An ear or two

Sometimes, I'm there just because the food is decent and I know I want be bothered. I was running later than usual because I had to do someone else's job for them. I was so late that I caught one of my friends visiting after work. It wasn't actually after work, seeing how he had left early but the point is that he wasn't leaving anytime soon.

He seemed to want to talk but I had to leave. I had only planned on dropping by for lunch but seeing my friend caused my plan to change. I told him that I would be back in twenty minutes.

We had a couple beers and helped get rid of the nachos that the bar put out for the free 'buffet' so that the empty tray could be sent back to the kitchen to get filled with pizza. We did so to help the bartender who likes the pizza but not the nachos. We're good like that.

My friend settled down after awhile and decided to leave while I had most of a beer left. I stayed to finish my pint. Before I could finish, another friend walked in. He was in worse shape than my friend that had just left.

"I don't think I've had a worse day than this. I just walked out of my job. I told my boss that I had to leave and he took one look at me and said go. I've been walking around, trying to settle down and when I walked by here I looked in the window to see if you were here because I needed something that was normal."

I listened, nodded and asked a question here and there. He wouldn't go into specifics and that was okay with me. He stayed around for four beers and left while I still had most of one beer. I half laughed at the trend that was developing.

There was a regular at the bar who knew that last friend of mine and we were all talking and buying each other beers. He turned to me and said that I was the man and he repeated what Dave had said about needing something normal.

I smiled a little; sometimes I'm a good friend but I don't know about normal.