The Art of Tending a Bar: Watching
The young bartender calmly looked over the mass of people while washing a couple glasses. It was a pretty good crowd for a Saturday, and he was just people-watching. He liked to do that during his short free moments. He saw many different kinds of people too.
Fat ones, tall ones, unbelievably beautiful ones... egotistical ones, shy ones, even gay ones. Everyone and anyone came to this little corner bar, and for the longest time, the bartender had no idea why. Then he realized that it was because no one was rejected. With the exception of pissed drunk idiots who wanted to start a fight... other than that, everyone else was allowed access. You could order whatever, provided you had an ID, and you could dance however the hell you wanted. No one cared. Everyone was there to have a good time.
He was almost proud to work at a dump like this.
"I like this place," the girl said out of nowhere. She rested her elbows on the bar top, leaning her back onto the corner of it. She faced the crowd, watching all the people dance. "It's comfortable."
He glanced at her. "Comfortable isn't usually an adjective to describe a bar."
She nodded at that. "True, but unlike the other dumps around town, I kind of feel at home here. Call me crazy, but most everyone's sane here. Sure we have some creeps, but most are from out of town, and they end up getting kicked out of here anyway." She paused. "It's weird because I know I can get drunk, but I kind of feel as if I won't be raped or something..." Then she stopped and laughed at herself. "That's ridiculous. I'm ridiculous. This is a bar for God's sake."
"Not exactly," the bartender pointed out. "You have people here watching after you."
She 'hmph'ed. "Like who? The old man with the limp?"
The bartender shrugged. "I was sort of talking about me." When he looked at her, he was positive that she was blushing.
"W-well..." she stammered, abruptly standing and crossing her arms. "That's... That's just... It's late, you know? I've got to get going."
So he watched her walk away and disappear into the crowd, a smile plastered to his face the whole time.