Josie
Tonight was fucked.
There was no other word for it, really. I don’t know whether it was a full moon or people were just being assholes for the sake of it, but I’d had enough. My feet were aching. The left hand side of my jeans were clinging to me thanks to the sticky drink accidentally knocked in my direction. My head was throbbing. And I was starving. Like seriously, I could eat a horse type starving. As I carried the long forgotten plate towards the kitchen, the cold, uneaten chips taunted me. What I wouldn’t give for five seconds of peace to be able to stuff my face. But no. That would mean the universe was on my side. And it obviously wasn’t. No, today it wanted to kick my ass. Well, fuck me, it was doing a bang up job of it today.
“Hey darl,” some guy with bad teeth and worse dress sense growled at me.
Luckily for him there was three feet of bar between us otherwise my knee may have connected with his balls. Accidentally, of course. After handing him his beer, I moved as far away as I possibly could. One of the others could deal with his disgusting ass. My turn was over.
“Josie!”
I spun around and saw Courtney, the new girl, waving at me. Anyone would have thought we were standing on the opposite side of a football field the way she was dramatically trying to catch my attention. This was only my second shift with Courtney and, being the bitch I am, I couldn’t help but hope it was my last. She’d already dropped more glasses than she’d managed to get back. She couldn’t pour a beer for shit, and I’d spent pretty much the whole night giving out free replacements when she stuffed it up. And don’t even get me started on her ability to take a food order. I mean, how hard is it really to take the customer’s order and hand it to the kitchen? This place was old school and very simple. You wrote the order on a notepad and slipped it in the rack on the counter between the bar and kitchen. Then ten or so minutes later, the order would appear and you took it to the customer. Not exactly rocket science. But somehow, Courtney managed to make me look like a freaking genius. Three times, three fucking times, she’d taken an order, written on her notepad, and put her notepad back in her pocket. She didn’t hand it in.
Biting my tongue, I saved my attitude. Getting pissed at Courtney probably wouldn’t do any good. She was more than likely too dumb to even notice or she’d burst into tears. After the day I was having, the last thing I wanted to deal with was an emotional idiot. Idiots were hard enough without adding tears.
“Yep?” I said, popping the ‘p’ and offering her a fake smile that hurt my face.
“Didn’t you say you were off at nine?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s already quarter past.”
Shit! I hadn’t even looked at the time. I was supposed to be home. Mia was cooking and she was saving me some. And when Mia cooked, you wanted to be home. One quick look around though, and I knew I wasn’t going anywhere. Not for a while anyway. “Give me a sec?” Courtney nodded before flicking her long hair over her shoulder and strutting away.
I ducked into the office and fished my phone from the bottom of my handbag. First I needed to call Jenna and see if Matilda was okay. I was supposed to pick her up. I hated not being there for her, but if I couldn’t be, at least Jenna was. She treated Matilda as if she was her own.
Impatiently I waited for the call to connect. “Hello?”
“Hi Jenna. It’s Josie.”
“Hey! What’s wrong? You sound flustered.”
“Just one of those days, I guess.” I didn’t want to worry Jenna. She already had enough problems and I wasn’t going to add to it by telling her Courtney was an incompetent moron. Jenna was smart. Hopefully she’d figure it out for herself. And for my own sanity, I only hoped she’d figure it out soon.
“Are you on your way?”
“Actually, that’s what I’m calling about.”
“What’s wrong?” I could hear the alarm in Jenna’s voice and I hated myself for putting it there.
“Calm down. Nothing really. It’s just pretty busy here at the moment and Courtney…well, you know she’s new, and doesn’t really know…”
“Her ass from her elbow?”
I laughed.
Hard.
Fuck, it felt good.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to! Are you sure you’re okay? I can try to call in one of the others…”
“It’s fine, Jenna, really. I mean, I’m already here, and it’s only a couple more hours, but Matilda…”
“Is sound asleep in bed.”
