When the place doesn’t immediately fill up, I wonder if his assumption that the party might relocate was wrong. But after only a few more minutes of cursory training, the place suddenly becomes alive with the sound of tipsy party guests cheerfully announcing their arrival with jovial hollers and laughter.

A circle of musicians have gathered at the big table and started playing traditional music, which adds an immediate festive air to the place. Some of them are the guys from the stage earlier, but some others have joined in too.

“You sure you got this?” Cillian asks me worriedly.

“You can trust me.” I give him a small smile and then shoo him off. “I wouldn’t say I could do it if I couldn’t.”

His eyes hold mine for a moment before he nods and goes.

It’s pouring rain outside, and the entire crowd is sopping. Everyone hangs jackets on the racks by the entry and seems to be congratulating each other on surviving the trek from Aimee’s to the pub.

Kiera and Nial are quickly entwined in a corner, his arms around her waist, her arms around his neck.

Aimee is nowhere to be seen. I have to assume she had to put the kids to bed, or at least start to wind them down. But I do see Theo laughing with a group of guys, dealing out a few hands of cards at one of the big round tables in the corner.

People come up to the bar and start ordering pitchers and pints of beer, glasses of whiskey. Thankfully, I’m not in the land of mojitos and Miami Vices, and it’s easy for me to be fast, even out of practice. I roll up my sleeves and get started. Well, technically, they’re Cillian’s sleeves.

I’m surprised by how efficiently my old bartending skills come back to me. Within ten minutes, I’ve folded Cillian’s sweatshirt under the bar and have a rag slung through the rope of my dress at my waist, a beer key tucked into my bra for easy access. I’m leaning over the counter and catching orders for beer, whiskey, and even food, managing to remember all of it and fulfill every order without a misstep. I always thought memorizing tens of orders at once was good practice for line memorization. In this case, all my line memorization has helped me stay sharp for order memorization.