The Gold Room

	Tara whirled on one heel and tucked her washrag away in a single motion, as soon as she heard the jingle of the bell at the door. She was the closest, so she took two steps closer and faked a bright smile.
	Two people entered, both men, neither handsome, one too small and then one too large. Or rather, the large one was still entering, making a great fuss of the process.
	When she first started working at The Gold Room, she was perpetually surprised that customers /weren't/ surprised at how it changed each day. The regulars, newcomers, everyone would simply take it for what it is today. This was her second summer working there, and she'd almost stopped feeling the urge to tell people it's a bar today. "Welcome to the Gold Room, can I get you anything?"
	As the large man finished untangling himself from the door, the small man answered her. "A table."
	Tara glanced to the Please Seat Yourself sign, then around the room. It was unusually busy for mid-afternoon; Rudy was at the bar getting started on a serious buzz, and a tourist couple were entertaining each other at one of the darkened corner tables. Seven tables were free, including the wide low one with the big metal chair. She showed the small man and his freshly-extricated companion to it. It was one of her tables, and the tourists were at one of Becky's, so that worked out nicely. She set a pair of menus open on the table, one by the big chair. The Gold Room being a bar today, the menus had a dozen snacks but mostly booze.
	The large man began to heave himself into the big chair, a process which looked like it could take a while.
	The small man's accent was hard to place. "Ah. What do yoou have on tap?"
	"Gretchen's Pride, a hearty stout, and Sign Of The Sickle, an IPA. Both local microbrews." Neither of which she'd heard of until she arrived for work, when Taylor told her they're a bar today. "Shall I get you a pint?"
	"It comes in pints?" The large and small men said in unison.
	Tara nodded, solemnly, to keep from laughing. "Yep."
	The large man settled into the chair, with a sense of finality. "A pint of each."
	"And a pint a Gretchen's Pride for me."
	She nodded deep, left the menus untouched in case they wanted to order snacks, and went to pour their beers.

		*	*	*

	The two had split a plate of tempura and a bowl of sea-salt ice cream, and Tara was pouring the large man a second refill of the stout when someone else walked in. He was devastating, all cool boyish charms. Fine black hair was pulled into a long ponytail, and framed a pale face. He wore narrow, thin-rimmed mirrorshades low on his nose, obviously for looks and no other reason, and his eyes were jewels of deep forest green. He wore a black brocade vest, over a loose white shirt and black jeans. A splash of color was provided by a green rose on his lapel, a deep forest green doubtless chosen to match his eyes.
	The Gold Room'd had a pair of taps a few times before, and Tara had enough practice to know the sound as a mug approached full. She shut off the tap, a loud hydraulic sound in the sudden hush.
	The young man made his way to the bar, followed by all eyes in the room; Becky and Rudy and both tourists were at least as gobsmacked as Tara, but the large and small men seemed to be more enjoying the effect this Adonis had on the rest of them. He sat at the bar, two stools from Rudy, and folded his left hand to rest his chin on, supported by his elbow. He wore black gloves, of course. When Rudy leaned in and opened his mouth, grinning and about to say something that drunk logic would declare profound, the young man placed a finger over Rudy's lips, and only then looked over. "Not tonight, honey."
	Tara gave the tap a brief pulse, as the stout's head had blossomed a bit short of the top of the mug.
	He turned his gaze back on Tara. "I'm looking… for someone… Would you be they?" The effect was spoiled by a distinct smarmy curl to his lip.
	"Um. I don't think so?" However much she might wish otherwise…
	He turned on the stool, and in the process shifted position to his right arm, and in the process… shifted. His face softened, features slightly melting like butter, and he — or rather she — filled out the blouse and vest more in front and less at the shoulders. She skewered Tara with the smoulder of her eyes, still forest jewels to get lost in for a lifetime, but now she purred with excessive languor. "How about… now?"
	At some point the small man had climbed up onto the next barstool over, for now he interrupted by roughly clapping the young woman on her back, disrupting her pose. "Ah c'mon, Ax, it's *borin'* if you freeze 'em like deer."
	A glance at the sunlight across a shaded window didn't reveal much time having passed, but Tara had her doubts.

		*	*	*