Typically on a Sunday evening Tyler Magnuson would be in his apartment watching TV or reading or just relaxing before heading to bed and mentally preparing for the start of the workweek on Monday morning. But tonight was different. He had been living here for less than a month and working at his new job for just two weeks. On Friday after work he and the other 20-somethings from his office had gone out for Happy Hour just across the street from their office building. They all had had a more than a few, causing Tyler to have a quiet Saturday evening by himself. This evening he decided to go exploring in a few blocks around his apartment building to see if he could find anything like a neighborhood bar where he might enjoying hanging out and meeting some locals.
At 27 Tyler saw himself as sort of starting over. Graduating from college five years ago with a major in journalism, he had taken a job as a beat reporter for a small city newspaper. The job sucked but Tyler learned a few valuable lessons through his assignment to cover local business: (1) young reporters work their ass off while being paid shit, and (2) he discovered that he liked the business world. After working for three years while whittling down some of his college loans, he quit his job, enrolled in a business program and earned his MBA last spring. His resume' landed him the job that he now had just started. Career wise, at least, life was looking up very well.
Then there was the issue of Jill, his former girlfriend. Jill and Tyler began to date in their senior year in college. For the first two years that Tyler worked as the reporter, Jill and he shared an apartment while they enthusiastically shared their sex life. And romance, or so Tyler thought. When he proposed marriage, certain that Jill would say "yes", he was shocked when she told him that as much fun as they were having together, for her it was just that - fun, and nothing else. Tyler was devastated to the point that he had but a few dates in his final year as a reporter and his two years in MBA school. And...no current prospects, eager though he was to have at least a casual relationship and, hopefully, more.
So, Tyler saw himself as starting over. A new career. A new job. Looking for a new girlfriend. A neighborhood bar would be a good place, Tyler thought, for reflecting about life over a beer or two and maybe making some local connections that didn't have the complications that come with coworkers.
Tyler found what looked like a promising local bar. It looked pretty lively for a Sunday evening. Enough so, in fact, that the bar stools were all taken. Tyler eased himself into a chair at a small table and ordered a beer from the server who took his order. The place was bigger than he had first thought, apparently with a couple of adjoining rooms. Bartenders and servers were scurrying around everywhere.
Looking far across the room as he sipped his beer, Tyler saw one of the servers only from a distance. But, she looked oddly familiar. If he hadn't known better, he would have thought that it was Carson Greene, his old buddy from their college days.
At 27 Tyler saw himself as sort of starting over. Graduating from college five years ago with a major in journalism, he had taken a job as a beat reporter for a small city newspaper. The job sucked but Tyler learned a few valuable lessons through his assignment to cover local business: (1) young reporters work their ass off while being paid shit, and (2) he discovered that he liked the business world. After working for three years while whittling down some of his college loans, he quit his job, enrolled in a business program and earned his MBA last spring. His resume' landed him the job that he now had just started. Career wise, at least, life was looking up very well.
Then there was the issue of Jill, his former girlfriend. Jill and Tyler began to date in their senior year in college. For the first two years that Tyler worked as the reporter, Jill and he shared an apartment while they enthusiastically shared their sex life. And romance, or so Tyler thought. When he proposed marriage, certain that Jill would say "yes", he was shocked when she told him that as much fun as they were having together, for her it was just that - fun, and nothing else. Tyler was devastated to the point that he had but a few dates in his final year as a reporter and his two years in MBA school. And...no current prospects, eager though he was to have at least a casual relationship and, hopefully, more.
So, Tyler saw himself as starting over. A new career. A new job. Looking for a new girlfriend. A neighborhood bar would be a good place, Tyler thought, for reflecting about life over a beer or two and maybe making some local connections that didn't have the complications that come with coworkers.
Tyler found what looked like a promising local bar. It looked pretty lively for a Sunday evening. Enough so, in fact, that the bar stools were all taken. Tyler eased himself into a chair at a small table and ordered a beer from the server who took his order. The place was bigger than he had first thought, apparently with a couple of adjoining rooms. Bartenders and servers were scurrying around everywhere.
Looking far across the room as he sipped his beer, Tyler saw one of the servers only from a distance. But, she looked oddly familiar. If he hadn't known better, he would have thought that it was Carson Greene, his old buddy from their college days.
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