Page 10

Chapter Ten

I t only takes an hour to get from the airport to my house, giving me just enough time to change clothes before I have to leave and go to the bar. When I arrive at the bar it takes a few minutes to find a parking space because it’s packed already.

Inside, I find the place in complete chaos. There has to be at least a hundred people inside, all of them looking around and mingling with one another. I try to make my way to the bar but a large hand on my wrists stops me abruptly. I turn around to find Scott standing there.

“Hello, babysitter,” I greet him with a hug.

Scott chuckles. “Hey, Lilly.”

“Where’s Cass?” I ask.

Scott points toward the bar. My gaze follows to find Cass standing behind the bar. He looks disheveled, stressed, and slightly panicked. People are lined up at the bar, flashing their money at Cass, Mindy, and two other girls I haven’t seen before. I assume they’re Ryan and Lucy.

I can’t help but laugh at the fact that Cass is bartending and although he isn’t a bad bartender, the worried look on his face was slightly humorous.

Scott leans down so I can hear him over the roar of the crowd. “He might need some help back there.”

“But watching him suffer is kind of cute.”

Scott smiles. “Yeah. You’re right.”

“But I guess he’s suffered enough. I’m going to help.”

Mindy is the first one to spot me when I step behind the bar. She rushes around with a cup of ice in her hand, repeating “double jack and cranberry” as she opens the refrigerator.

“Lilly!” she exclaims!

“Mindy!” I mimic.

“Great, you can help now! Assholes are everywhere tonight, so beware. They’re fucking ruthless,” Mindy says, scurrying away.

“Um. Excuse me! Are you ready to serve yet?”

I turn around to find a woman in her mid-thirties glaring at me intently. She has a twenty dollar bill in her hand and when I don’t respond fast enough, she shakes the folded up bill in my direction.

“Hello?” she asks, rudely.

It takes every bit of self control that I have to maintain my composure because on any other given night, I’d have shown her just how ready to serve I am.

I’ve literally been behind the bar for two point five seconds and this fucking cunt thinks she can talk to me like that? Oh, fuck no.

Just as I’m about to give this woman a piece of my mind, Cass steps in between us.

“What can I get you?” he asks, giving me a sly smile that says, ‘you’re welcome’.

“I need three Millers, a Malibu and Pineapple, and an Ultra,” the woman barks.

Cass ushers away at the woman’s requests. I walk to the lounge area for a split second to compose myself. You are a kickass bartender. You can handle this. Go out there and get in your zone. I give myself this small pep talk and take a deep breath and walk back out there, ready to face the crowd.

I approach the first customer I see.

“What can I get you?” I ask, plastering that fake bartender smile across my face. One after the other, I wait on everyone I can while dancing around Mindy, Ryan, Lucy, and Cass.

After bumping into Cass and spilling three different drinks, I grab Cass’s arm in passing, stopping him in his tracks.

“Babe, you’re killing me. We’re grateful that you came back here to help, but we got it now.”

He’s more in the way than he is helping at this point. It’s not his fault, though. There’s only so much room behind the bar and his shoulders take up half of the depth of the space behind the bar.

Cass puts his hands up in surrender. “I was wondering how long it was going to take you to kick me out from behind the bar. Yes ma’am. I’m going.”

Mindy appears behind me. “Thank you,” she whispers as a playful giggle sounds from her throat. “Now let’s kick some ass.”

She and I share a knowing smile and get to work.

The rush of the crowd is exhilarating. Mindy and I work well together, and Ryan is catching on quickly.

“Hey Ryan!” I call out.

“Yeah?” she asks, stopping next to me on her way to a customer.

“Go tell Cass to help you set up the cash bar. I think that will help the flow. You think you can handle it?” I ask, realizing Ryan may not be comfortable with it.

“Hell yeah, Boo Boo. I got this shit handled.”

I get lost in the zone, slinging drinks and cutting up with Mindy and the customers. I scan the crowd constantly, noticing familiar faces of regulars and construction workers amongst the sea of people. There are patch holders scattered throughout the bar, coming out to support their brother in his new business endeavor. Ryan seems to be rocking the cash bar because every time I catch her eye, she gives me a big smile and a thumbs-up.

Ryan’s hair is red with blonde highlights, she’s got light blue eyes and a beautiful smile. She’s loud and straight-forward with an hourglass figure that would make any man’s mouth water. She comes off strong to customers, but it didn’t take me very long to realize that was simply her way.

I give a questioning thumbs up to her when we make eye contact again. She nods and gives me one in return.

Lucy is making her way around behind the bar with ease and between her and Mindy, I don’t think they need me behind the bar anymore. I scan the bar one more time before I slip out into the crowd.

Everyone is either on the dance floor jamming to the band or huddled around one of the many tables on the outer edge of the dance floor.

