Charity stood confident behind the bar behind the bartender who was introduced to her as 'Scotch on the rocks' but 'Rocks' for short. She said her name was 'sex on the beach' but 'Beach' for short but the joke didn't go over so well with him so she was sidelined doing all she could to get back in his good graces. After about forty minutes he left her alone behind the bar saying he had to go smoke, and that she shouldn't screw up. The charity was a bit shocked, was she supposed to have learned everything he did after just what? Forty minutes of the shitty show? If she didn't already know what she was doing she would have been toast.
So she was quite pleased when he left because that guy was nothing but a textbook bartender, no skill or extra flare as she likes to call it. She rolled her shoulders, standing proud in the jeans and shirt the staff had to wear she grabbed the shakers and began to mix the drinks but not of course without her extra flare.
"Hey, where is Jake?" One drunk man slurred, almost falling over himself by the bar.
Jake? That must be the bartender's name, she thought.
"He went out to have a smoke, or take a piss whichever it is." Charity said.
"So who is going to make my drinks?"
"I will, hi I'm Charity" she winked at him but he only blinked at her, that was her signature move, "tough crowd eh?" she laughed.
"Hey, bar girl get me some whiskey, dry!" One yelled across at the end.
"Three beers!"Another yelled.
So Charity got to work, grabbing beers, whiskey, and the likes, mixing drinks and pouring sodas. "I said I wanted whiskey, dry!" The guy from earlier came back yelling, "bar girl!"
Charity turned to him with a glare, "it's Charity and what the hell do you think you have in your hands?"
He looked down at the glass in his hands, taking a sip he smiled and walked away. Charity shook her head and continued to tend to her customers. "Wow, bar girl this tastes amazing!" The drunk from earlier who was no longer looking at her with vicious eyes but drinking the 'sex on the beach' she offered him in good faith so he wouldn't make a fuss about Jake laughed as he gulped down the drink.
"No! Hey, I told you not to chug it down, it is not some mediocre drink you can just swallow, do you want to die?" She scolded him but he only gave her a toothy smile and she shook her head.
"I swear if you throw up, I will make you clean it up!" She huffed going to attend to the other customers, the most important thing about being a bartender wasn't the drinks she made but the conversations you had to have. Coaxing strangers to open up about their problems, listening to drunks wallow in their alcohol-induced sorrow and in general just humouring the general populace. It was a skill Charity had in the bag, after just twenty minutes she already knew the name of almost all the people there and three of them were unhappy with their wives, one jerk dared to even cheat on his girlfriend who was already a side chick and he was still flirting with girls at the bar.
Shaking her head in displeasure she laughed it all away, she couldn't judge, this was where her values and opinions did not matter, she just needed to make them feel heard. Kind of like confession in a church only this time she wasn't offering forgiveness but drinks and there was no covering between them.
"Hey, Charity!"
She turned to the person that called her name, sure it wasn't one of her customers because she couldn't get them to stop calling her 'bar girl'.
"Fiona?"
"Where's Jake?" She asked.
"Uh... he went to take a piss?"
"Don't lie to me, he is smoking again isn't he, that bastard! What do I do now? I can't leave the bar unattended." Fiona said and Charity frowned.
"It's not unattended."
"Look I know this isn't your scene and I do not know how you managed to do it but a VIP customer is asking for you."
"What? For me? Why is something wrong with his drink?" Charity asked.
"Uh that's not- yes, yes he has some opinions about your drink" she replied.
"Okay, where is the person?" Charity asked, stepping away from the bar to go to the person.
Fiona shook her head "you can't go like that."
"Like how? In this, what is wrong with what I am wearing?" Charity asked and as Fiona racked her brain to find an answer to her outfit, a lie that she would believe, the drunk from earlier solved the issue.
Charity looked like Carrie, only vomit, replaced the blood. Her eyes widened in absolute shock, as she stood there, turning slowly to the drunk man she frowned. "I told you, Derek, don't chug! Now, look what you've done!"
"I-I'm sorry bar girl" he whimpered.
"It's Charity!" She huffed as Fiona pulled her away from the bar.