I reached out my hand to brushes her hair. Her shoulder length hair is as smooth as silk. As I touched her cheek, she stares at me with her jewel like eyes. Her hand touches my right cheek and slowly caresses my face. While not a single word comes out from her, I knew what she is implying with her silence. The gentle breeze of spring brings forth the fragrance of flowers. The sweet scent I smelt disappears in a whim which I inhaled without leaving a single traces of its existence. She leans her body toward me and rests her head on my shoulder. I stood stock-still, I don't want to disturb this serene moment with any word or movement. I am afraid it will disappear just like the sweet scent. I closed my eyes to savor this moment to the fullest.
The next thing I see is the sunlight that aimed right at my face through the window. I woke up in my bedroom as usual but the dreams I had is not. Those dreams I had are getting more and more vivid in these days. No matter how real those dreams can get, the cold and harsh realities always hit me hard in the end. Because what I saw in my dream is just a by-product of my own mind. Regrets, indecisiveness, jealousy and irritation in the past have become the fuel for my mind to create those dreams.
It has been a week since Mrs Weirdo begins working here. Albeit from a few glasses that she broke during the first days of work, there is nothing else that I can complain about her. It is already past the peak hour by this time, most of the people here is long gone.
"Heya! Boss! How do I fare today?"
"Six out of ten" I give her a quick reply which was instantly returned with a quick jab to my rib bones.
"Am I really that bad?" She said in a rather sulky tone.
I can't help but to give her a slight chuckle. Her response might sounds like coming from a sulking little girl, but the neatly placed glasses on the table indicates the otherwise. She does her job in a satisfactory manner. The quiet moment in the pub is only accompanied by the sound ticking of the clock and occasional chatters here and there from the remaining cluster of man. During this one week of time, she worked until late hour without any words of complaint. Pretty commendable I must say. It is not like I am not happy with that, but I noticed her staring at the entrance door with every given chance. With every customer that goes past that door, her face is marred by a slight disappointed expression as if she was expecting someone to come. Something tells me that she is hiding something behind her usual cheery face.
"Waiting for someone?"
She seems bewildered by my sudden intrusion in her work.
"Nope" her reply is short yet assertive as she keeps wiping the glasses off any stain. She may try to hide what she has been doing from me. But I can still catch a glimpse of her gazing at the entrance.
"Mind if I ask a question Boss?"
"Speak up" I said so while laying my back against the bar table to rest myself. It is another perks to be a boss as I stare at my employee does the chores.
"Why did you decide to run this place in the first place, while you can't even handle a sip of alcohol?"
A good yet unanswerable question for me, the very answer to this question is yet to show itself to me no matter how much I ponder about it to these days. How many years has it been since I open this place? Five? Six? There is too much time I spent on trying to figure out the reason why already and I don't plan to think about it anymore either.
I paused for a moment to concoct a proper answer for this question.
"I bought this place when the previous owner is going overboard so it is pretty cheap, if the question is why I decided to run this place, you can say I am a cheapskate-in luck that run into a good bargain and decided to go with it".
"Is that so?" She replied in a questioning manner as if she is in doubt with me.
An eye for an eye, a question for a question. So I decided to ask Miss Weirdo about her little habit.
"So, why are you always staring at the door? Expecting someone to come?"
She stared hard at me for a few seconds.
"Of course I do that! As a bartender you must be always alert about who is leaving or coming right?"
I knew she was troubled by this question from her conduct, not from the context of her speech but the awkward smile that is already pasted on her face.
"I am glad that you are taking this job seriously" I added with a congenial smile.
At this time all the customer is long gone, leaving only some glasses half filled or empty from booze here and there as an aftermath of their merry nighttime life or perhaps a proof of their frustration in daily life.
"You should go home it is pretty late now, I can handle the rest"
"I won't turn my back here even if you are crying out for my help you know?"
Miss Weirdo carried her bag and walked towards the front door before stopping her steps.
"Want me to lock the door?"
I gave her a nod as a cue before resuming to my work.
Before I knew it the clock is already showing 00.45 A.M, another day goes by without me knowing. Working here has helped me getting through many nights like this. Dragging my wobbly steps up to the second floor, as I open the door, the only thing that welcomes me is the familiar scenery of my living quarter. I plan to call it a day with my routine ritual that consist of taking a bath, dress up in my sleeping attire and proceed to sleep. Before throwing myself to the bed, I was bothered by the half-closed window which I left open at the morning. As I reached out my hand to the handle I noticed something out of the ordinary. A silhouette of a person that stands facing away from the wall. My drowsy eyes only managed to figure out the owner of the silhouette after I rubbed it. It is Miss Weirdo.
What is she doing here? I resisted my urge to call out for her. I stood by the window to observe her. She is just standing there and nothing more than that. Occasionally she would rub her palm to warm herself up. Maybe she is waiting for someone, but who is she waiting for?
Despite her initial appearance that struck me as a flighty sort of person, she is very responsible concerning her work. Every evening she always comes and works until midnight before resuming her after work routine. For the next few days, she would always stand there. Due to some unknown reasons I can't bring myself to ask her about this matter. All I can do is just silently observing her from distant. She just stood still there all alone only to be accompanied by the cold air of the night and the flickering light of the nearby lamp post. As the days goes by, I noticed the time she spent on waiting there gets longer and longer. The cold air of the night will definitely go, but will the person she awaits for ever come? No one knows.
Well, I don't really mind about her private life as long it doesn't affect her job here. What links between us is just a professional relation between employer and employee, as simple as that. Nothing more and I plan to keep it that way.
