AN: Happy Friday everyone!
As always, thank you for your reviews! I laughed at everyone who joked about living in the neighborhood where Daryl felt free to walk around the house naked. I'm sure that there wouldn't be nearly as many complaints from the neighbors as Carol imagined. LOL
I hope you enjoy!
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"So I told her of course I'd take the position," Carol said, catching up with Andrea behind the bar and starting to fill a pitcher for one of the tables. "I mean the law office offers benefits…and let's face it, after Ed's last visit and the doctor bills for my first two visits…I was starting to wonder if I wasn't going to have to ask you to take care of everything when the kid comes."
Carol glanced around, making sure that no one was paying her conversation with Andrea any attention, but that was the one good thing about working at the Watering Hole. You didn't have to edit yourself at all. Everyone was too drunk to pay you any attention anyway and if they did hear something they'd never remember it since they were likely to drink until they had no idea what had happened the night before anyway.
"I think it's a good idea," Andrea said. "I mean who doesn't want a desk job with benefits that pays better than their sucky ass waitressing job. If you weren't…well…you know…then I'd probably fight you for it."
Carol snickered.
"It's good too, though, because it's a Monday through Friday job and it's over by five. I can still get in Saturdays and Sundays at Lula's which are the two biggest days and I can pull Thursday to Saturday nights here. I'm still able to hang on to my highest profit hours," Carol said.
Andrea didn't respond to her. She took the tray of shot glasses she'd been filling and started back down her line of tables while Carol took the pitcher in one hand and a stack of glasses in the other and headed to the table she was supposed to be waiting on.
When they got back around the bar, Andrea knit her brows at Carol.
"Wait, so you're going to keep working here and at Lula's and you're going to work at the law office?" Andrea asked, downing a shot and dropping the shot glass into the dish bin on the side of the bar.
Carol nodded at her.
"I'm only going to be at Lula's two days a week and here three nights a week, so it's not that big of a deal," Carol said.
"Forgive me if I'm wrong," Andrea said, putting on a big show to scratch her head, "but aren't you supposed to take it easy? I mean instead of adding a job wouldn't you ideally lose one of them?"
"Maybe in some perfect world," Carol said. "I need to make as much money as I can, though. I can't pull all three once the kid's here."
Andrea nodded her head a little. She shrugged and took another shot. Carol was used to the process and watched as she tossed that shot glass into the same bin as before.
"What's Daryl think about it?" Andrea asked.
Carol shrugged and busied herself with wiping down the bar.
"There's nothing for him to think about it," Carol said. "He doesn't know so much what I'm doing as he just knows that I'm at work, and if the sun's down, it means I'm here."
"Yeah…" Andrea said, "about that…are you going to keep working here?"
Carol shrugged.
"Until I have to stop I am," Carol said.
Andrea nodded a little.
"I guess it makes sense. You're not going to find a job where you get tipped like this to fill the night hours," Andrea said. "It's gonna be pretty damn funny though…" She chuckled to herself.
"What are you laughing at?" Carol asked swatting Andrea on the shoulder with the rag she used to wipe the bar down with. Andrea caught the rag and tugged it out of Carol's hand.
"I just have a great image of you…absolutely fucking humongous…waiting tables on these assholes," Andrea said, laughing. "Don't worry, though, honey. I'll still split my tips with you."
"Shut up," Carol said, snickering. "I've got to do whatever the hell I can to try and make sure I've got as much money as possible saved up."
"No, really," Andrea said, trying to straighten herself up, "I really do understand. But you've got to admit that it's going to look like something straight out of some kind of white trash television documentary or something like that."
Carol shook her head.
"We don't have to say anything about it to the kid when it's older. As far as it has to know, I spent the whole time at home knitting booties or something," Carol said.
Andrea laughed again. She shook her head.
"I'm sorry, that image is almost as bad. Lincoln would be unravelling the damn things all over the house as quick as you got them put together," Andrea said.
