The Tab I Keep Not Closing

He never says goodbye. Comes in around eleven, sits on the third stool, the one with the wobble I never fixed on purpose because it makes him lean toward the bar a little. Orders the same thing. Leaves four minutes before last call, every time, cash on the counter for the drink but never a tab, because he's never run one.

I just started keeping a ghost of one anyway, in my head, an amount that grows by one drink every night he doesn't ask what I'm doing after this.

Tonight I actually opened the register to a tab screen and typed his name in. Stool three. Then I just left it open. Didn't ring anything to it. Let it sit there, active, unclosed, the whole rest of the shift, like the bar itself was keeping something warm for him.

I closed out every other tab at two. His stayed open on the screen while I mopped around his stool, wiped the ring his glass left, straightened the stool so the wobble would still be there tomorrow.

I told myself it's easier to just close it out in the morning. That's not why. I know exactly why. I want one thing in this building that isn't finished yet when I lock the door.