C7 She Is Smiling Because Of Him.

David drove aimlessly after he met with his parents and in-laws for half an hour before it registered in his head that he hadn’t eaten. He went back home to have a meal because he would be easy to spot at a restaurant, and he was supposed to be grieving for his wife.

After having his lunch, he pulled out his phone and scrolled through a group chat he had been repeatedly added to but did not take part in. It mostly had participants that he was doing business with or just influential people he knew.

He scrolled through absent-mindedly since he was bored and saw a familiar photo. It was sent two days ago, and it was the familiar face of the bartender that had been smiling at him all night.

He clicked on the photo and zoomed in on it unconsciously. He was carefully studying her face that carried a smile that reached her eyes, causing them to curve cutely, and even her dimples were showing.

When he realised he had been studying the picture for over five minutes, he cleared his throat in embarrassment and went back to the chat.

What he saw in the chat made him feel even more baffled. Most of the members were marvelling on how it was the first time they had seen the prettiest bartender at Misty smile so happily. They were all regretful that they hadn’t been around to see her since they were at his wife’s funeral.

David:…

Some of them said that they gave her a lot of tips to encourage her to look so friendly in the future. It was very amusing to read. He had never known that this group of serious businessmen and women would fret about a bartender smiling.

What was even funnier, was the next day’s posts. They kept complaining she looked even gloomier than she did before and barely spoke three sentences the whole night.

She had a whole fanbase that included some of the most influential people in the continent and she was completely unaware of how taken they were with her.

He opened the media section of the group chat and besides a few funny videos and some articles, there was an abnormal number of her photos, either looking bored, annoyed, dazed and some, where she was rolling her eyes in disgust at something one customer was telling her.

He saved the photos into his phone after looking at them one after another and once he caught himself; he felt that he was acting silly. But he had already saved them, and he was unwilling to delete them.

As he continued to go through the chat that was filled with serious messages during the daytime and the updates on everyone’s favourite bartender during the night, David felt like he had been doing business with a bunch of frauds.

As he was thinking this, he remembered that the girl had given him her phone number. He unconsciously searched his pockets and remembered that he was wearing different clothes. He went to his room and stood still as he stared at his empty hamper.

He suddenly felt like the housekeeper he hired was overly efficient. He called his housekeeper to ask about the bill and she said she did not see any bill in his clothes when she was doing laundry.

Since he had been drunk, he could have placed it anywhere. After some thought, he pulled out his wallet and looked through it. He then found the bill hidden where he put his money. He then remembered he had taken it after giving the tip, so out of reflex, he had stuffed it in the same place as the notes of cash.

He took it out and saw the phone number of the girl. He then saved it to his phone as Iris. Since he didn’t know her last name, he just wrote Misty as her surname to help identify her. After this series of actions, he realised that he had absolutely no reason to contact her.

He was a widower, whose wife was pronounced dead for not even a whole week. She looked to be very young, maybe 21 or 22. What business will she have with a man who is almost fifteen years older than she is?

After he thought about it this way, he stopped himself early and did not contact her. But he remembered there was an expression in her eyes when she was smiling at him at the bar, and he was very curious about it.

When he looked at the active chatroom and how they were already discussing her, he found himself changing into other clothes and driving to Misty.

*

After the funeral, business at Misty was back to normal, and probably even better than before. Iris was puzzled as to why her tips suddenly increased yesterday and even tonight.

The tipping was abnormal. 'Were the rich experiencing an overspending phase? At the same time?' She asked herself, however, she did not complain. Seeing that she was not being bothered with orders anymore, she leaned on the bar countertop with her elbows and rested her chin on her hand and lazily watched the patrons.

She had that lazy expression until David walked in wearing a black long-sleeved shirt with black pants. His hair was meticulously combed and his grey eyes met hers almost immediately.

Iris thought she was hallucinating, so she tilted her head and blinked a few times as if expecting the illusion to disappear. When it didn’t, she realised that David really came to the bar. She smiled happily before standing upright.

At that moment, David realised that she was smiling because she saw him. It was like the last time he was there. David looked around and saw a few familiar faces and he nodded at them curtly, remembering that they were Iris’s fans.

They did not even bother to go to him like they normally did because they were too preoccupied. How didn’t he notice this before? He kept asking himself as he walked to the bar.

Iris was so excited that when someone wanted to take the seat on the edge of the counter where he was sitting before, she stopped them and told them that it was taken. She saw last time that he hadn’t wanted to be bothered, so he sat somewhere inconspicuous.

David didn’t waste her efforts and went to sit at the barstool she had ‘reserved’ for him. She wiped the countertop in front of him and looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to order his drink. Were all young girls like this nowadays? He asked himself as he watched her honestly happy expression. When was the last time someone made that expression after seeing him of all people?

“Will you have anything?” she asked him when she noticed that he had been silent for a while. Everyone else had to call her a few times to make an order, but she was actually the one who was asking if he was going to make an order of her own initiative. If people heard them, it would cause an uproar at the obviously preferential treatment.

“I’ll have a sherry today. Make dry, on the rocks,” he said, and Iris nodded before going to carry out the order.

He watched her gracefully move around the bar like a graceful butterfly as she collected the things she would get him. She put a cube of ice in a smaller sized glass and placed it in front of him, pouring the sherry in for him.

“Will you have a bottle today too?” she asked him, and he nodded, his poker face not betraying what he was thinking.

“Enjoy yourself,” she said, and gave him another sweet-dimpled smile before fluttering away. The rare phenomenon people had seen two days ago repeated itself, and today’s tipping hit a record high.

“This is probably a quarter of my fees already,” she mumbled to herself as she counted her money where she couldn’t be easily seen by the guests. David, who was in the same place, heard her words and his lips curved slightly. The difference was barely noticeable.