Small Time Angel - Ch 10 - The Barmaid
It's like quicksand when it happens to you ....
Ryan and Katrina sat at a café table by an open window, her blond hair wafted by a warm wind blowing gently in through the Norfolk Island Pines outside, the sound of surf crashing onto the darkened beach across the road.
‘I still can't get over you coming back every Wednesday night for four weeks, waiting for me to show up again,’ said Katrina. ‘Why?’
‘It was your songs. I’ve … never been so …’ he looked into those eyes and saw the abyss, ‘… affected by a woman and her music.’ Ryan surprised himself. He had never been that forthright so soon with anyone in expressing such a personal feeling.
‘Thank you,’ Katrina softly replied.
He reached out and very hesitantly placed a hand on one of hers. She never took her eyes off his as he did so. After a few moments, she placed her other hand on top of his. ‘I’m glad you came back. I like being with you. It feels good.’
‘Where were you those weeks?’
Katrina smiled. ‘Tending bar to get some extra cash together for an upcoming vacation with my parents. That’s how I worked my way through art school, years ago.’
Lyrics raced through Ryan’s head … You’re a barmaid, serving Bloody Marys, Screwdrivers, too … but he dared not remove his hand from hers to take out his notebook to scribble them down.
‘So you know a lot about people.’
Katrina smiled. ‘The five things that count in a bar, anyway.’
She removed her hands, held them up and began counting on her fingers. ‘First, there are a lot of lonely men looking for a sympathetic ear. Lend it and the tips are good.’
‘Second, learn to do a mean imitation of a plastic smile ...’ she moved a hand up and down over her mouth, alternately showing a smile, then none, ‘... and the tips are better.’
‘Third, learn to avoid the gropers.’
‘Fourth, learn how to tell any man any story you want and make him believe it. And believe me, I can.’
Katrina was suddenly somewhere else, her two hands dropping into her lap.
Eventually Ryan asked, ‘What’s the fifth?’
Katrina shook her head slightly before exhaling deeply and sadly.
‘Learning how to spot the liars and the phonies. After hearing every line in the books I thought I could. But I never saw it coming. He was at another bar with another barmaid, bemoaning me and boning her. That was it, after seven years.’
She hesitated. ‘Sorry about the crude description.’
Ryan shrugged, uncaring.
Katrina, relieved, smiled and chuckled. ‘Actually, I cleaned it up quite a bit for you, being sort of a first date and all.’
*
The Director nodded at the USB drive on his desk. ‘And Ryan went straight home afterward and wrote The Barmaid?’*
Merlina nodded.
‘You are some inspiration. Your Ryan may turn out to be somebody.’
‘I did mis-estimate him,’ she replied.
Good. A small admission of misjudgement never hurts. ‘And that line about telling any man any story and making him believe it?’ The Director gave her a smile.
She grinned. ‘I have a lot of practice.’
‘And a permanent job here any time you want, Merlina.’
~
*The Barmaid, lyrics music and vocal by the author.