One night was all it took: Season 3 "One second was all it took"

A familiar face

Resting my head on my hand, I stir a customer's drink. I know I should be paying better attention to the customers and moving faster than I am. The bar is busy today. I just feel in a 'blah' zone today.

My eyes are attached to a few men who are playing darts and arguing with each other about who has the better score. I have been paying attention. The gentleman with the toupee is winning, but I refuse to get involved. Those arguments never seem to end well.

Derek walks past me as I slide the drink to the customer. "Hey, Derek," I say and quickly tap on his shoulder.

I know he is busy but if I can convince him to get the group of guys to stop arguing we might not have to worry about a brawl breaking out in my bar.

He turns around. "What's up?" He asks and leans his elbow on the bar.

I use my eyes to point to the group of gentlemen and nod my head in their direction. "Those guys over there. I think they are about to start fighting with each other. Any idea on how to stop it?"

He sets his tray of clean shot glasses down on the bar. "Yeah." He rolls his sleeves up and lowers his eyebrows. I can see the piercing look forming on his face.

"Mind over matter. I can stop them without fighting them." He says and turns around, beginning to head over to the group of men.

I exhale, knowing that he has always been good at stopping fights in the bar. Sometimes the fights that break out can tend to be a bit much. It is not too often, but when it happens, we always need to take steps toward the possibility of how serious they could end up. Derek is ten for ten on stopping them.

I turn my attention to another customer asking for a drink. I turn around and lean into the beer cooler to grab the beer they asked for, realizing there is no more of that specific beer.

"I'll be right back," I say and head into the kitchen.

I stepped into the cooler and grabbed the case off the floor. I readjust myself, turn around, and begin to head back to the bar area.

I push through the doors and stop. I stare in shock as Derek swings at the same gentlemen we were just talking about. There must be five guys battling it out in my bar right now and even Jared is part of it.

"Are you kidding me!" I yell and ring the bell.

We have a bar ringing bell in the bar and all the regulars know that if it begins to ring, all fights must stop at once, or they will be banned for life. If they are not regular and we know they are not, then we throw them out and give them one last chance after a month of suspension from my bar. Most never come back but we do not lose business, so it does not bother us.

Derek glances over at me with confusion in his eyes. He shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head.

"I don't know what happened! And I swear I did not start this fight!" He yells and ducks as I watch another man try to swing at him. He stops the man's swing with his hand and pushes him back against the chair. "Enough!" He yells louder.

I shake my head in disbelief. Normally when I ring the bell everyone in the bar stops and obeys. Today no one cares and is continuing with their fight. I scan the group of fighters and I do not recognize any of their faces.

Natalia comes walking into the bar from the kitchen. "Are they out-of-towners?" she asks while swiping a bottle of beer off the counter.

There is an aroma of whiskey on her breath. I know what that means. I watch as she marches over to the fighting men. She slams the bottle across the back of one of the men's heads.

She grips the back of a guy's shirt and whips him to the ground. "You're fighting at the wrong bar, mother fuckers!"

I reach down for my party popper. If the bell does not work, the party popper works every time. People think a gun is blowing off and it scares them.

"This will do the trick," I say and press the small cardboard button and it blows off like a small m-80. I jump back as the damn thing scares me.

Looking out at the bar, it is clear everyone has stopped fighting. It looks like I scared the shit out of them too. Blank and terrified faces look over at me.

I reach around the counter and pick up my bat. I know I do not look terrifying holding a bat. But it is a trick of the mind. I scared them, now if I quickly showed off the bat, they were more likely to be fearful since fear was already set in their minds.

I lightly tap the bat against the bar. I am not a badass, but most know me as the bitchy bartender, and I would love to keep it that way.

"Listen up," I announce. "This is my bar and I refuse to allow a couple of hot-headed assholes to ruin everyone else's night. You can pay for your drinks and leave. If you feel that you should not have to leave due to defending yourself, please come forward. The rest of you can get the hell out of my bar. I don't need your business."

Natalia grabs onto my arm and lightly rubs her fingers against it. I can see from the corner of my eye she has a smirk. I'm starting to think that my 'bad-ass' persona is more of a comedic scene for her, and Jared thinks the same. He is over by the side wall biting his lip, holding back his smile.

I watch as the group of men starts to walk out of the bar one by one. Derek's still holding his stance with his fists up ready to fight, even though it is beginning to look like the fighting has stopped.

The last person that was involved in the fight is now walking out of the front door. I exhale a sigh of relief and shake my head. I can feel my eyebrows raising as I grit my teeth.

"We've been known as one of the best bars in the state to visit because we don't have shit like that happen. I refuse to allow my bar to become the subject of abuse and lose our spot because a couple of asshat douchebags wanted to fight."

Natalia's eyes grew wide. Her lips are pressed tightly together, and she steps back. Her eyebrows are as high as they can go, and I can see the confusion and fear painted across her face.

"What the fuck!" She scoffs.

I turn around and see Derek stepping back with a confused and disturbed look on his face.

"What in the hell are you doing here?" He asks before I get the chance to look at the door.

I follow his shock-filled eyes to the door. "Claudia?" I say, stepping back as anger fills me instantly. I pick the bat back up. "Get out of my bar bitch!"