Carol rolled her eyes. She saw two men stumbling out of one of her tables and heading toward the door, the drunker of them bumping a guy who was playing pool. The man playing pool turned around quickly yelling obscenities and Carol and Andrea both braced themselves for the fight that was very possibly about to break out. The drunk man, however, profusely apologized and the man playing pool was kind enough to forgive him this once for his intoxicated transgression. The two drunks stumbled on out of the bar and Carol watched them make their way out the door.
"We've got to get a bouncer or something," Carol said, pulling one of the trays out from under the bar and starting around so that she could clear the table.
"I'll talk to Loretta about it," Andrea said with a sigh.
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Andrea was surprised when the man, Philip, came back through the door of the bar. He took a seat in a corner booth, overdressed again for the likes of the Watering Hole, and sat facing the direction of the bar. Andrea hesitated a moment, but seeing that Carol was cleaning tables and Philip was blatantly looking at her, she stepped from behind the bar and started in his direction, plastering on her best smile for the customer and hoping that he had a little something to help make both their nights heftier.
"I didn't expect to see you back so soon," Andrea said.
Philip obviously eyed her up and down.
"Don't you look quaint tonight," he said, smiling.
Andrea smiled in response. She wasn't sure what she looked. She was wearing jeans, a white tank top, and to ward off the chill outside she'd put on one of Merle's long sleeve red plaid shirts and tied it under her breasts to make it more stylish and less like she was announcing to the men of the bar that she had a boyfriend. Apparently it worked because it hadn't deterred Philip from making some comment about her appearance.
"What can I get you to drink?" Andrea asked. "Scotch?"
Philip smiled again and nodded a little.
"Do you remember everyone's drink orders?" He asked.
"Almost," Andrea responded. It was true. She had a knack for remembering people's preferred drinks, especially when the people were normal patrons of the bar or they were like Philip and stood out, ordering something that wasn't regularly requested. "You're probably the first person to order Scotch here since the bar opened…unless it was some hairless little boy that just turned twenty one and didn't know what to order. They seemed to always think Scotch is going to make them look sophisticated or some shit like that."
Philip smirked.
"And does it make them look sophisticated?" He asked.
Andrea shook her head, smiling.
"No, usually it makes them look sick. Doesn't take long before their buddies are carrying them out anyway," Andrea said. It was always a nightmare when someone came in for their twenty first birthday with their pals. You could bet that everyone was going to consider a dollar a good tip for the whole night, they were going to drink far too much, and four out of five of them were going to throw up. You were lucky if any of them made it to the bathroom first.
"Well, I'll try not to get sick," Philip said.
Andrea nodded a little at him and went back to the bar where Carol was serving one of the regulars who liked to sit near where Merle and Daryl used to sit when they frequented the place. Andrea dug around and pulled the scotch out, pouring it over ice.
"Scotch?" Carol asked. Andrea saw her looking around.
"Corner," Andrea said. "To the right of the door. His name is Philip and this is the second time he's been here. Not exactly Watering Hole material, if you ask me."
"If he's been in here more than once then I'd say he's Watering Hole material," Carol said. Usually the people that ended up in there on accident were either road tired people looking for a quick break from the monotony of the blacktop and decided to settle for the spot, or they opened the door, stepped about a foot inside the place, and turned around without a word. There weren't too many repeat customers that weren't regulars or didn't end up becoming regulars.
"I don't know," Andrea said. "He tips well, but you can tell he knows he's charming and he uses it."
Carol raised her eyebrows at Andrea.
"So you think he's charming?" Carol cooed.
Andrea rolled her eyes and picked up the glass she'd prepared, not wanting the man to become suspicious about their gossip or wonder about his missing drink.
Andrea took the drink to his table and put it down. Philip picked it up and sipped at the liquid.
"Perfect," he said with a smile.
"Where's your friend?" Andrea asked, noticing that he was short the nervous guy who didn't want anything to do with the alcohol or the bathroom…not that she could have blamed him on the bathroom call.
Philip looked at the empty booth almost as though he were discovering for the first time that the man was not across from him.
