Access

After a fit of uncontrolled laughter with hiccups and tears, the group fell silent again and continued their walk towards the pub. It was a cold January evening and occasional gusts of wind were blowing big snowflakes into their faces, where they would tickle their eye-lashes or slowly melt into their beards. As they were trudging along, a flock of about 30 crows, aligned on an electric wire, seemed to be cawing in the cadence of their steps; this made them instinctively pick up their pace.

When they finally arrived, they were greeted by the pub manager himself, who saw them to their table - the only one which could accommodate all 10 of them; this was a mere formality, as they would have known exactly where to go: it had always been the exact same table!
The manager started giving them this special attention when he realised that by the end of each visit, the group would always be very drunk, every one of them having spent at least three times more than his average customer.
The tradition was started 7 months back, when they were all recruited by the same company. On their first lunch break, during the training, someone came up with the idea and none of them had ever missed a meeting since! Moreover, they had all kept their exact same place at their usual big, round table.
"I can't believe this is meeting number 30!" Valeria said and gazed at everyone with a mix of familiarity and pride.
After a few "wow's" and some approving "mmm's" from the group, she continued:
"I would like to start by announcing tonight's subject of discussion. After much consideration, I have decided that we should have a conversation about Honesty.
Markus, who was sitting right next to her, was the first to react:
"Honesty? But Julian's suggestion from last week was Truth. We've already discussed it."
At that moment, she saw the waiter approach and she lifted her index finger at Markus, who looked very annoyed, but kept his silence nonetheless.
The waiter's smile was forced; this was his second day on the job and he was sure that he would not remember even half of the order from a table of 10 customers.
To his relief, he heard Valeria say:
 "Bring us 5 bottles of your house red wine and 10 glasses."
He went back to the bar, where the manager was sitting at his little table behind the counter. He was writing some numbers on a piece of paper and tapping his right heel on the floor.
"What did they order?" he asked without looking at the waiter.
"Five bottles of the house red.. and 10 glasses."
"Not surprised. One of them always chooses what everyone else drinks and they never mix. They will only have red wine tonight. Lots of it."
The waiter looked at the group, who seemed to be in the middle of an argument. They were all young, definitely under 30, but their outfits were quite old fashioned and their serious attitude didn't seem to be age appropriate either.
They were still wearing their coats while the owner was making him wear a ridiculously thin white shirt with only a sleeveless vest on top. He had to keep moving! Another hour and he'd be out of there.. and then he would meet his new girlfriend, who had invited him to go to the movies.
As he was bringing the tray, the group again stopped their chatter and gave him all their attention: he was suddenly aware that 20 eyes were simultaneously following his every move, as he placed the tray on the table and then placed the glasses in front of each one of them.
When he attempted to open the first bottle, he was stopped by Valeria, who quickly grabbed the neck of the bottle and brought it up to her chest.
"We'll take it from here, darling", she said and proceeded to uncork the wine. She then poured it into the glasses, while he stood there waiting, not knowing what to do next.
The owner, who had been observing from behind the bar, quickly came to the table and dragged the waiter away by the sleeve, asking the group to signal if they needed anything else.
He was still holding his employee by the sleeve and he addressed him with a frown:  
"You don't need to wait around. If the customers want to pour their own drinks, just let them be."
"Yeah, sure. I was just waiting to collect any empty bottles"
"It's unprofessional.. I know you're new, but you need to learn quickly!"
The waiter felt rather embarrassed by the manager's intervention and could hardly control the urge of breaking free of his grip. He looked around and thought this had been the shabbiest bar he had ever seen: it desperately needed repainting, the bathroom was stinky, it was very cold and he felt oppressed by the very low ceiling. When they prepared food behind the bar, the standard of hygiene was extremely poor and most of the customers he had served over the past couple of days were rude and uneducated.
Still, he needed this job if he was to afford to rent his own room and maybe invite his new girlfriend over.
"Yessir," he responded. "Should I wait for the customers to ask for me or would you like me to ask them if they need anything else".
"Good idea! Go and see if the other customers want more drinks. I'll handle the group."
When the manager returned to their table, his shoulders were dropped, his voice was soft and he kept his head down, raising only his eyes as he said:
"Is everything ok?"
