I've bartended for 10 years at various bars in the 80s and 90s. Being a bartender you flirt with everyone that enters the place to make tips. Sometimes things get wild. The story is true. Specific conversations are often artistic license when I can't remember but the events happened....
It was the end of the night. The doors had been locked for about 30 minutes. I had counted and dumped the money. Cleaned. Now I was stocking the bar. I went to the back bar to get liquor bottles for the day shift.
The back bar was used in the evenings during the dinner hours Thursday thru Sunday and for Sunday Brunch. The back room had about 20 tables, a back bar, and a sitting area with a sofa and fireplace. For some reason, the light switches for the back room were located across the room from the kitchen entrance. The bar was right next to the kitchen door. Since I went in that way, I decided to just rely on the illumination coming from the outside via windows and from the kitchen. (My eyes were good back then) Of course, being a bar with a ton of glassware, I moved slowly and carefully. By coincidence, I also moved quietly.
As I grabbed the bottles I needed, I sensed movement and noise coming from the sitting area. I froze in place. I focused my eyes, willing them to adjust to the darkness and let me see clearly. I listened intently. My hand wrapped around a bottle ready to club the intruder. I moved further behind the bar and squatted using it to hide as I scouted for the unknown burglar. Who was in the back room? Everyone had left? My eyes adjusted to see the figure was Sally, the waitress. She was bouncing up and down on the couch. Her blouse was unbuttoned and she was squeezing one breast. The couch hid the rest of her body. I heard her soft moaning. Oh shit, I had disturbed her liaison.
I moved back toward the kitchen slowly to leave the lovers to their moment. I was extra quiet so as not to interrupt. As I backed away, I could hear her moaning pick up in tempo and pace, I just lowered behind the bar further. I'd let her finish, I thought, then slip out. I didn't want to disturb them as she was climaxing. I watched as she squeezed her breast and her moans got louder. Then she exhaled heavily and suddenly threw herself backward on the couch. She disappeared from sight. Wow, interesting finish. I took the opportunity and moved stealthily toward the kitchen to make my daring escape. I knocked the bar tin but deftly grabbed it in mid-air with my ninja-like reflexes. I had expertly avoided the metal clanging to the ground. I was not smooth enough to catch the jigger, strainer, and other smaller bar tin. The metal jigger and small tin bounced melodiously across the floor. The strainer simply fell into the empty bar sink and rattled around. Needless to say, my stealthy exit was blown. I hid no longer. I just grabbed a bar rag and started wiping an imaginary spill off the bar top. Pretending as if nothing had happened.
Sally jumped up and looked around. She stood and walked around the couch toward the bar. "Is someone there?"
I guess the light from the kitchen wasn't shining on me. She was lit up completely. Her blouse was still open with her breasts hanging out. "Oh hey didn't know you were still here. It's Sko," I said, "just grabbing some bottles from the back bar restocking. Thought you left hours ago."
"No I was just... um... resting," she stammered as she adjusted her bra and buttoned her blouse. I guess she didn't realize I could see her pretty well.
"Oh, ok no worries. Sorry to wake you. I stumbled coming in." If she was going to pretend nothing was happening, so would I. I tried to slide out quickly and give her time to get back to whomever she was with.
"No, that's fine, keep working. I need to get up and get going anyway. Let me get the lights." She was adjusting her skirt as she walked over and turned on the lights in the room. They were dimmed down from dinner but still illuminated the room. She strolled up toward the bar with a beer bottle in her hand. Her blouse was still not buttoned properly but she was not exposed. Her skirt was hiked up a bit high but she was clothed. She tried to casually put the beer bottle on the bar. "I found this over there on the table by the couch."
I looked into her eyes and assessed her quickly. There was no indication she was drunk. "Look I know you are only twenty but, I don't mind if you have a beer or so after work. Just don't get drunk and drive. I'll finish up some stuff up front and grab the bottles later." I started to open the door.
"No, don't rush on my part, finish up here. Is it ok if I sit and talk to you while you prepare the bottles?"
"Uh... yeah sure... there's nothing else you need to get finished or back to?" I looked over her shoulder at the couch.
"No, I'm up now." She stared at me then turned around, "what are you looking at?"
"Nothing. Just thought I saw something. Must have been shadows."
Who the heck was on the couch? I thought. There was no way someone could have gone without me seeing them.
"So how long have you worked here?" she asked.
"Couple of years."
"Did you start off bartending?"
"Yeah, I barbacked a couple of places, then bartended here and there." I was staring at the couch as I talked, "When I started here I was a bartender. I bartended at a couple of places before this. I work some other places on nights I'm not here." Wow, she was really screwing with whoever was on the couch.
"Can I get one of those beers you were talking about?"
"Sure, but you haven't finished that one." I pointed toward the half-full beer bottle on the edge of the bar. "How many have you had?"
"Err... Uhm.." she stared at the bottle. "I wasn't drinking that... it was over there already."
"Ok," I grabbed the bottle, the glass was still cool to the touch, not warm like it should be if it's been sitting there all night. "Ok, still a little cool to the touch and has a little bit of head on it. Who's beer is this I said as I walked around the bar and toward the couch." I'm gonna have fun with this, I thought. Wanna play games? "You are saying this beer has been here for a couple of hours since the dining room closed and you haven't touched it. And there is no one else over here right?" I slowly walked toward the couch looking back at her. I waited for her to stop me. She didn't. I looked over the couch and no one was there. I walked around and no one was hiding behind it. I only saw a couple of bar towels laying on the floor. Surprised at seeing no one, I walked back to the bar.
"You ok?" she asked.
"Yeah, I... ah... I just thought... I just..." Maybe I was losing my mind. She was definitely riding someone. My mind pondered.
"How about that beer?" she repeated.
"Sure." I set the half beer on the bar top. The trashcans back here had been emptied and figured I throw it out upfront. I reached into the cooler and grabbed two beers. I need one now. "Here," I handed her a Miller while I grabbed a Yuengling. I took a swig. My mind replayed what I saw. I definitely saw her playing with her breast. She was bouncing up and down. Then the bulb lit. Oh, she was playing with herself.
"So just resting?" I said smiling. "rough night?"
"Yeah, waiting tables sucks and tires me out. I want to learn to bartend. Seems a lot more fun."