Broken Women

Chapter 1

Chapter 1Barb and Lisa

Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Thursday Night, March 28th, 2013

“The Blue Moon is out Kane. Can you go back and change it please?”

“Sure thing boss lady.” He sauntered down the length of the back bar and disappeared behind the swinging door to the kitchen.

I scanned the half square of the bar top just in time to catch two more men coming in. They came to a stop at a small gap between customers on the far end, the taller of the two waving a twenty in the air. I moved toward them.

“Welcome to Steamboat Willie’s, gentlemen.” I greeted them with a smile I was starting to feel less and less as the night drug on. “What can I get you?”

“Two Blue Moon draughts, please,” the taller one requested.

“Oh, sorry. It will be a few minutes. I’m having it changed out right now. Do you want to wait or is there something else I can get you instead?”

He looked at his friend who was so busy bopping his head around to the mix the DJ was spinning and eying the guys around him, he was oblivious to our little exchange. He nudged the shorter man but, when he didn’t get an immediate response from him, he told me, “We’ll wait,” and handed me the twenty. After making him change, I readied two talls with orange slices and left them by the tap.

Lisa came out of the kitchen and, spying me, headed right for me. Touching my shoulder, she leaned in and spoke directly into my ear, “If you’d have called back, I could have changed that keg out.”

“You don’t need to be doing that stuff,” I told her. “Besides, that hookup’s a little tight. If we want to offer Kane the opportunity to manage this place, we need him to see every little nuance he’s in for.”

My wife nodded. “You’re right, I suppose.” She looked around. “Nice to see the place so packed on a Thursday.”

“I’ll tell you what, I’m already whipped. If the weekend is going to be like this, we’re going to have to call in reinforcements.”

“What’s that you say?” Kane asked, returning.

“It’s so busy,” Lisa repeated for his benefit. “We’re probably going to need more help for the weekend.”

He nodded. “The only gay bar in town for Outboard Week...bound to happen, but we got this.”

Marveling at his enthusiasm, I responded as I pulled the two beers, “Well still, if you have any buddies that want to earn a little extra cash this weekend schlepping drinks, you’re welcome to give them a call.”

He waved me off. “They’ll drink more than they bring in. My uncle Roger might be willing to help out though, if he can stay behind the bar and mix drinks, that is. I’ll work the floor more, if he’ll do it.”

Relief flooded my own features and Lisa nodded her approval too. “It’s a deal,” I told him. “Whatever hours he’s willing to spare.”

###

“You just need to get over your damn self, sweetie! You aren’t all that, you know.” The thin, bespectacled man stood and jabbed a finger at his table mate.

“Says you!” the other man said as he half rose too. “I could have any guy in this place and you know it!” He gripped the table edge to steady himself in place.

“Is that right, girl? I hardly think so.”

“Just watch and learn then.”

“What, are you going to do; go around offering blow jobs to every fella in the place? Huh?”

“So what if I do?”

“Gentlemen, how are we this fine evening?” Kane asked the two men as he stepped up to the little table and effectively got between them.

The guy wearing glasses looked the bartender up and down. “Well aren’t you a cutie,” he said, turning on the charm. “What’s your name?”

Kane gave him a lopsided grin. “Thanks; and I’m Kane. So, is this your first trip to Steamboat?” He glanced back and forth between the two of them.

The second man released his grip from the table edge and eased back down in his chair as he answered, “Yes, actually. We were in Aspen for ski week last year but it seems a little friendlier and less...pretentious here.”

“We pride ourselves here on hospitality and good powder. Actually, it’s called the champagne of powders.”

“The skiing was amazing,” the first man replied as he resumed his own chair.

“Besides that, just wait till tomorrow. There’s a virtual who’s who coming into town. And, if all the celeb spotting on the slopes isn’t enough, we’re going to have live music here on Saturday night.” He raised his hands to cup his mouth and he lowered his voice as he whispered conspiratorially, “Rumor has it that ‘Adele’ may take the mike for a song or two. That’s just between us though, okay?” He raised an index finger to his lips in the universal sign of a secret just passed on.

“Adele!” the glasses wearing man practically screeched causing Kane to tap his finger against his lip several more times. In a lower tone, the other man continued, “I love me some Adele!”

“You’ll have to join us Saturday then.” He smiled again at them both.

“Oh honey, we’ll be here with bells on!”

“We’re damn lucky to have Kane on our team, Barb. He’s sharp, friendly and the customers seem to love him,” Lisa intoned from across the desk where I was sitting creating a purchase order for booze we were sure to be out of by Monday. “He defused a little spat out there without flexing a muscle and without having to give away any free drinks.”

“What I like,” I said, “is that he doesn’t mix business with pleasure. He keeps his head about him when he’s on the job...both of them.”

Lisa grinned at that. “That has been a problem for us, hasn’t it?”

“In a few of the bars we’ve rehabbed,” I reminded her, “gay and straight. Remember that mixed dance club we had in Indy? That guy we had to let go there was a rapist in waiting.”

“Don’t remind me!”

I sat back in my chair and slumped down a little. “What’s up out front now?”

“It’s winding down. Skiing all day and dancing all night must not be in the cards for tonight.”

I looked at the wall clock; 1:17 AM. “We’ll have Hexx announce last call at 1:30 and then spin one more long mix.”

“I’ll tell him.” She got up to go.

Something popped into my head. “Hey babe, in all the commotion tonight, I forgot to ask; any word from that guy in Portland?”

“Nadda.” She sucked in her bottom lip for a second in the face she always made when she was concentrating. “I’ll give him a call Monday. Our work here is about done. We need a new project.”