After a moment, the old Marine lets out a slow chuckle, shaking his head as he lifts his glass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell,\u201d he says calmly, \u201cI guess I\u2019ll pass.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The room stays quiet for a second\u2026 waiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then the deep voice beside him asks, \u201cOh yeah? And why\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Marine takes a sip of his drink, sets the glass down gently, and replies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBecause I\u2019m not about to explain the same joke five times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Continue reading on next page\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
For a split second, there\u2019s silence\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then the entire bar erupts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Laughter bursts out from every corner, even from the women he had just been warned about. The bartender leans on the counter, shaking her head with a grin, while the bouncer lets out a loud laugh that echoes through the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The karate expert slaps the bar, the weightlifter nearly spills her drink, and the wrestler wipes tears from her eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell,\u201d the bartender says, still laughing, \u201cyou\u2019ve got guts, old man.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd timing,\u201d adds the bouncer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Marine shrugs modestly. \u201cComes with experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Someone down the bar calls out, \u201cBuy that man another drink!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Within seconds, a fresh glass is placed in front of him\u2014on the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Marine raises it slightly. \u201cMuch appreciated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tension is completely gone now, replaced with good humor and respect. A few of the women even gather closer, curious about the bold (and funny) stranger who walked into their bar without a clue and somehow won the room anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAlright,\u201d one of them says, smiling, \u201cyou may be blind\u2026 but you sure know how to read a room.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Marine grins. \u201cDidn\u2019t read it\u2026 just listened carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And with that, the laughter starts all over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After a moment, the old Marine lets out a slow chuckle, shaking his head as he lifts his glass. \u201cWell,\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":14730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14731,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14729\/revisions\/14731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}