“Oh.” I don’t know why it hurt. I’d missed putting my Munchkin to bed. Again. I only missed it three nights a week, but I hated each and every one of those three nights.
“Josie, she’s fine. Why don’t you leave her here and I’ll drop her home in the morning after breakfast?”
“You sure?”
“Absolutely. And don’t for one minute think you owe me or any of that bullshit I know is buzzing about your head right now. I know you. If anything, I owe you. Putting up with Courtney’s drama queen act. You’re more patient than I am, that’s all I can say.”
Beyond the door I heard a booming voice demanding less ice in his drink, and knew I had to wrap this call up. “Thanks, Jenna. You’re a lifesaver. Look, I’ve got to run…” I heard the smashing of glass and I wondered if by dawn there’d be a single unbroken glass in the building. “See you in the morning.”
“Thanks, Jos. And try not to take it to heart.”
I ended the call and yanked open the door. What I saw made me cringe. The angry hordes had descended. I think everyone in town was standing on the other side of the bar with a pissed off expression on their face. Two of the men who had spent the whole night perched on their bar stools at the end of the bar minding their own business were dripping. The seconds passed and the noise grew. It took me a minute to locate Courtney, who was crouched on the floor in the corner with her knees pressed up against her chest and fat tears rolling down her cheeks. Even from where I was standing I could hear her trying to suck in deep breaths between the body wracking sobs.
“Fuck me!”
This was the last thing I needed right now.
Josie: Need you ASAP. Bring Derek.
I shot the text off to Mia, slipped my phone in my pocket, took a deep breath, and marched over, full of fake confidence.
“All right! Everyone calm the fuck down!”
Silence fell instantly across the bar. Every set of eyes looked at me with a combination of shock and curiosity. I might have looked brave, but I was shitting myself, praying Mia got my message and they were already on their way.
“Right! Now, who was first?”
Ignoring Courtney cowering in the corner, I took control. I didn’t know what else to do. I had to calm this shit down and get everyone sorted, then I could deal with her and the mess. For the next ten minutes I poured drinks. Somewhere along the line I mastered pouring a beer and Coke at the same time.
“What the fuck!” Mia exclaimed as she stepped to my side.
“I’m fine,” I lied.
I was fucking shaking but I didn’t have time to panic. Now everyone was calmed down and had their drinks, the adrenaline was wearing off and I was crashing. Fast and hard.
“Josie.” Derek’s voice was full of authority, and even standing here in jeans, a t-shirt, and thongs, he dominated the space.
Silently, I flung myself at him, thankful he had the strength to catch me. For a long moment he just held me, his huge hands rubbing my back. When he pulled back, he passed me over to Mia, who took my hand.
“What the fuck happened?”
“Dude, it was fucked. That new girl lost her shit and started abusing people, then sprayed us with water for ordering. No idea what her fucking problem is,” the guy at the end of the bar explained as he dropped a handful of coins in the tip jar and stood up.
“You involved, Jake?”
“Me? Nah. It was just getting out of control when Firecracker here appeared and told everyone to calm the hell down.”
“Thanks, man.” Derek reached out and shook his hand. “Take it easy.”
“You too. Oh, and Firecracker?”
Meeting his gaze, I wasn’t sure what I was going to find. Respect was there. “You did good tonight. Don’t let it rattle you.”
Silently I nodded, and turned back to the disaster area that was the bar. When I turned, it wasn’t what I was expecting. I hadn’t seen Nate come in, nevertheless there he was, pushing a broom back and forth, sweeping up the glass.
“What’re you doing?”
My words caught his attention. “What?”
“Why are you cleaning up the mess?”
“It looks like you could use a hand.”
Nate shrugged at me as he leant on the broom with a playful smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. Damn, this guys was sex on legs. I wanted to lick him from head to toe. Damn, I so needed to get laid. And the sooner the better. I was blasting through batteries faster than I’d like to admit. If this continued, I’d be buying shares in Energizer before too long.