No, check it out: I stuck up for you

One thing that's true of both bars where I work: when the bartender has time, the bartender garnishes the drink (puts a lime on the vodka-cranberry, etc.). When the bartender does not have time (e.g., has eight more drinks waiting to be made), the bartender leaves the drink for the server to garnish.

In general, I like working with Shaun. His laugh is exactly that of Cody from Step by Step, and he's even spacy in an adorably similar way. The other night he was selling round after round of dirty vodka martinis to a table on the boat: by the time we docked, I'd emptied a bottle of Ketel One (the call brand of choice for two of the drinkers; another wanted Stolichnaya). They ordered their first round during a stretch when I wasn't particularly busy, so I had time to skewer two olives on a sword pick and balance them on the edge of each martini glass. But I can barely remember the second round they ordered; it must have fallen into a "rush" period.

As a result, I heard about it the third time they ordered a round: Shaun leaned over the bar and confided to me that, "They're like, 'Don't let that lady give us just one olive this time.'"

I was still trying to react to having been called (apparently) 'that lady,' when of course I realized Shaun was the one-olive bandit, a fact of which he was fully cognizant as well.

"Shaun--"

"But no, check it out: I stuck up for you. I was like, 'She's a real nice lady, I won't let her do it again.'"

"Shaun, get off of my bar."

He obliged. "I got your back!" was his parting shot, and I dumped more olive juice into a mixing tin trying not to smile.