A Bar Tender Tale Read Online Free PDF Page A

bar, walking out onto the pub floor. The fussy, older couple had shambled off, and Nathan went to retrieve their glasses and empty crisp packet.
    He also wanted the few moments away from Auryn to think.
    There was one thing on his mind…. Well, apart from how gorgeous Auryn was, there was one other thing on his mind. Namely, whether the man was straight. Or bi, Nathan thought, sneaking a glance over his shoulder at him. Bi he could work with.

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    Auryn was still at the bar, seemingly deep in thought as Nathan brought the glasses back. Stalling for time, Nathan lined the dirties up in the glass washer, making himself busy.
    There was a pretty good gambit for opening conversation up toward sexuality, and he intended to find the right moment to slip it in. He’d done it before, and this time would be relatively simple, seeing as Auryn was originally from Wales. The trick was to casually ask questions about why the other person had moved to Brighton and enquire about how they coped with the uninspired jokes of “Have you turned gay yet?” that were often encountered. Usually, that would work a treat. Depending how they reacted, Nathan could tell if they were poker straight, relaxed straight, possibly ambiguous, or gay.
    An ambiguous answer might need further probing.
    That’s when he could mention where he worked; the name Rainbow’s kinda spoke for itself even if you hadn’t been inside the infamous gay bar.
    Plan set in mind, Nathan was psyching himself up to ask the question. Auryn beat him to it, snapping out of his concentration with an excited look and said, “Did you hear apparently they’re making Crossed into a film.”
    “What?” Nathan was drawn in immediately. “No way!
    Where’d you hear that?”
    “Yeah, they’re talking about it online. I hope they don’t muck it up, I loved that comic.”
    “It’s ace,” Nathan agreed, as they quickly descended into a discussion on the ins and outs of zombie comics and everything in between.

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    As the time ticked by, they moved onto films, the conversation flowing so steadily that Nathan kept missing his opportunity to get onto the topic of Auryn living in Brighton. I’ll ask in a minute, he kept thinking, easily distracted by Auryn’s beautiful smile and the way his eyes lit up when he was describing a scene in a film, comparing it to one of his computer games.
    The rest of the customers in the pub started to file away, leaving their empty glasses. A couple of them said thank you as they exited, but Nathan barely noticed. He did notice however, that Auryn didn’t ask where Gary was again.
    In fact, he didn’t mention him at all. They were too busy talking about films now, trying to outdo each other with random factoids and trivia.
    “Here’s a question,” Auryn asked in all seriousness.
    “Which were more scary, the deranged zombie officers from the dream sequence in An American Werewolf in London or the evil Nazi zombies in Dead Snow ?”
    “Ooh, tough one.” Nathan frowned in thought. “I’d have to say the dream sequence zombies, 'cause they just came outta nowhere.”
    “Good point. But a stampede of zombies are a lot more fun to kill.”
    Nathan laughed. “Yeah, in your computer games! I’m talking about reality!”
    “Well, yes, but if you’ve ever seen Gaz on a drunken rampage, in reality as you call it, you do get a bit of practice wrestling zombies.”

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    “Hah! I wouldn’t even dream of trying to stop Gaz in full charge. Back at The Hob when we used to work there, we’d send him in to break up the bar fights.”
    “That’s why we call him Gazilla. Have you known him long?”
    “Yeah, kinda.” Nathan leaned into the bar without thinking, bringing himself closer to Auryn. “We worked together, and I liked the band he used to play in.” Auryn nodded. “Yeah, Gaz has been in a lot of bands.
    You like all that