Sarah sat on what had become her usual stool, sipping her beer slowly. She'd looked forward to her last day in O'Flaherty's, looked forward to one last day of bantering with June, but it hadn't gone quite according to Sarah's hopes. True, Sarah's hopes had involved walking into the bar to find it empty except for June, wearing nothing but high heels and a smile, and so her hopes weren't terribly realistic to begin with, but it hadn't even been the usual pleasantness.
O'Flaherty's was, for the first time in Sarah's brief patronage, full of clients. Not many, a few small groups that probably still only totaled a dozen or so, but it meant that rather than the usual routine of June spending her day talking to her, Sarah watched as June skipped around the bar, delivering drinks. Sarah had gotten smiles when she ordered her drinks, but barely a word in as June darted around her bar.
Worse still, although Sarah knew she was being foolish, Sarah saw that June's flirtations with her had simply been part of what June did with everyone. Just about every male patron that was in the place said something mildly off-colour to June who, with the same sass and charm, returned it in kind. Sarah, in the moments she let herself dream, thought that June's flirtatiousness had perhaps been a sign of her intrigue and attraction. Now, Sarah saw, June was just a flirt. Sarah didn't think any less of June for it, but it was a kick in the teeth.
So it was that Sarah sat on her stool, watching the minutes tick down on the clock over the bar. All of her bad feelings from earlier in the week came back with a vengeance, racing through her head and practically punching her in the chest. The grind of another deployment, the idea of Audrey with someone else, the realization that she had nothing to come back to, Sarah felt overwhelmed by the negative feelings. She would have drowned herself in booze if it weren't for the growing knot in her stomach that made slow sips of beer all she could manage.
"Penny for your thoughts?"
Sarah looked up to see June slumped in front of her. She'd been so lost in her self-pity that she found herself not even realizing that June was in front of her. Sarah smiled weakly even as she felt her heart skip a beat. June was wearing a tight black t-shirt, a short, tight tartan skirt and had her hair pinned above her head. Her emerald eyes were only slightly hidden behind thin, black glasses. It was the sexiest Sarah had seen June look yet and her troubles were instantly forgotten.
"Quarter then," June said, "but that's as high as I go,"
"I'm holding out for a dollar," Sarah replied,
"Please," June rolled her eyes as she began wiping the bar down, "like I can't tell what your pervy thoughts are anyway."
Sarah just raised her eyebrows a little as she took a sip of her beer. Earlier in the week Sarah would have blushed or felt embarrassed, but now she just acknowledged the truth. June seemed to be of the belief that everyone wanted to fuck her and Sarah wasn't going to feel self-conscious about being part of that consensus.
"Busy day," Sarah said, changing the subject,
"I know," June nodded, "but it was just some guys from the post office. What better way to pay tribute to the service of people like you then by spending their federal holiday drinking away the afternoon?"
It was then that Sarah noticed the past tense June had used. A quick look around the once-busy bar told Sarah that the place was empty again. Even Jim seemed to have left or taken a trip to the bathroom. It explained, Sarah thought pessimistically, June's renewed interest.
"It works for me," Sarah said. She smiled though. June may have said the veteran's drinking policy was something that her uncle had passed down and that she couldn't back out of, but Sarah could see that June genuinely believed in the spirit of the day.
