"Which part?"
"All of it. In depth."
"Tell them the bartender recommends trusting the process."
She took the bottle she had come for. "That's not an answer."
"It's a philosophy."
She was gone.
I moved down the rail. A guy in a fleece vest flagged me with a twenty. He only wanted a beer. Some days we got lucky.
The man three seats down had been watching the hockey highlights on the TV for ten minutes. He focused intently.
"You a hockey guy?" I asked, setting a fresh glass in front of him without being asked.
He looked at it. "My wife says I watch too much."
"What's too much?"
"Every game."
"Every game of what?"
He thought about it. "Every game of everything."
I pulled the tap. "That's not too much. That's commitment. Your wife is confusing a character trait with a problem."
He laughed. It was a big, open sound. "I'm putting that on a t-shirt."
"Royalties," I said, and moved on.
Around ten, a guy at the far end of the rail set his glass down too deliberately. He'd finished his third bourbon, and I'dwatched him all evening. He'd gradually migrated six inches closer to the center of the bar.
"Another?" he asked.
"Tell me something," I said. "Are you driving?"
"No."
"Okay. Good." I picked up his glass. "Here's my concern. You've had three excellent bourbons. I'm proud of them. The fourth one—and I say this with genuine affection—is going to be the one you remember as the reason the night went sideways. It always is."
He blinked. "That's a lot of analysis for a bartender."
"It's a service." I set the glass down. "I can pour you the fourth. You're a grown man. Still, I recommend against it the way a mechanic recommends against ignoring the check engine light. Technically optional, but you usually regret it."
There was a long pause as he worked through what I had said.
"What do you recommend instead?"
"Water. Fifteen minutes. Then we reassess."
He looked at me for a second. "You're genuinely trying to talk me out of spending money."
"I'm trying to talk you into going home feeling good about your evening." I set a glass of water in front of him. "Your call."
He took the water, and I moved on.
