Who: Dan Smith and Michael Guerin What: Catching up with the bartender When: Early June Where: The Double Tap Rating/Warning: Low/None Status: Complete
As usual it was drinks after work for Michael. There were a few bars he usually frequented. Tonight he decided to go to The Double Tap. Maybe Sara would be back from her trip. Not that he didn’t like Dan, the guy made a good drink and they had been friendly enough over the years Michael had been going there. But he had to admit he was enjoying getting to know Sara as well. She had been gone a few weeks now and Michael kind of missed her.
Walking into the bar Michael spotted Dan behind the bar. He wasn’t surprised though there was a brief flicker of disappointment on his face before he reminded himself that he actually liked Dan. They were sort of friends even, in their own right. As much as a bartender and his customer could be. “Hey,” Michael said with a nod taking a seat on one of the stools. “Whiskey, neat.”
Dan had a fairly good relationship with most of his regular customers. In his opinion it was good business to have a positive report with those who were spending money in his establishment. In a way it made up for the fact that the place was a dive and that he didn’t have anything considered “top shelf” as far as liquor was concerned.
He caught the flicker of disappointment across Michael’s face when he came in, but it didn’t bother Dan much. He would have been more offended had the man saw him and turned around to leave again. Though Dan was fairly popular as far as bar tenders went, he wasn’t universally loved. He’d kicked out enough people to have made a few enemies. Besides, Dan was fully aware that Sara was easier on the eyes than he was.
“Evenin’, Michael,” he greeted the other man as he sat down “Good to see you, as always.” He poured the whiskey and slid the glass towards him.
Dan wasn’t so bad on the eyes himself. But Dan had a girlfriend, at least Michael was pretty sure that pale chick that sometimes kissed him was his girlfriend. Michael never asked. Sara was just, somehow Michael had become friends with her quickly. There was something about bartenders that Michael connected with - probably the fact that he spent almost every night at one bar or another.
“Long time,” Michael said picking up his drink and taking a long swallow. “You back from wherever the hell you been?”
Dan nodded. “Aye, I am,” he said. “I had a little business I had to take care of outta town. It took a little longer than I thought it would.” Which had been annoying. “But it’s taken care of now and I’m back.” And hopefully the next “business” that needed to be taken care of didn’t take him half way across the country again.
“But, it looks like Sara took good care o’ the place whilst I was gone.” Sara had been a good find. For as much as the network was a pain in his ass, Dan had made some good friends there: Leon, Liv, and now Sara. Though Dan remembered exactly what life had been like before signing on, it felt as though he’d been here for ages.
“How ‘bout you?” Dan asked. “How you been?”
“And now she’s gone,” Michael replied with another swallow if his drink. “You guys tag team?” he commented with a small smirk. He may have been joking but it was pretty logical that only one of be out of town at a time. Michael hadn’t encountered any other bartender’s at The Double Tap and if Dan didn’t want to close it down for a few days someone had to cover the bar.
“I’ve been alright,” Michael replied which was true for the most part. His life had been somewhat of a rollercoaster lately, between dreams and running into people from high school again. It was a lot. But he was dealing as best he could. Which meant alcohol and lots of it.
Dan chuckled. “Kinda seems that way, don’t it?” He said. “Unintentional, but I figure the girl needed the time off, especially since I was gone a lot longer than I thought I was gonna be.”
Michael’s response to Dan’s question about how he had been doing was a normal one. People often responded with “good” or “alright. However, Dan had been in Orange County long enough to know that what people defined as good or alright varied greatly from person to person. It didn’t help matters that Michael was a member of the network, a Dreamer, so to speak. It seemed as though a number of Dan’s regulars were coming from the network these days, not that Dan minded.
Well that answered that. Yes, Michael came into the Double Tap rather frequently, but it wasn’t the only bar he frequented. He figured he just kept coming in on night’s Dan was off. But he had flat out said he was gone for awhile. “Got another bar I don’t know about?” Michael questioned with a raised brow. His tone was light though, joking even. But he truly didn’t know what else could pull Dan away for so long.
