Candle on the windowsill, beer swigged from the
bottle
and sometimes a friend or lover
would be in there,
crammed together
in the grime.
Sure, our deposits never made it home.
But they’re not meant to are they, Ava?
First week, I walked around with my C.V.
and this pub hired me on the spot.
A girl in halls had told me – print your C.V. in navy
blue instead of black so it stands out,
I did.
And then one night the surveyor and his friends
came in while I was working –
thing is, Ava, I’d never
normally entertain a man like him, but this pub – was
kind of dodgy –
I wasn’t exactly thinking straight –
how do I put this?
I was young, nineteen –
you’re not much older are you, Ava?
Twenty? Twenty-two?
I’ve looked you up –
and all the other people working at this bar were men –
some boyish, some more grizzled, some
completely addled – fucked!
This pub was owned by a big brewery – I forget the
name – a chain – who never checked on things,
they never came to see how it was run,
or hadn’t yet
and boss-less, boundary-less, these men had lost the
plot –
a night-time world of booze, free money
from the till, and girls and girls and girls just coming in.
At first I found it funny, Ava, the way men are
when left unchecked together.
I liked how I became the centre of the orbit
working there
all glances led to me