"Milton had some business to take care of," Philip said. "He didn't want to go out, but I felt like getting out."
"So you came here," Andrea said. She leaned on the table propping her other hand on her hip. "You just don't seem like this would be your kind of place."
"Neither do you," Philip said, taking a sip from his drink. "Yet I hoped you'd be here." He smiled and reached one hand out, trailing his finger for just a second on Andrea's finger.
Andrea wasn't sure what it was, but the act made her shudder a little and he moved his hand quickly, almost as if it had never happened.
She was used to the drunks around grabbing her ass, grabbing her boobs, pinching her…once or twice she'd had a few try to sloppily kiss her. The touching didn't bother her, at least not normally. She always chocked it up to overly drunk and tired working men getting their minds scrambled by liquor. Most of them would be horrified if she saw them the next day in the A and P and broke it to them that when they drank they got a little handsy. She never told them about it, though, because it didn't bother her enough. It was almost part of the job description.
Yet something about Philip's touch had made a shudder run through her.
"If you need anything else," Andrea said, just wave or something and one of us will check on you."
She started to turn and Philip called her back.
"Where is the other woman that was here the last time?" Philip asked.
"Mary Ann?" Andrea asked. She wondered now if he might be interested in the young girl and was just pretending to have some interest in her solely in order to practice his flattery skills. "She's gone now. School's going to be starting back and she had to head back to college."
Philip nodded and looked around Andrea toward where Carol was standing and entertaining the men she'd take the pitcher to earlier.
"And who's that?" Philip asked.
"That's Carol," Andrea said.
"Carol, hmmm?" Philip asked. "And does she work here with you every night or is she temporary too?"
Andrea shrugged.
"She works almost as many nights as I do," Andrea said. "I've got to pick up a few extra here and there. It isn't free to go back to school." Andrea turned then, looking for a way to end her conversation with Philip without being rude and risking the loss of a tip. "Let us know if you need anything," she said.
"I will do that, Andrea," Philip said to her back. Andrea stopped at another table, taking note that they needed a pitcher, and she circled around the pool table taking note of anyone there who might need a refill.
On her way back to the bar to get drinks for those who had run dry, Andrea noticed that Philip kept looking in her direction and in the direction of Carol, though he clearly didn't need anything yet and was set on scotch for at least a bit.
"I think you have an admirer," Carol said as Andrea was filling up a pitcher for the table that needed it.
"Four tequila shots and a beer for the pool tables," Andrea said in response.
Carol immediately went to getting the drinks together and loaded on a tray for easier delivery. Andrea shot another glance in Philip's direction and he caught her eye, smiling at her. She smiled back so as to not make it obvious that she'd simply been throwing looks in his direction and had been caught.
"I don't know," she said. "I guess so. I don't know what it is exactly, but he's that smarmy kind of charming, you know what I mean?"
"You mean like Merle?" Carol asked with a chuckle.
Andrea snickered.
"Something like that…I guess you could say. But Merle's smarmy charm, as ridiculous as it sounds, seems more sincere than this guy's…I don't know what his deal is," Andrea said.
"Maybe he just likes you?" Carol asked.
"I don't know," Andrea said. She sighed and picked up the filled pitcher.
"Tell you what," Carol said, following behind her with the tray of drinks for the pool tables, "if he comes in here again I'll wait on him and I'll let you know what I think about him. Then you'll have an outsider's opinion on whether or not he's genuinely interested or he's just some kind of greasy jerk."
Andrea chuckled at Carol and took the beer to the table, smiling and speaking to the men again, making sure that they hadn't come up with some additional order in her absence. She went back to the bar then and waited on Carol who was coming back with her tray loaded down with the dirty shot glasses that had been lining the sides of the pool tables.
"I guess you've got a deal," Andrea said, seeing Carol cast a quick glance in Philip's direction. Andrea poured herself another shot and took it, watching as Philip scanned the room, his eyes lingering a little when they fell over the bar area that she and Carol were standing behind.