Dan laughed. “Nah. I’m not cheatin’ on this ol’ girl.” He patted the bartop affectionately. “Don’t have it in me. Besides, she’s my pride and joy. It took quite a bit to get her up and running, so I’m not going to be abandoning her any time soon.”
He rested his arms against the bartop. “The business that had me away was more of a favor I was doing for some acquaintances of mine,” he went on. “They had gotten themselves in a bit of a sticky situation and needed some help sorting it out. Turned out to be a bit sticker than I figured it would have been, but it all worked out alright in the end.”
“That’s a relief,” Michael said with a grin. “It’s one of my favorites.” Of course he would survive if Double Tap was suddenly gone. There were plenty other dive bars out there. But he did enjoying coming here the most. Well here and Wild Pony. So it would suck to lose it.
Well now Michael was intrigued. “Sounds like one hell of a favor,” he commented biting down on his lower lip to keep from asking more. As much as interesting as it all sounded, he also had a feeling Dan couldn’t or wouldn’t tell him anyway. “Guess I know who to call if I ever get myself in a sticky situation,” he settled on saying instead.
Dan shrugged. “You could say that,” he said. “But it all worked out alright in the end.” It felt good to be out in the field again. He wasn’t lying to Michael when he said the Double Tap was his pride and joy. She really was and was probably the only reason he had decided to stay in Orange County when the weird shit really started happening. But working his other job again gave him a deeper sense of purpose. It also made him feel good that Liv understood that. In many ways she was like his moral compass.
Not that this was anything he felt the need to tell Michael and it wasn’t anything Michael really needed to hear either. He raised a brow a little and chuckled faintly at the other man’s statement about getting into a “sticky situation” himself. “Let’s hope you don’t, lad,” he said. “Orange County be complicated enough as it is.” Which never seemed to stop life’s other complications. Mostly, it only seemed to make them more complicated.
Dan offered to refill Michael’s drink. “But if you ever do find yerself in a jam, I’ll be willin’ to offer you a hand.” It wouldn’t have been the first time Dan had done work for someone on the Network, after all.
Even before he started dreaming Michael had been in a few sticky situations. Or at least shitty ones. Like every damn foster home he had lived in. What had happened to his hand in high school. The times he had been taken to the drunk tank for bar fights. But all of that he had survived and managed on his own. He wasn’t sure there would be a situation that he couldn’t handle himself. However, it was a bit reassuring to know that he could call Dan if he ever needed to.
“You know I’m gonna hold you to that,” Michael replied picking up his newly filled glass and taking a nice long sip.
Most situations Michael may have found himself in over his life weren’t technically situations Dan got involved in. Foster families, in particular, were somewhat outside his expertise. During his hay-day as an underworld fix-it man, he’d made it a point to never mess with kids, or families in general. There had been a handful of times in which Dan had been recruited by a desperate family member to track down a child lost in the system -- which he’d done -- but he’d never gotten directly involved with the system itself. Custody battles were another matter Dan had stayed out of as well. The last thing he wanted to be involved in was a kidnapping.
The other stuff, particularly the bar fights and nights in the drunk tank were things most people could handle on their own. Dan had been responsible for making one or two charges disappear in his day, but they usually were consequences stemming from a larger job.
That being said, one never knew what kind of trouble the county could throw at you. Dan himself had been locked up for something he hadn’t done thanks to Orange County’s absurdity. It paid to have someone on the outside to rescue you in situations like that.
“That ain’t a challenge, Michael,” Dan chuckled, but he dug his card out of his wallet regardless, handing it over to the other man. “Don’t go lookin’ fer trouble or anything. But if you do find yourself in over your head, give me a call an’ I’ll see what I can do.”
Michael never went looking for trouble. It just always seemed to find him. Ever since he was a kid. But he wasn’t about to open up that much. Michael didn’t really talk about his past. Unless it was pried out of him which he wasn’t really a fan of. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he settled on saying instead. With that he finished off his drink slapping some bills down on the bar. “I’ll see you around, Dan.”