As my eyes dart from person to person, they stop on a double-headed snake patch in the center of a man’s back.

Shit. He’s talking to Scott, who looks the least bit pleased with the conversation, but it’s hard to tell from across the room.

Whatever Scott says appears to have pissed the guy off because he turns on his heel and stalks toward the bar.

He’s shorter than Scott by a few inches at least with grungy brown hair. His beard is scraggly, tangled, and splotchy. When he hands his money over to Mindy, I notice the bruises in the crease of his arms. Both of them are bruised and full of tracks marks. The front of his cut has multiple patches. One reads ‘MFFM’, some have weird sayings on them, but the one that stands out is the one that gives his name and rank. Keith, Vice President. So that’s who Cass was talking to.

I watch him closely until he exits the building, my shoulders relaxing with his absence. I scan the bar and my eyes land on Cass. He’s talking to some of the Hounds that I haven’t seen before when a black-haired woman approaches him. He hugs her and his hand lingers a little too long on her hip for my liking. Cass must have felt me staring at him because he looks directly at me and when he makes eye contact, he removes his hand from the woman.

I take in a shallow breath, fighting the jealousy that threatens to rage inside my chest. I look down the bar, making sure Mindy doesn’t need me before I disappear to the lounge area to take a break and have a moment to ease the building tension in my chest.

I stop in front of the walk-in cooler and rest my head against the cold metal doors. I draw in a long, deep breath before exhaling slowly and sitting down at the table. I light a cigarette, lean my head back, and let my eyes close as I exhale smoke.

A hand grazes my stomach, and I nearly jump out of my skin. I whip my head around to find Cass standing behind me, smiling. His smile quickly fades though.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I’m just getting a hold on the jealous bitch inside me.” I offer him an apologetic smile and shrug my shoulders.

“No, no. You have nothing to be jealous of. At all.”

“I know. That’s why I didn’t say anything,” I say, taking another drag from my cigarette.

“Okay. I just want to make sure you know. I may be a lot of things, but disrespectful to my woman ain’t one of ‘em.”

I have this stupid grin on my face again as I stare up at him. “Thank you.”

“You look sexy as hell out there. I bet every man in here wants to take you home.” His calloused finger brushes a loose strand of hair from my forehead.

“You’re crazy.”

“Over you maybe.”

The thought of Cass being a little crazy over me is satisfying. Because maybe I’m not the only one who’s a little crazy in this relationship. I let myself get lost in the thought of the two of us for only a moment before reality snaps its ugly head back into place.

Mindy rounds the corner to the lounger area. “Lilly? I hate to interrupt but I need you out here, and you too boss man.”

We follow her out to the bar where Scott is standing on the stage with a microphone.

“I’d like everyone to meet the person who is responsible for tonight, as well as many more to come in this establishment right here. Miss Lilly Summers.”

Scott motions for me, but my feet are cemented to the ground. Not Lilly. Cass. It’s Cass’s place. He is responsible. And then it dawns on me, slapping me glaringly in the face. Everything was put in my name on purpose, so therefore, to the public, it’s me.

I beckon my feet to move and with a nudge from Cass, I am walking to the center of the bar where Scott is standing. My face turns at least one shade redder with every step that takes me closer to Scott and the full attention of the bar.

I step beside him and turn to face the bar. Scott starts clapping, followed by everyone else in the crowd. My eyes wander over everyone, and I muster that fake bartender smile for show. Evidently, Scott has been talking to the crowd while my mind races impossibly fast. I act like I heard him and face him catching the ass-end of whatever he was saying.

“. . . they did. All right y’all. Let’s get this band back started and everybody drink up!”

A roar of cheers surges through the crowd, and Scott starts making his way toward Cass with me in tow. I walk closely behind Scott, tip-toeing so that he can hear me over the roar of the crowd.

“I hate you for that,” I say, hoping it’s loud enough he can hear me.

Scott smirks at me over his shoulder. “You’ll get over it.”

The wide grin on Cass’s face when we stop in front of him tells me that he is fully enjoying this.

“All thanks to Lilly,” Cass says, wrapping his arm around my lower waist.

Scott and Cass share a laugh while my face remains indifferent.

“Lilly! I need some limes, and I may or may not need your help back here. They’re getting crazy,” Mindy calls from behind the bar.

I say a silent thank you as I evade the grip Cass has on me and inch my way back behind the bar, where it’s safe. While I cut limes, I see that Mindy and Lucy are nonstop. People are still pouring in.

The men in the bar that are wearing patches are more respectful to the bartenders than the majority of the bar patrons.

The night goes on to be one of the best experiences behind a bar that I can recall. Mindy and I work so well together in our small space that not once did we collide. Cass is somewhere out in the crowd socializing, last I checked, with Scott nearby, never far from him. I spot a few familiar faces from the club. The two prospects, Leo and Shorty, are in the crowd along with the guy that I confronted at the machine shop, and of course, Scott. Then there are four others wearing a Lucifer’s Hounds patch that I’ve never seen before.