The ten group members looked at each other and then took turns telling the manager exactly what was not ok for each one of them.
A long pause ensued in which the manager, shocked by the heavy dose of honesty, was moving his eyes from one to the other, not knowing whom to address first.
It was Valeria who spoke first:
"Don't be surprised. We are not allowed to lie tonight, it's the theme of the evening that compels us: Honesty! The best thing about this place is that new waiter of yours, what's his name?"
"Stephan, should I call him?" said the manager, regaining a bit of control over himself.
"Yeah, in fact I'd like him to join us! Drinks on us.."
The waiter, who had overheard the conversation, agreed with all of the negatives that the customers had mentioned and thought that needed to quit that very night, after he would get paid for his shift. It was funny to see the manager humiliated by the group, after he himself had been treated so disrespectfully by his employer.
He approached the table, trying to wipe off the smirk on his face as he addressed the group:
"Thank you for the offer, guys, but my shift ends in 35 minutes and I'm meeting someone afterwards.'
"Ah, come on, Stephan! Just one drink, whatever you choose, he will bring it. He'll also bring you a chair! " Valeria said and pointed at the manager, who seemed willing to comply.
"Is that ok?" the waiter asked the manager with an even bigger smirk on his face. His instinct was telling him that the manager would do anything to keep these customers happy, so he thought that he would test how far he could go.
"Yeah, sure, right away" the manager said with an expressionless face.
When the manager returned with the chair, Valeria gestured at Markus, asking him to move further and then used her finger to draw an imaginary arch from the chair to the newly created space.  The manager quickly placed the chair where she indicated and the waiter sat down before his employer could completely let go of it. He then looked up at him and said:
"I'd like an unopened bottle of beer, no glass. Could you also bring my coat from the hanger? It's freezing in here"
The manager took his customary bow and left while someone from the group added behind him:
"Yeah, it's very cold. I think this is the very last time we come here."
The waiter learned their names and then quickly unlearned them, as his years of smoking weed had damaged his memory and capacity of concentration.
When Valeria asked the group:  "Who here thinks that Stephan is cute?", a few hands went up, including that of a gay guy and one of a girl who Stephan himself thought was very attractive.
Valeria had one hand up and the other on his knee, while he kept looking at the girl whose name he had forgotten. Must have been Isabelle? She looked back at him and smiled a sort of promiscuous smile, which had taken the waiter's imagination on a trip from which he had trouble returning. Valeria's hand on his knee, the cold and the excitement of this game they were playing made him shiver and feel slightly overwhelmed. He quickly stood up and said:
"I wonder if he forgot about my coat. I'll go and get it" 
When the waiter approached the bar, he didn't see the manager behind it. It was almost closing time and there were no other customers left except for his ten new friends. He thought that the manager must have gone to the bathroom and so, the waiter thought it would be pretty cool if he could just open a beer for himself behind the bar and then casually join the table again.
He noticed the manager's notebook on the bar and became very curious about it.. what was he writing there every 5 minutes? He went through the first few pages and quickly realised that it had to do with profits and losses, he saw his own name and the name of the agency that had sent him to work for this bar and then finally, when he got to the last two pages, he read a list of expenses which were more than double what the estimated income would be. The last word, written in capital letters was "INSURANCE!"  He definitely had to quit this job!
He opened a beer and then went to get his coat, which was on a hanger right next to the entrance. The manager was still not in sight, so he thought he would check outside, but to his bewilderment, the heavy wooden door had been locked and there was a tiny trail of smoke which appeared through the cracks.
He immediately shouted to the others:  "Oh my God, I think the fucker wants to burn the place down." 

As he was kicking the door and screaming, the group soon joined him, but with all of their desperate efforts, it was simply impossible to break the door down.

The waiter then rushed towards the only window in the bar, but this was covered by a thick metal grill, which he knew could only be removed along with the wall. The group also tried shaking it and kicking it, but it was all in vain. They went on rushing from the window to the door, calling the name of the manager, pleading that they should be let out, but there was no answer. As the smoke grew thicker, the group started to break down crying, fighting, hugging, kissing and told each other things that were utterly shocking. 
Suddenly, the door opened and behind it, the manager said with a smirk on his face: "Now that's how you truly access honesty!"