The Unexpected Partner

Chapter 9

As the last man left, Claire looked around the saloon and saw the mess. She checked her pocket watch: 12:05 AM. "Dear Lord," she whispered.

She had been working like a dog the past week, trying to learn all the rules of being a barkeeper. For the past seven days, she had been coming into the saloon at three in the afternoon and leaving around one in the morning. Why does Billy get the earlier time? She asked herself, knowing that Billy came to work at noon and left at nine.

Today was her one-week anniversary. The number of times she had messed up the past week, she could not recall. But she was slowly getting better.

If only they knew I'm a woman, they would never make me work this hard, Claire laughed. If they knew I'm a woman, they wouldn't let me work at all!

She took a cloth and cleaned every table, wiping them spotless. She took time to polish the tables and pick up the leftover glasses, most of them still filled with drinks. "These men pay and don't even drink what they paid for," Claire shook her head.

After clearing and wiping all the tables, she went to clean the counter. What a mess! There were so many glasses, and drinks were spilt everywhere.

While she worked, Shane came down the stairs with a pen and paper in his hand but before he reached the last step, he saw Clark wiping the counter and cleaning the glasses. Glasses that he had brought in from his house to replace the ones he had broken. He had to pay for his mistake somehow, Shane thought.

Shane looked at what he thought was an eighteen-year-old boy. Scrawny, short, could barely grow a beard and had so much to learn. Shane chuckled at the sound of the boy's singing.

Claire didn't notice Shane standing on the stairs and continued to sing while cleaning the bar. She sang in her deep manly voice, a deep, manly song, as her hand made gun motions. "If your horse throws you off its back, you can always use your legs. If the wagon breaks down on the trail, you can always fix it next. And if the whole town burns to the ground, build another one. Ain't nothing that can kill you, except a gun. Well, if your horse throws you off its back-."
The sound of Shane's clapping interrupted her song. She looked up and saw Shane smiling and clapping as he walked towards her. "Well, I didn't know our barkeeper was a music star."

She blushed madly and looked down before saying in her manly voice, "I didn't see you."

"It's okay, Clark, I'm just here to count the money."

"Yes, of course," Claire grabbed the metal box of money from the bottom counter.

"And come help me count."

"Yes, of course," Claire said again, following Shane to an empty table and bringing an oil lamp. She set the lamp on the table as Shane took his key and opened the box. In it were lots of coins and cash money from the customers of the day.

"All right," Shane started, "Do you know how to count?"

Laughter erupted from her mouth.

"What's so funny?" Shane asked, not really knowing what was amusing.

Claire swallowed the lump in her throat. Good God, this man is so infuriating. Can't he just take a joke? "No, no... I'm not laughing, I just have something stuck in my throat. And yes, I do know how to count."

Shane didn't say anything as he started to separate the money and count them one by one. "You count that side and I'll count this side." He divided the money into two halves and started to count the quarters by adding them together.

"Wait," Claire started, "Are you going to count the quarters one by one? Wouldn't it be easier to count the number of quarters and then simply multiply them by twenty-five?"