The Bar

Summary: Tegan Quin is a struggling musician who meets a pretty girl at her favorite bar.

Tegan walked through the door of her favorite gay bar, Hap, owned and managed by her best friend Ted. Even though he was straight he had decided to open up his business as a gay bar to the sheer quantity of gay and lesbian friends he had. Tegan always thought that was a pretty cool thing of him to do, plus he actually paid her to perform on Fridays and Saturdays. She was a struggling musician. With only a few thousand fans in all of Canada she didn't do many concerts. It was mostly coffee shops, bars, and then she's release a few songs when she really needed the money. But Ted always begged her to play at his bar, and he overpaid her. Sure, most people would say picking up four hundred dollars on the weekends wasn't much, but Tegan knew it was more than she deserved. She only had a handful of fans in the Vancouver area, and usually only a few showed up a night, so she wasn't really giving any business back to Ted. He never really seemed to mind though. He always raved about her show every night she played and then would ask if he could do anything else for her, as if she deserved more from him. Tegan shook her head and walked up to the bar, she needed a drink before going over to the small platform with her old acoustic guitar.

"Hey Ted!" She smiled and waved across the bar.

"Tegan!" He smiled back, "I'm glad you're here. I've missed your music."

"I was here last night Ted." She rolled her eyes and under her breath added, "No one misses my music."

"What do you want Tegan? Whiskey? Beer? Tequila?"

"Beer please, I don't need to start doing shots till I'm done with the show." He reached under the bar for a glass and filled it up with Labbatts. It wasn't the heaviest beer or the lightest, it had the balance Tegan needed for the show though. "Thanks Ted."

"Yeah, You're on in ten. I've got to go teach the new girl a few bartending tricks." He turned to walk away.

"New girl?" Tegan loved when new people came in, she always hoped it would be someone she could be fast friends with. She could never have enough friends, and she only had a few. So the more the merrier.

"Yeah, she started on Thursday." He pointed to a small young woman at the other end of the bar, "Her name's Sara Clement."

"I'll have to meet her after my show." She smiled at Ted, "Time to make sure I'm ready and in tune." She grabbed her beer and walked to the little curtained off section behind the stage and pulled out her guitar to tune it.

Before she knew it Ted's voice was booming through the speakers announcing that Tegan was about to start. There was a pretty good smattering of applause, maybe some of the regulars were starting like her stuff, or maybe they just wanted her to feel like she had support in the bar.

She walked up to the stool and sat in front of the microphone, "Hey everybody, I'm Tegan Quin, and I'll be playing a few songs for you tonight. But first, let's give Ted a round of applause for running such an awesome bar." Everybody clapped and some whistled cat call at him. He barely bowed his head in acknowledgment and raised his hand just over his head. The cheering died down and Tegan got ready to start playing when she heard someone shout out.

"Play 'Living Room'." It wasn't a voice Tegan knew, so it wasn't a regular or one of her handful of fans that were there tonight.

"Uh…" She nervously scanned the faces around the building, but half of them were looking for the speaker as well.

"Please? It's my favorite." That's when she spotted the girl behind the counter.

So that's what her face looks like. I like it. "Um, Okay. Sure, why not." She couldn't help but smile and butterflies rushed into her stomach. But she played the song and it went pretty well. After she finished she actually got a pretty good applause, the loudest cheerer being Sara from behind the bar.

"Hi," She smiled towards Sara, "We haven't met. What's your name."

Sara blushed just slightly before responding, "Sara."

"I didn't know I had any other fans in this area."

"I just moved from Montreal."

"Ah, I do have a pretty decent following there." Tegan's smile widened, "Hey Ted, thanks for hiring a fan!"

Ted just turned and gave her a thumbs up before getting back to washing a shot glass.

"Any more requests?" Tegan asked to no one in particular.

"My Number." A fan Tegan had seen several times before at the bar said from a chair a few feet from the platform.

"Okay Emy, but if you suggest it every night people will get sick of it." Emy just smiled back and shrugged.

