The Black Swan

I was about to lose my mind. I rubbed my eyes just to keep my vision clear. How long was I sitting in front of this bloody cash register? My hand traveled to the back pocket of my pants and pulled out my black iPhone. Five am. God. And I was not anywhere near finishing anything. The numbers didn't add up. I had recounted the money fifty gazillion times and for the last four times I received a different number each time. I had to take a brief pause for a moment. That's when I heard the door open. Oh, so I hadn't locked the darn thing. Good job, Ally, good job. I was lucky no maniac came inside and tortured all the living sense out of me in order to get the amount of cash that lied just beside the cash register. Until now.

The door closed and I saw a shaggy head coming my direction. My eyebrow raised in a question.

"I forgot my phone... somewhere." Brian spoke quietly, stopping next to the seat he was warming up a couple hours ago. "Have you seen it?" He held on to the black marble counter. He was wasted.

"The only thing I've seen are dollar bills, but be my guest." I pointed out towards the bar. He came after his phone? Really? How could even a person being as drunk as he was at this same moment, remember about such an unimportant thing as a cell phone?

He turned around and I think he was about to fall down. I guess he gave up on the scavenger hunt and just took a seat.
"Fuck this..." He slurred out. Fine, I was used to drunk people, but I had not mentally prepared myself to spend my night counting money, flipping out of my mind and now looking over this heartbreaking view. I wondered where his party mates had gone to. "I want a drink."

"I think you've had enough." I was gathering the dollar bills and placing them in a plastic pocket. I had given up, there was nothing in my power to save Jenna's ass and this was not the first time when she screwed up with the cash register, but she was one of those people, just like Brian here, who screwed up countless times and every one and each time everyone forgave her. She had her charisma, which I did not. Jesus, I remembered working with her one night, when a guy ordered 'the tastiest mojito the world had ever experienced', she started adding slices of lime, peppermint leaves, brown sugar, so far so good right? A little bit of crashed ice, and bam instead of adding sprite or tonic, she added coke and didn't even bat an eye. She just smiled her charming smile and asked - You don't like coke? That guy looked like the happiest person in the whole universe and he even gave her a tip. A big one. God forbid I ever receive a tip bigger than twenty bucks.

"Can you please give me a drink?" He looked up and just then I noticed that he had brown eyes. Hypnotic eyes.

"If you're willing to pay three hundred bucks for a single drink, I'm down for it, otherwise- the bar's closed." I took the control check and then looked at the paper sheet on which I had written down all the numbers. I was missing exactly three hundred. As unbelievable as it may sound, Jenna was just three hundred dollars short, but hell, I didn't have that kind of money on me. I could say I was broke as that hobo who was strolling down the Beach Boulevard, begging for money. At least as long as Mark - the owner of 25 degrees- doesn't pay me my salary and vocation money. And then I heard a thud. Brian had hit the counter with his palm and under it were three banknotes.

"My drink, please." At least this specimen knew 'please', and 'thank you'. He rested his head in his palm. I looked at him for a long time, trying to figure if he really was mental or he was... simply mental.

"Are you crazy?" I took a bottle from the fridge.

"Take the god damn money. It's not like you fucked up, it was Jenna's fault." I nearly smashed the bottle against the counter, right in front of him. I was... mad, I guess.

"Unbelievable!" I let an insane laugh through my pale lips. Brian jumped in his seat. If it wasn't for my loud voice, I believe he would've fallen asleep right then and there. "How does she do it?"

"Do what?" Brian squinted his eyes, obviously not following a word that I was saying. His browns lied on the money and then on me. He laughed. "Oh, you think I'm paying for her?" Suddenly he looked very sober. His slender fingers opened the bottle and he took a sip. "Fucking best drink I've ever had for three hundred." I couldn't quite tell if he was being sarcastic or he was being honest. "That money... Babe, you're sitting here from one AM. I'm doing you a favor."

"I can't take that money," I shook my head, anxiously biting my lip. It was so tempting, I had ninety-nine problems and this money would deal with two of them. At least. First- the lack of cash, second- Jenna's crying over a phone call she's going to give me, when I'm in Miami about how Mark finally fired her lousy ass. I looked at Brian, he had a raised eyebrow and it looked like he was struggling with the urge of slapping some sanity in me. "At least not for that water bottle."

"Then make the best drink you possibly can," He smiled a sort of a side smile. No, it was more than a smirk. I had seen girls melting and agreeing to everything when he did 'The Smirk'. "And, please, no alcohol. I think I'm already hammered enough." Non-alcoholic drink, for this stud? It will be a challenge. In the process of making the drink, I started thinking, was he really here because of a phone? He didn't look as tormented with the thought as when he walked in. It seemed like he had fully forgotten about it. I was pouring in the last touch of grenadine syrup and decorated it with a cherry. It consisted of three juices- cranberry, orange, pineapple and a bitter lemon Schweppes. Once he saw the decoration, he chuckled and once he took a taste, he exploded in laughter.

"A pussy drink for the pussy magnet." I shrugged my shoulders, putting the jar of cherries back in the refrigerator. He was laughing hard. I thought he didn't like me, but look at him, sitting here after the closing time, spending his precious time with me, when he could be spending it with some beautiful blond, big breasted, expensive dress and high heels wearing girl. Not me. For Christ sake, I was in a blue t-shirt which had Homer Simpson eating a doughnut on it as I just noticed.

"I would've just gone with the apple juice, but that's why I'm not a bartender." He took another sip. "It's really good."

I smiled a sincere smile as I took the money and placed it in the plastic bag. I mouthed a 'thank you' placing my palms together. I don't know what I would've done without him, no, what Jenna would've done without him. By saving my backside, he saved Jenna's. Figures.

"So, I believe that's a rap." I placed the money in the safe and looked at Brian. He hadn't heard me. He had finished his drink and was texting someone. On his cell phone. The one he claimed to be lost. I had never smiled as insanely as I did seeing him holding the god damn thing. It hit me.

"You're heading home?" He didn't raise his eyes, he kept staring at the screen of his phone.

"Yeah, have to work tomorrow." I rinsed the glass, so the waitress who worked tomorrow didn't have to clean after me. I've worked as a waitress myself, it was a couple years ago, but I still remember how pesky it was to come to your shift and clean after the assholes, who drank after their shifts and didn't clean their shit up.

"You need a ride?" Finally he put his cell away and I think he got it, but he didn't say anything, just smiled like a wacko. The whole plan went down the drain, aye?

"You're drunk." I let out a small chuckle, although with every minute he looked more and more sober. Was it my drink to blame? Could I make drinks that made people sober? If that was the case, I truly was the best bartender not only in the world, but in the whole universe.

"I can call the cab."

"On the phone you've lost." I couldn't bare but to laugh. He bit his bottom lip, later on smiling the most beautiful smile. "It's okay," I continued, "I live a couple of minutes from here."

"We could walk then." He got off his seat and picked the bottle as I made my way out of the bar. I turned off the lights and searched for the keys somewhere inside my shorts.

"You're a stubborn peach, you knew that?"

"A peach?" He frowned.

"You don't take no for an answer." I held the door open for him, just like Jenna had few hours ago. Wasn't it supposed to be the other way around? Wasn't the man supposed to hold the door open for the lady?

"That makes me a peach?"