a little bit of black with a little bit of pink

Last ones to know, last ones to show

The Hootenanny had to be the worst possible name Jennie could think of for a bar. 'I'm a bartender at The Hootenanny' had to be one of the worst possible answers to the question of where one worked. Jennie forced herself to practice it in the mirror before every shift, while she adjusted her dumb cowboy hat and tied the ends of her even dumber plaid shirt so some of her midriff showed (as required per the employee handbook). Then she raised her head high, taking a deep breath before marching out to be hit on for six hours, at least, six nights a week.

She supposed she was in no position to complain. Jennie could afford a place to live. She had a car. She managed to hold onto to at least some shred of self-respect, although the job was working on that, bit by bit, but Jennie refused to lose it. And Jennie liked to people watch, anyway, which was a nice way to pass the time during nights that weren't so busy.

"Hey, Jennie!"

"Lisa, hey! Just a sec."

Jennie liked Lisa well enough as a regular customer. And Lisa liked her- well, as much as she could like anyone- because Jennie made sure to ward off men that wanted to buy her a drink. Lisa also tipped well, especially when her girlfriend came with her, which was more often than not.

"What'll you-"

"Bourbon shots."

"...Okay. How many?"

Lisa tapped an agitated rhythm against the bar top. "Ten. Line them all up in front of me, right here."

Jennie's eyes widened. "Right. Sure."

Jennie started to grab the glasses. "So," she started to line the glasses up, "sharing these with anybody? Where's Rosé?"

"Fuck if I know," Lisa answered, "In Georgia, I assume."

"Visiting family? Right, isn't she from...?"

"Peachtree Corners," Lisa answered blandly.

Jennie nodded. Rosé was the type of aggressively southern person that would live in a town called Peachtree Corners. Jennie also heard Rosé and Lisa bicker a lot, over drinks, about going to visit. Lisa hated Rosé's family or something.

"Well, sorry. When will she be back?"

"I don't know; I assume never."

Jennie paused, starting to tip her bottle over the first shot glass. "Never?"

"Nope." Lisa grabbed the first glass and downed it. "I got dumped!"

"She dumped you?"

"That she did, honey. Now fill my next glass."

Jennie chewed her lip. "Um, I don't know if it's a good idea-"

"Christ, I'll take a cab or an Uber home or whatever, just give me the booze."

Jennie swallowed, but she filled another glass. "Lisa, I'm so sorry. If you don't mind me asking... did she say why?"

She had seen them only a few nights ago. And Jennie guessed it made sense, that they weren't at each other's throats in public, but they seemed happy. Rosé certainly didn't give off a 'I'm about to dump my girlfriend and move to Georgia' vibe, even while Lisa was in the restroom and she was alone at the bar.

"Just that she was making all the sacrifices in our relationship, I was insensitive, blah blah blah she took an assistant editing job back home and left me."

Jennie was starting to think that Lisa had already been a little tipsy before she showed up, because her words were already slurring, and she definitely was way more loose-lipped than usual. Usually without Rosé's prompting Lisa only really spoke to Jennie in a series of monosyllabic words or word-ish sounding noises, mixed with the names of pastries Jennie had inferred were meant to refer to her. Basically, Lisa was kind of like having a cat around that only cared about Jennie providing her food.