The Liquor Saleswoman

Today at the restaurant, this very attractive liquor saleswoman with the funky glasses that I like and a lil' junk in the trunk (the good kind) came in looking for the owner. She shakes my hand, introduces herself, and asks me my name. She then asks me if I was the person in charge of ordering. Uh, no, I'm just a lowly server, don't let my age fool you, I think but don't say.

The owner is an in-and-out guy and it's easy to miss him. She says she's tried and tried to catch him and she's been unsuccessful. She then explains that she would really like to know who she's doing business with. She excitedly asks about our wine dinners and wants to a part of them. There's a lot of smiling, a bit of eyelashing batting.

I then stepped outside myself and saw myself looking straight into her eyes, putting a little grin on my face, and saying, "Yes, I think it would be excellent to be doing business with you as well." I crinkled my brow a little and didn't avert my eyes, letting the half-grin linger on my face.

Our moment was broken up by the chef who came in behind me, hearing that last line. We all chatted for a bit, then she left, her beautiful rear end nestled in her short, bright floral dress trailing out the door.

I was a little beside myself. I just don't usually have the confidence to flirt like that. Now, I have no idea if she even noticed. But it sure felt good. The chef (the quintessential lady's man, he has a different girl on his arm every time I notice him and has these sadly hilarious one-night stand stories like, the one about the woman who wet his bed) elbowed me in the ribs and said, "I concur, Mr. Epiph - doing business with her would be excellent."

Her name was Jen. Jen. Jen. I've got to remember that next time I see her because I'm terrible with names. Jen. Jen. Jen.

The other mildly amusing moment came when these two old ladies came in. Over and over again, they remarked about how great it was to eat here, because it's totally empty, and they feel like they're in a private dining room. They were pleasant enough old ladies, but after a while I just couldn't take agreeing with them any more. The last time, I almost said, "Yeah, it's great that we're so dead, except if you're the server trying to pay rent with the tips you get all day." I didn't say it, but later sort of wished I did because they only tipped me $3 and they broke the cardinal tipping rule of tipping off the amount before the discount rather than the discounted amount. (Re: Their bill would have been $24 without the buy-one-get-one-free ticket, but instead was $12, and they tipped $2.)

I made $32 today. A lot better than the $18 last Thursday. But it still looks like I'll have to partially charge rent in August, which is unbelievably sucky. I guess I should have gotten another job this summer. I saved enough for all rent, car payments, car insurance, and student loans for the summer, but the early summer eye emergency appointments that insurance didn't cover, the car accident, and the lack of promised reimbursement from the school for my New Mexico training had decimated my savings. Maybe that check will come in the mail tomorrow or something, though.