"I like hearing that doubt in your voice. We're getting somewhere."

A woman, visibly drunk, stumbled into the booth, almost knocking over their beers. She looked directly at Olivia with unfocused eyes. "That. Was. Awesome."

"I beg your pardon?"

The woman pointed to the empty stage. "That. When you were up there. Those fuckin' songs. Didn't you see me grooving on you?"

"The way the lights are it's hard to see the people in the crowd, but I appreciate that. Thank you."

"No, thank you. Anyway, I wasn't trying to interrupt your date. Bye." The woman staggered away.

"Looks like I'm not the only one with fine musical taste," said Greg.

"That was weird. This doesn't happen to me. If it did, I never would've quit." Granted, the woman would probably be passed out in the restroom three minutes from now, but Olivia didn't mind if praise came from people too drunk to know what they were saying.

"I've never seen you before, but maybe thinking this was your last performance let you relax on stage."

"I wasn't relaxed."

"More relaxed than usual, though?"

"Nope. More stressed out. But I did try to go out with a bang. I don't know, what if I've been holding back all this time?"

Greg took a drink of his beer. "It's possible."

"Or it could be pure coincidence," Olivia said. "Fate trying to mess with me. The world putting a bunch of 'What if's?' into my brain just when I thought I figured everything out."

"But what's the risk? I'm not asking for any money. I work on commission. I'm asking for a little bit of your time. Time to let me fine-tune your performance, and time to play the better gigs I'm going to set up for you. I'm asking for a month. One month. One month for you to say, 'Oh, my career is going slightly better than it was a month ago.' No contract. Walk away whenever you want."

Olivia started to tell him no. She took a long drink of beer instead. "I'll have to think about it."

"That is totally fair. I'm not here to pressure you. All I ask is that you not throw away my card. You might go home and decide that you're not the least bit interested, and that's fine, but in a year, two years, if you have second thoughts, give me a call. I'm not lying when I say that I almost never see talent like yours. I wouldn't just say that. I mean, hell, it cost me an overpriced beer."

Olivia laughed and took another drink. "This has been a very strange night."