I.
"Whats wrong?" asked the bartender. He was a little older than Leon. Probably in his forties. Broad shouldered and barrel chested, standing just over six foot, and his hair was close cropped. Bart, as the name tag on his white button down shirt proclaimed, had the look of someone who had played football once upon a time.
Leon felt a little small before him. After all, he was just five foot ten, pale, and lean with sloping shoulders. His hair was light brown and cut and styled into a small pompadour that he spent time each morning perfecting before work. He was in his collared shirt and sweater, skinny jeans, and a long pea coat on the hook under the bar along with his leather messenger bag. He went to the gym, but as his physique showed, mostly for cardio and yoga. Weights were something he assiduously avoided.
"What makes you think something is wrong," Leon asked before taking a sip of his beer. The Night Spirit was a reasonably clean dive bar in the few blocks between Union Square and the Financial District. Leon had heard of this bar from his friends at work, but this was the first time he had ever stumbled in. Had it not been for the rain making a mess of both the subway and the surface transport, he probably would never have come in, just passing by ignoring the little sign like every other time he had walked near.
"It's a Tuesday night. It's a twenty minutes to last call. You ain't paid a bit of attention to the games on the tv and you clearly aren't interested in the girls at the other of the bar."
Leon looked up and smirked, giving a sideways glance down the bar. At the far end, two women were checking their phones. Their short skirts, high heels, and tight, low-cut tops screamed professional. But he could also see that they were women who had been ridden rough and put away wet to many times, otherwise why would they be in this dive bar and not working one of the hotels or bars that catered to the convention crowd just a few blocks away. "Someone would pay for that Russian Roulette?"
"You'd be surprised," said the bartender. "So talk to me. Otherwise I might have to talk with them to keep from going stir crazy."
Swallowing the last of his beer, Leon considered the bottom of his glass before signalling for another. "Give me a refill. You don't want to hear my problem. Its stupid."
"Give me something to laugh at," said the bartender, taking the glass and refilling it.
"Alright, let me start by saying I love my fiancée," Leon said defensively. "Its just... god this will sound awful... I just wish she would be sexier when it came to sex. Be willing to do more than just spread her legs."
"You tried talking to her about it?" asked bartender, sliding the glass back to him on the counter.
"Yes," he said quickly, taking sip. It was only a partial lie. He had brought it up but then she started to seem defensive about it so he dropped it.
"Maybe watch some porn with her?"
Leon laughed, causing some of the beer to spurt from his nose. "If you knew my fiancée, you'd know just how much she hates porn."
The bartender leaned back and folded his arms. "You sure you want to be with her then? I mean, dude, if it's not good now, take it from a guy whose been married three times, it ain't going to get better."
"No, I do," he said. Was he trying to convince himself? He shook off the thought. "So have you discovered anything that works after three marriages?"
"Sometimes you need a little help," he said with a shrug.
"What kind of help?"
The bartender looked around and then reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold medallion about the width of hockey puck but not as thick. In the center was a small red ruby. There was some inscription on the side and what looked like angels on it.
Leon snorted as he looked at it. "Looks like something my grandpa would wear... or Mr. T."
The bartender smiled. "Don't believe me?" He placed it on the bar next to Leon's glass.
"You're saying it like a magic thing or something? C'mon," said Leon.
"All you gotta do is put it under where your girl sleeps and say 'Numen auxilium eius lapsae' and get your girl to say 'Amen'."
Leon picked it up and looked at it. "So what's the catch? If this was a magic amulet, you wouldn't just give it away."
"That's the catch. You have to give it away. Can't sell it. Can't use it more than once."
"Can you keep it?" asked Leon, turning it over in his fingers.
Bartender shrugged. "I suppose. I used it on my second wife. And did it ever work! But I didn't listen to the guy who gave it to me. Tried to use it on my third wife when she started to lose interest in stuff. Didn't do anything. Probably why she's my third ex!" He laughed as he reached for something under the bar and then muttered, "Damn have to go get more in the back."
Leon thought about it, as the bartender disappeared into the back, barely noticing that a stunning raven-haired woman had taken a seat three chairs down from him at the corner of the bar. The bartender took her order before he returned to Leon.
