
“Wow… I LOVE you guys!.. I always want to go sit alone at a bar but I’m scared!”
“Get it, girl. I do it all the time. It’s fun.”
She offers me some ribeye.
As I’m eating it, the older guy on the left who was hitting on her hard earlier passes behind me walking back to his seat from the bathroom… he whispers, “You are SO much better.”
Disgusted, I keep my eyes fixed on my computer screen and ignore him.
Then peek to my right to exchange revolted looks with her but she hasn’t even noticed or heard… so I just shrug it off and go back to my notes.
Minute later, I overhear his friend go, “You want one of those?… You get 4 hours of sleep a night & leave your fat wife.”
I auto side-eye my bartender friend… He meets me with wide-concerned-amused eyes… Sad state of affairs.
This world is full of characters, man.
Grateful for every varietal of idiot… especially the one I lucked into being.
Every day is a page in the story.