Page 3 of Nick & Nora Martinis

Mary looks horrified by this but I need to see what she can do. I stand up and start to walk towards the bar with Mary following. I take a seat at the bar while Mary goes to the other side.

“Hello, what can I get you?” she says.

“I'll have today's special.”

She goes to work pouring different kinds of alcohol and juices into the shaker mixing it all, she places a mat down along with a glass. Taking the shaker, she tips the yellow liquid into the glass and pushes it forward towards me with a smile, dropping a straw into it.

“I would have put crushed ice into the glass if it had been available, and squeezed a lime,” she says.

I pick it up and taste it. It's sweet and sour but overall not bad.

“So what do you call this then?” I ask.

“Take your Time,” Mary tells me.

“Why that name?”

“Cuz it has a kick to it, with the mixture of alcohol it's deadly,” she tells me.

“I like it, but what makes it so deadly?”

“The contents, white wine and vodka, two or more you will be asleep, hence the name.”

“Okay I'll take that. Now I'm going to order some drinks and I'd like you to tell me what you’re doing as you’re doing it.”

Mary smiles at me, her apprehension gone and booming with confidence, like she knew I was going to ask for different ones.

“Can I have Sex on the Beach, a Cap Codder, and a Cosmonaut, please?”

“Sure,” she says.

She grabs three different glasses, placing them on the bar and as she touches the first glass she enumerates the ingredients, then the second and the third.

“Now Mary, I'm going to put you in a scenario, how would you handle it?”

'Excuse me love, hey love.'

'Oi, I've been waiting forever.'

'I asked for today's special.'

'I gave you a twenty.'

'She pushed in.'

'Some waving money in the air.'

People shouting and screaming at you.

“Well, firstly I'd never let them talk to me like that….”

“Oh, but they do,” I say as I cut her off.

Mary smirks, looking about the bar. “Are all these people still shouting at me?”

“Yes, yes they are.”

Mary walks back around the bar and sits down. 'I will not serve anyone that shouts across the bar at me. You can wait until you find your manners. And as for you saying you gave me a different note, no you did not and if you can't tell the difference, don’t drink, I ain't no thief, leave your name and phone number and after the till has been cashed up we will know one way or the other.' How was that?”

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