✔ᵉⁿᵍˡⁱˢʰ Starscream [Top Gun Maverick]✔

02

In a way, Mitchell could be described as reliable, whereas instructions and rules (to follow) were not his thing. A contradiction in terms, perhaps, but the pilot had already been in the Navy for over thirty years and would spend the next ones there as well, which might mean something. With a little help. A little bit of support that ensured that it would stay that way, but at some point, as the saying goes, we all need a little bit of help. Therefore, Kim could count on Pete coming before evening and not just when it was about to get dark.

"Who are you waiting for, anyway?", Penny wanted to know after a while and more drinks, to which Kim merely put on a meaningful smile, "Well, I'll find out soon enough. In the meantime, you can work off your drinks. I have to go to the warehouse and see what's left before the weekend comes and the supplier can't deliver anything. You see what the weather is like."

Instead of simply asking if Kim could fill in for a few minutes, it had to be titled 'working off' as if she wasn't up to paying her bill. It would cost Penny quite a bit more, so just the couple of drinks, which the bar owner countered with a, I already knew.

Ten minutes was quite enough for Kim not to feel like it. It was not pouring and rinsing glasses, bringing drinks to tables and clearing them, but the guests themselves. If she didn't want to entertain, she didn't want to entertain. Forced conversations were among the most corrosive of all. It only got better with those who just started talking and wouldn't stop without her being able to get a word in. On top of that, there was all the stuff she inevitably had to listen in on. Some of it was just to shake her head.

"So," began a blond who came up to Kim at the counter, folded his arms on it, and leaned forward toward her, "What can I do for you? If you want something from me, all you have to do is approach me. No need to be shy."

"My handsome....," Kim began with a fake smile on her lips, leaning on the wooden countertop with her arms folded like the blond, leaning toward him and stroking her index finger under his cheek, ".... you'd be a lot more handsome if you'd just keep your mouth shut. You aviators always have such a big mouth without much behind it."

"Ouch, that wasn't nice," he countered in a playfully offended tone, then put on an extremely wide smile, "Yes, I'm a pilot. And I'm good, really good, so I can afford to open my mouth. Hangman, for you though Jake."

"Ouch. Sorry to hear," countered Kim with the corners of her mouth pulled down, causing several wrinkles to form on Jake's forehead and pointing her down, under the counter, "Hang Man. Must be hard when you can't get one up. Well, here's you and your friend have a beer, okay?"

After Kim placed two beers on the bar, she turned away with an extra wide grin and walked, snorting, to the empty glasses on the other side of the counter. Some people were really too good to be true.

And Penny had to deal with such, similar or even worse guests every day. Why does a person do this to himself voluntarily?

"This one is not on the house," Pete immediately looked at Kim, who put a beer glass in front of him, "You must have been one of those wannabe navi pilots back then, right? Please say no."

"No, I wasn't," Mitchell lied, as a small favor to Kim, "I was...."

But Kim raised her hands because she didn't want to hear it, since she could have figured it out long ago. Worse. The answer was worse.