Bartender Therapy - 1. Forward

It's said that the oldest profession in the world is prostitution, but these stories aren't about that. These stories involve the world's second oldest profession, being a bartender. Bartenders have been around for as long as mankind have learned how to make booze. In my opinion however, they've also been known as counselors, a shoulder to cry on and on rare occasions, wise men.

If you've been a bartender long enough, you start to realize that you've heard it all. Stories of one night stands, emotional breakdowns, cheaters and cheat's and confessions. People go to the bar more often then they go to church which is why people after confessing their sins to the bartender and having enough nectar of the gods, end up praying to the patron saint of the bar, the porcelain god.

This story involves the author who has had experience bartending and has heard all these stories so this will be a different kind of story, one that breaks the forth wall and addresses the audience directly. Some of these stories are from first hand experience, others however are stories I've heard from other bartenders that I consider friends and have let me into their world and told me their stories.

The setting for this takes place in a kind of bar that you may think of as a neighborhood bar and, to use a quote from the show Cheers, everyone knows your name. On the outside it looks like your regular old bar with a porch in the front. On the inside are tables for you to order your pub food, a bar to sit at and watch either Bravo or Logo (did I mention this was a gay bar?) or the local sports team. You of course have the regular patrons and the passerby's who are sitting their checking their phones, or talking with the person next to them. However, first and foremost you have your bartender, your counselor and, dare I say, your priest if you catch my meaning.

I hope you enjoy reading these short stories as much as I have writing them. I remind you though, while some stories are told in great detail, as an author I've taken a poetic license to go further into the story and tell you what my imagination has cooked up when I heard them.

Take care reading these and as always, the names, places and anything else has been changed to protect the people I am writing about. It's a confidentiality thing but I think you get the idea. I will also give you a warning that some of these can be graphic, depict male on male, female on female or even male on female sexual relations (I'll forewarn you ahead of time what is going on). Their will be some foul language and anything else that might come up in a bar story. On a final note, if this story is illegal to read in your area, then cease and desist as I am not responsible for any issues you may run into.

Thanks for reading these and enjoy!

Eric