The rest of the show went really well, and Tegan had never felt more like a celebrity. Even one of the bar regulars requested a song. She was shocked, she thought that the people at the bar didn't even pay attention when she sang.

"You absolutely killed it Tegan!" Ted gave her a huge 'big brother' hug and lifted her off the ground.

"Thanks Ted. Now please put me down." She smiled at him.

"Sorry about that," He laughed nervously, "I guess I got a little carried away over little Miss Celebrity."

Tegan rolled her eyes and asked for a whiskey and coke.

"So you don't need anything strong tonight?" He raised one eyebrow at her.

"Nope," She shook her head, "I feel good enough to stay sober."

"That's great." He then turned quickly to help out a customer who was getting impatient.

"Hi." Tegan heard a small voice from somewhere to her left. It was Sara standing just on the other side of the counter.

"Hey." Tegan flashed her a half grin, "It's always nice to meet a new fan."

"I'm not a new fan," Sara put her hands on her hips, "I've even been to one of your shows."

"You mean the show I did a few months ago in Montreal?"

"Yeah, I wanted to meet you then, but you didn't stay long afterword." Sara looked at her shoes as she talked.

"Yeah, it wasn't my best show," She apologized, "I got in a fight backstage with one of the crew and they threw me out five minutes after my show ended."

"Oh," Sara's interest had peeked, "Why'd you get into a fight?"

"He was mean, so I punched him." Tegan gave a half shrug as if to say she didn't really know why she had hit him.

"Wow, I never thought you were actually a fighter."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Sara began as she rested her elbow on the countertop inches away from where Tegan's arm rested, "You have tattoos and you are obviously muscular," She paused briefly as she checked Tegan's arms out, "But I always assumed it was more of a look than an attitude."

"It is. I just have some anger issues and get in fights periodically. The tattoos are unrelated though." She smiled at the beautiful face across from her.

"Oh. You inspired me to get tattoos." Sara smiled weakly and looked embarrassed.

"Really?" Tegan was intrigued, "Can I see some of them?"

"Sure." Sara rolled up the sleeves of her dark button up. "They aren't much."

"Wow…" Tegan looked over the tattoos, then noticed that Sara had some muscles of her own, and then she moved her eyes up to her neck, it looked made for kissing, and then Sara's angular jawline that Tegan had to fight against her desperate want to lick it. Finally she came to her eyes, beautiful brown eyes. Tegan blushed and quickly mumbled, "I like your tattoos."

Sara blushed as well, "Thanks." She didn't know why, but she was acting like she was eighteen again. Blushing over a simple little compliment; well that and the fact that Tegan had looked into her eyes made Sara a little nervous. "They're nowhere near as badass as yours though."

"Chyeah, of course mine are more badass." Tegan put on a mock confident face.

Sara giggled and quickly hid her face from the musician. To be honest, she was a little star struck, even though Tegan wasn't a real celebrity, she was Sara's favorite singer. She had never imagined when she moved to Vancouver to get away from the family she didn't get along with that she'd end up getting a job at the bar Tegan Quin played at every weekend. She looked back up at Tegan, "Do you need another drink?"

"No thanks." Tegan smiled at her.

"It's on me."

"I don't really feel like drinking more tonight," Tegan noticed the disappointment in Sara's face, "But I'm up for coffee tomorrow morning."

Sara just stood there in shock. Tegan had just asked her to coffee. Tegan, she was asked out on a coffee date, by Tegan Quin. "Okay." She mumbled still reeling from the shock.

"Give me your phone and I'll put my info in it." Tegan reached her hand out.

"Here." Sara slowly pulled her phone out and handed it to Tegan. Tegan quickly put her number in and then handed the phone back.

"I'll see you tomorrow." She smiled at Sara, "By Ted!" She shouted and waved over her shoulder, he looked up and waved back.

Sara spent the rest of her shift in shock. And rightfully so, she had absolutely never thought that someone like Tegan would ask her out.