There were only thirty minutes left in my shift. I was ready to get home. I had an 8AM lecture tomorrow morning. Sunday nights were supposed to be slow, but tonight kicked my ass. I had been dealing with assholes all night. A local men's rugby team had apparently one a big game and decided that celebrating at the local irish bar was fitting. I didn't work anywhere glamorous, Murphy's was essentially an irish version of hooters. We just wore black tank tops and plaid skirts that were too short on the average sized girls. I stood at 5'11'' which didn't make things easy on me. The only redeeming quality was that as the main bartender I had a barrier between myself and the customers. The other girls did not. The bar was roughly thirty minutes away from my apartment on campus. This made it easier to wear the degrading uniform knowing I wasn't likely to run into anyone I knew. Wake forest is a smaller private school, and the student's there don't really leave campus. I kept working here because I loved the manager Frank, and the girl's were actually some of the nicest people I had ever met. They were significantly nicer than most of the girls from my university. For someone who didn't have any family this was the closest I could get.
The night was finally slowing down, and the rugby team cleared out for the most part. I bent down while restocking the beer fridge to get a jump on my closing duties, when one of the remaining players had taken a seat at the end of the bar.
"What's that sexy piece of ass doing hiding behind the bar?" He slurred in my general direction.
I instinctively reached to fill up a glass of water.
"Drink this." I handed the glass to him.
"Hey now, don't be such a bitch."
His hand reached out to grab my wrist. The bouncers were already moving in his direction, but I grabbed the front of his hair and bashed his head on the bar. Not hard enough to hurt him, just hard enough to knock some sense into him. He must have had a little more kick left in him than I thought, as he stood up and attempted to lunge across the bar at me. The bouncers were on him in seconds. One on each side.
"Fuck you bitch! I'm going to sue the shit out of this place. My dad is a lawyer!" He screamed as he was dragged by his arms out of the bar. The rest of his friends followed, as Frank emerged from the back office.
"You do that?" Frank nodded over to the guy.
I nodded my head. Frank laughed.
"We have bouncers for a reason you know."
"I'm faster." I replied.
That pretty much ended the conversation. Frank and I had that kind of relationship where we didn't need to say much. He was the closest thing to a father and I was the closest thing he had to a daughter.
I turned around to finish my closing duties, when another man had taken a seat at the opposite end of the bar. He was dressed in a suit, and clearly did not belong with the rugby team. I walked towards that end of the bar. He was a good looking guy, just a little out of place here.
"Anything I can get for you?"
"Scotch on the rocks please." He asked in some sort of irish-scottish accent that I couldn't place.
"I gotcha." I poured the drink and placed it in front of him.
"Do you always handle guests that way?" He nodded towards the door.
"Only when they don't behave." I brazenly replied.
He chuckled under his breath.
I glanced at his face while he laughed. His hair was dark and curly but cut short enough that it wasn't messy. His jawline was defined. I could tell from his height while sitting that he was taller than me. Honestly that was kind of hard to find sometimes.
"Are you local or passing through?" I said to him over my shoulder, while I went back to stocking the fridge.
"I recently took up a job in the area." He replied.
Frank walked over after having dealt with the rugby situation. I'm sure he had to smooth things out after my stunt, but he didn't act like it was a bother.
"Close up tonight will you?" Frank said to me.
"Sure, thanks for everything Frank." I replied.
"Just don't go bashing anymore heads.'' he said in a low voice to me nodding to the lone man seated at my bar.
"No promises."
He laughed as he turned to walk away. I kept working until five minutes til. I let the other two waitresses leave, as they had already cashed out for the night. I started to close up the bar, and the man got up to leave.
"Have a good night." I called out after him.
"Aye." He replied.
The dude was quiet, but nothing to be concerned with. The bouncers left right at two in the morning. They made sure I was good to walk to my car like they always do. I walked out into the cool winter air. I locked the front door of the bar and walked around the building to where my car was parked. My heart rate picked up slightly, as I looked around to see if there was anyone nearby. The parking lot was empty and I made my way to my car. I should have been tired by now. I should be ready to collapse. I worked fifty hours this week. It was good money, so I couldn't turn it down. I turned off the music and drove to the only place I could think of.
The gym was my happy place. I paid extra for a 24 hour gym because I often found myself on an odd schedule. I parked and walked around to my trunk, grabbing my gym bag out of my old honda prelude and putting on a jacket. I swiped my pass at the front of the gym, and walked into the locker room without looking up from my phone. I changed quickly, opting for just running shorts and a sports bra. I grabbed my favorite treadmill and warmed up quickly and found a good pace. I looked up from my phone which was playing a podcast to see the scottish guy from the bar at a squat rack. He was staring at me in the mirror in front of him. He saw that I noticed, but he didn't look away. Seeing him under the bright lights of the gym made me realize how he was even more attractive now than he was earlier. He was wearing a black athletic shirt that clung to his apparently very fit chest and back and basic black workout shorts. I was openly checking him out at this point. I finally broke the stare to continue my run. I did six miles in total. I cooled down, and decided to call it a night. I threw on the jacket from earlier and grabbed my bag from the locker room. I nodded my head to the guy at the desk as I swiped out for the night/morning. As I was walking to my car I physically ran into the scottish guy from earlier smoking a cigarette outside. The smell normally would have bothered me, but somehow it made him even more attractive. He grabbed both sides of my arms to steady me.