who: closed for @carsonwest where: the Silver Saddle when: approx. 11:15 pm
"Well, fuck."
A honky tonk bar wasn't exactly his usual scene, but he'd heard on the radio that the place was running a two-for-one beer special on the same weekend that he happened to have some free time. In all honesty, he'd mostly wanted to get off the ranch for a few hours. Eating, sleeping, shitting and working all in the same place (no matter how large it was) was beginning to chafe. He'd known when he signed on that he'd have very little home-to-work life balance, but still. He needed a breather every now and then.
Apparently, his need for a temporary reprieve was about to be his own undoing.
In a fit of spiteful defiance, he'd wandered into the men's bathroom earlier to smoke a cig and scroll on his phone - because there was no way in hell he was going to walk all the way back outside in the cold just to take a few puffs. Wasn't his fault most of the places in this town had gone woke and banned smoking and vaping on the premises.
When he'd eventually left, he thought he'd stubbed out the filter good enough before tossing it into the trash, but apparently a few embers had still been smoldering - enough to catch and set the whole damn thing on fire.
Now, he was standing outside (shivering in the cold he had been trying to avoid) as the fire department rolled up, red and white lights flashing. The fire had already been put out, management had seen to that, but the building still had to be cleared before they could all go back inside.
As the crowd around him bitched and moaned about their abandoned drinks and lack of adequate outerwear, Murph sighed and mustered up what little dignity he had before breaking away from the mass of people lingering in the parking lot and approaching the nearest firefighter.
"So uh. Just so ya' know, it wasn't that big of a deal. Just a cigarette butt torching a few paper towels in the john." He shrugged. "S'already out."