The crowd is slowly thinning out and I’m grateful. Mindy is making a list of the beer that we need to stock while Ryan cleans off the tables. A few of the Hounds are taking trash cans out and Cass is nowhere to be found. Leo and Shorty approach the bar.

“Cass told us to check and see what you needed done,” Leo says.

“I need beer stocked, and then when we get everyone out, I have to clean the bar.”

“Okay, can we start stocking beer now, or do we need to wait?” Shorty asks.

“Let’s wait until it gets a little bit slower.”

“Fine by us,” Leo calls over his shoulder as he and Shorty disappear back into the crowd.

Mindy rests her head on my shoulder. “My best friend totally fucking rocked it tonight.”

“Oh yeah? That’s funny because my best friend totally fucking rocked it tonight,” I reach up and rest my hand on her face.

“We kicked ass. It’s good to have you back, Lil.”

“I wasn’t even gone that long!”

“Well, it felt like forever. How are things with you and boss man?”

“There is not a word in the English language that would do it justice. Amazing sounds so feeble compared to what it’s like with Cass.” I feel my face relax at the thought of he and I.

“I’m so happy for you.”

“Excuse me, can I get a bartender?” I hear Leo’s voice from behind the bar.

Turning around, I see him standing with Shorty on his side. I can’t help the smile that creeps across my lips at the sight of them. They’re becoming almost like family. Not because of anything other than the fact that they treat me as such.

“You two must really be bored.” I sigh. “Come on, I think we can start stocking. Shorty, will you get Ryan to close up her register and come see me please?”

“Yep. I’m on it.”

In the meantime, Mindy begins sweeping behind the bar while I show Leo where the stock room is. It’s nice to have help, especially after the long night we’ve had.

Ryan rounds the corner of the bar into the lounge where I’m hiding out taking a break. She plops down on the couch right next to me.

“I definitely like bartending a hell of a lot better than my last profession. I made damn good money, too.”

“Bartending is good for quick cash, but don’t get me wrong, you work your ass off for every penny you make. You earn it.”

“I noticed. My legs are killing me.” Ryan rubs her thighs.

“Yeah, you’ll get used to it though. So, which one of the guys is yours?” Curiosity gets the best of me, and I have to ask.

Ryan smiles. “The one with the longest beard that always has a cigar in his mouth.”

“The one that works at the machine shop?” I ask, remembering when I barged in looking for Cass. He’s the guy that was working and got the brunt of my frustration.

“Yes ma’am. That’d be my pain in the ass, Gater.”

“I met him at the machine shop a few weeks ago,” I admit.

“I know. I heard about the little firecracker that came through the door like a mad woman looking for Cass. It’s nice to finally meet you, officially.”

I smile shyly. “It’s nice to meet you too, and it’s nice to have you as part of our team.”

Lucy enters the doorway and sits down next to me at the table.

“My feet are so sore.”

“You get used to it…. eventually.”

“I didn’t think the people would ever stop coming in,” Lucy says.

“They have to stop at some point. Ya’ll ready to shut it down?” I ask.

“I was ready four hours ago,” Ryan gets up and leads the way into the bar.

I duck as I walk through the doorway, coming eye level with a case of beer resting on Leo’s shoulder.

“I grabbed one too many cases.”

“I see that. Trying to kill me already. I’m telling Carrie on you,” I tease.

“Go ahead!” he hollers over his shoulder.

The bar is empty; only the club guys and four stragglers are left to help the band pack up. Mindy is emptying ashtrays and putting bar mats in the sink to soak when I spot her. While everyone else is busy, I start cleaning off the bar, throwing away empty beer bottles and Styrofoam cups then spraying the bar and wiping it down.

Ryan is cleaning up the area around the cash bar and Shorty’s picking up barstools so we can sweep and mop. Everyone is pitching in and doing their part. Lucy and Mindy have the bar itself clean in no time.

Ryan, who finished cleaning the cash bar, appears with her tip bucket in one arm and an exhausted look on her face.

“Let’s see how we did,” Mindy says, grabbing her own tip bucket and motioning for Lucy and myself to do the same.

We follow Mindy to the lounge and sit down in the middle of the floor. I lean against the couch and relax for a moment before I count tips with the girls and exchange the low bills for larger ones.

“Holy shit!” Ryan exclaims after counting her money. “I made five hundred and eighty dollars in tips alone!”

“And I get seven dollars an hour for eight hours? You’re fucking kidding!” Ryan’s excitement is contagious.

Mindy’s smile mirrors mine as she speaks. “Yep. This is why we do what we do. Sometimes it sucks so badly, but the money is fire.”

“Welcome to the world of bartending.” I smirk.