Dive Bar Rule

I work as a waitress at a dive bar, and in the course of my employment I tend to get hit on a lot. As a rule, I don’t take any of these (usually drunk) guys up on their offers.

However, last summer a guy came in who seemed pretty cool. We struck up a conversation, and when he asked me for my number I figured, why not? He seemed to have a lot of nice qualities – he said he was an English teacher, he played the guitar, he was the same age as me, and he was new in town (hence at the bar alone).

The following weekend, we met up at a bar in my neighborhood for drinks. Unfortunately, though I was in my date-night best, he looked like he had just come in from doing yard work – grubby t-shirt, ratty shorts, flip-flops. I decided to let it slide, and we got to chatting. After a few drinks, he didn’t seem so bad so I agreed to a second date.

For the second date, we met at a bar/restaurant in his neighborhood for dinner. When it came time to order, he said he wasn’t eating because he didn’t have any cash. Finally, he agreed to get something when I offered to pay (it was dinnertime and I was hungry). As the evening wore on, I came to find out that he was not, in fact, an English teacher. He had interviewed once for an adjunct professor position but was actually an unemployed subcontractor. Though I was having some major reservations at that point, I agreed to go hang out at his place for a little bit after dinner.

When we got there, he told me that his electricity had been shut off for non-payment. As such, it was pitch dark and hotter than hell in there (it was July in the city). I beat feet out of there, and stopped returning his calls, at which time he started sending the craziest texts- first obscene, then angry, then begging. Eventually he got the message and stopped texting when I never responded.

After that, I never deviated from my no-dating-guys-from-the-bar rule.