Sweet Water by Christina Baker Kline

Author:Christina Baker Kline [Kline, Christina Baker]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-06-202076-5
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 1993-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

By the end of the evening I was weaving through the crowd like a pro, dodging drunks and memorizing orders for tables of twelve. Smoke hung in the air like a fog, glasses clinked, eyes glittered in the dark. Laughter rose and evaporated and rose again, mixing with the smells of beer and sweat and tobacco and perfume. Up in front, people danced on a packed floor to the thumping rhythm of the band.

In the course of my shift I settled a quarrel between a jealous man and someone trying to pick up his girlfriend, I was propositioned by a guy wearing a wedding ring who told me I looked like Rosanna Arquette, and I made seventy-eight dollars in tips. By two in the morning, when the bar closed its door, I was exhausted. I sat at a long table with Liz, Ryan, two other bartenders, and three waitresses, drinking beer and swapping stories. The smoke in the room had settled low, like mist hugging a riverbank.

“Congratulations,” said Liz. “I think you passed Waitressing in a Hick Bar 101 with flying colors.”

“Happy graduation,” Ryan said, raising his glass. “Not a bad place, for a redneck town, is it?”

“Not a bad place at all,” I said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.