So I’m in this bar in Naperville after Ribfest. I recognize this girl I met in there before, I talk to her and meet her girlfriends. We sit at a table, multiple conversations going on. At one point, the girls leave the table we’re at and go to the ladies room in the back. I go up to the bar to get another cranberry juice. The bartender is busy, I look around for the other bartenders, they have disappeared. Kind of weird. Nobody is manning their stations.
Finally, I get another drink, I go back to the table, and the girls come back. When they sit down, one of the girls starts telling the others how one of the bartenders just tried to rape her in the basement.
WHAT?!? Her friends are shocked. The girl says, yes, the bartender just took her into a room in the basement, took his dick out, and said, “You want me to stick it in you?”
WHEN?! Just now, she says. While you were in the bathroom. He pulled me into a room in the basement. I was lucky to get out of there.
“You need to report this right now!”, says one of the friends. I’m watching this whole conversation from across the table. I offer that I know everyone who works there, not friends necessarily, just acquaintances, and there’s the owner right over there if you want to talk to him. I think of mentioning the cops, but hold off to see what happens.
The girl this happened to says, no, and reminds the others of how the other time they were there, she walked with the same bartender to her car, and made out with him. And they’ve been texting. So, she won’t be believed about what just happened tonite. The other girls see her point, but are disgusted.
What’s the right thing for me to do in this situation? Anything? I don’t really know these girls, I’ve been in this bar maybe 20 times, and am familiar with everyone. What she’s saying doesn’t surprise me, I could imagine it being true. At the same time, she’s drunk, and a mess. I wasn’t there, so…..
After the girls leave in an hour, I have a word with the bartender in question. Now, I’m a cool guy, seen a lot of shit, and see different sides of an issue, right? I advise the bartender, who I’m cool with, what the girl said, and I tell him that I just want to let him know, as a friend, what’s going on. I figure that if he was guilty of anything, this would warn him to lay off, people are aware. And at the same time, if it was really her playing games, then he now knows to be careful, to not mess with her so he doesn’t end up wrongfully accused. Best of both worlds?