So, for the last Fiction Friday of the month, I give you something February adjacent that also probably applies all the time. We get an early Sly, figuring out his character style for bar life while learning from the master on a busy weekend. Bonus points if you realize that it’s the same weekend as the other fiction this month, with that wicked games Woods. So much happens in a Red Letters day, that you hardly notice. It’s like those days that feel like a week in a few hours, but the characters in that bar world love it. Just gives us plenty of other side of the same moment POVs. So, a short fiction to end the short month on.

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Valentine’s weekend 2009

It always astounded me that the little woman who ran the bar like a circus ringleader could do it like this. I was still too new to feel like I had the right to be involved. 

“Sly, can you make the ladies at table 12 your new milkshakes? They don’t want to drink too much, so I thought you would be perfect to keep an eye on them all night for me.” Tweety twirled by in the colors of the love month, like a Valentine’s card to the room itself. “Plus, they think you are dashingly suave in your suit, and look like they would enjoy a bit of your personal attention.”

“I’m not looking for any set ups.” I started my mixer up for the strawberry sweetheart milkshake. Not to be confused with the spirited strawberry version that had booze in it. I was still testing that, but it was going over well so far. 

Tweety turned to me, full attention on me, which was rare in a crowded room. “I never promised nobody nothing. And all I asked was for you to make some drinks, keep your eye on a table, and maybe deliver those drinks with a smile, like any other good host. After all, that’s what you’re training to be right?”

I nodded, properly reminded of my place and the way Tweety ran the club. Everyone was safe, staff and patrons alike. Tweety pushed us to be better, in small steps she knew we could handle. Or else I wouldn’t be behind this bar in the first place. She saw it in me, and waits for it to show.

“Besides, my dear Sly, you are the one who taught me that even on your worst day, you might be the light in someone else’s life. So, who knows what you will do for that table of lonely hearts by just watching over them and making them feel seen.”

Tweety’s smile blinded my already slowing brain. It wasn’t fair that she got to say such smart, deep things and walk off like she didn’t change lives in a sentence or a night. Admiration didn’t feel strong enough for how I felt about her. Respect, being treated as an equal when I was just as much an outsider as she had been. All of that is how she changed my life and gave me a bit more purpose in my days. The least I could do was what she trained me for. It was only a table of 6 women. Tweety handled hundreds a week if not a day. 

I could show her that I could do this, I just needed to mix the drinks, say hello and welcome to the ladies. Oh and tell them my name, not with a smile like she did, but maybe with a bow? I already knew that the way I read a room constantly I could watch the drinks given to the ladies. I just needed to find my own way to being a greeting host at a bar full of characters on the wackiest love filled weekend of the year. How did Tweety make it look as easy as she did?