The register was out of singles.
Carmen blew a loose strand of hair from her face and dipped into her tip jar to count out twenty.
There was Stan, reflected in the bar mirror, the already crowded Hawk Circle Tavern filling up even more around him.
Stan had enough beer in his mug for Carmen to serve at least six patrons,as long as they didn’t order anything too fancy.
Stan had been at a few of Carmen’s birthday parties when she was little, her Uncle Toad inviting the bar regulars so she would get more money, more gifts.
She couldn’t remember what Stan had given her, and that made her a little sad. Probably a five dollar bill in a card, like most of them.
The neighborhood had changed, because that’s what happened to neighborhoods.
Algers Gasket, where her first boyfriend had worked, was now six figure lofts.
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