by Nicole Casey
Trevor
One Month Later
The bar was all abuzz on Saturday night, as I wiped another table down, then quickly moved back to the bar and tossed the rag into a bucket. “What can I get you?” I asked, looking at the redhead that just took a stool.
She grinned. “What can I get you, honey?” she asked, winking at me.
I drew up my eyebrows and then lowered them, then chuckled, but didn’t respond to her question. She wanted a rise out of me and I was too busy to make it work. I continued to look at her, with her grazing her tongue over her lower lip, and me thinking how that would normally do it. However, I owned this club and there was work to do.
When I didn’t break, she laughed. “Okay! I’ll take a Fuzzy Navel.”
I nodded. “Coming right up, little lady.” She watched my every move, as I worked quickly around the bar to get her drink prepared.
As the owner of the place, I wasn’t typically the one to do the dirty work behind the bar, but the place was jumping, and my usual Saturday night bartender had called in sick. That left me, until I could find a replacement for the night. Luckily, Brayton was on his way, but there were still people to serve until he got there.
I handed the Fuzzy Navel to her and she winked at me, then quietly said thanks and handed me the money. I nodded and went on to the next couple of customers. That was how the night was going, from customer to customer, up and down the bar, then pocketing the money into the cash register.
A few more women attempted to flirt, but I kept everything professional, barely giving them the time of day and they seemed to notice right off. When Brayton finally got there, I couldn’t breathe a sigh of relief fast enough. I tossed him the towel and he gave me a look that said he hated the fact that he had to come into work on his night off. I knew he did, but he needed to suck it up, because it was no way for the bar to be run.
I went into the back room of the bar and sunk down into the chair behind my desk, heaving a sigh as I turned to my computer. My office was small to say the least, but it did the job and provided me everything that I needed to get my work done.
I pulled up my computer screen and went to my emails, then started to read through them, tossing out every email that was basic spam or nonsense jargon. I was finishing up my list of twenty new emails, when I spotted Sam at the door. He was another employee that worked more on the front-lines, out in the open.
“Hey! What’s up?” I asked, looking up, as Sam walked into my office.
“We’re almost out of beer,” he said. His words came out in a rush and I was sure I had heard him incorrectly, even laughing as the words sunk in.
“What? Impossible,” I said.
Sam shrugged. “I looked at least five times and unless it was placed somewhere incorrectly, it’s not back here.”
I looked down and shuffled through some order forms, then pulled out the one I was looking for. “I just ordered beer the other day. There’s no way we’re out,” I said, still arguing.
Sam didn’t look pleased that I didn’t believe him, but the fact remained that I was looking at an order form as we spoke. If the beer had arrived, then we should have plenty. I got up from my chair and walked out of my office and over to the walk-in refrigerator that housed the supply of liquor we had on hand. I opened it up and we stepped inside.
I walked directly to where the beer would be located and found empty shelves. I then looked around to the shelves that were near it and also found that those were full, but beer wasn’t on them.
I glanced at Sam and we both looked confused. I then left the refrigerator and made sure the door was closed, then went to the back alley where sometimes deliveries were dropped off. The alley was bare.
“Great!” I mumbled, frustrated that Sam wasn’t just mistaken. We both went back into the bar and I glanced at my watch. Hopefully someone was at the supplier location, so I could speak to them.
“I’ll take care of it,” I said. Sam nodded and headed back into the bar. I figured if the refrigerator box was empty, then we were talking about maybe twenty bottles that were in the refrigerator at the bar and that was simply an estimate. At how busy we were, chances were we’d be sold out of beer by the end of the night.
I got back into the office and closed my door behind me, then went to my computer. I scrolled through the list of suppliers on my screen, until I found the correct one, then dialed up the number. It rang. Then rang again. Finally after the fourth ring, someone picked up.
“Prescott Brewery…you buy em, we brew em. How can I help you?”
I rolled my eyes at the quirky one-liner, then told them my problem. “Hello, this is Trevor Wild and I own Mercury Wild.”
“Oh yes…Mr. Wild. We’ve been expecting your call.”
I frowned. “You have?” I asked. I sunk down in my office chair and unbuttoned the two buttons on my blazer jacket.
“Yes! After we sent you out the email about your order not going through, we just assumed you would want to take care of that.” I heard shuffling of papers on the other end of the phone and I was even more confused.
“I’m sorry? I’m not following. I didn’t receive the email. There was a problem with the order?” As I waited for him to start talking, I pulled up my emails. It was true that I would tend to go through emails quickly, chucking ones that weren’t prevalent, but I was certain that I hadn’t missed this one.
“Let me look here…” There was a long pause, then he came back. “Ahh…yes. It appears that the email went out two days ago.
I quickly pulled up the emails from that time period and didn’t locate one from the supplier. I was about to tell him so, when I went through the trash files on my computer and that was when I saw it. I read through it and my face fell with each passing word, the basic gist being that my card was declined and the order was canceled.
“Are you there?” he asked.
“Yeah. I’m here.” I hit my desk with my hand and moved back from my desk. “I saw the email.” I took a deep breath. I had to do something, because we would be out of beer in no time and no beer would mean fewer customers and we were already losing business. Things weren’t as booming as they used to be. I dug my wallet out of my pocket. “Let me use another credit card.” This time I grabbed my personal credit card. “Will you add rush delivery?” I asked.
“Sure thing! Let me pull the info up on the computer.” There was some tapping on computer keys and then he came back. “Okay, I’m ready.” I gave him the card number and stated I wanted the same order that I had placed previously.
“We have you down for that and you can expect the order in a few days.”
I swallowed. “A few days?” I didn’t expect them to load up a truck and bring it out tonight, but I had hoped maybe it could be there by the next day. That’d be Sunday and we wouldn’t be open, so I wouldn’t have to worry about running out.
“Yes! Rush delivery would put it on Tuesday most likely.”
“Okay!” I reluctantly said. If that was the earliest we could do, then I just would have to accept that. I thanked the man and then we hung up.
I sat there for only a few minutes, before I knew what I had to do. Well, there were a couple of things I needed to do. I had to check to see why the credit card was overdrawn and I had to start calling around and begging other bar owners to outsource some beer to us.
I was just about to dial up a number, when Sam peeked his head in the door. “How’d it go?”
I never wanted to bore my employees with how the business might not be doing all that well, so I smiled. “It was just a simple oversight. It will be taken care of soon.”
“Great!” Sam said. He left the office and I dialed up the company credit card number first. I punched in some numbers, until the automated service confirmed the bad news. We were over a thousand dollars over the limit. I shook my head, disconnecting the call. I hadn’t realized things had gotten that bad. I then dialed up one of the competitor’s numbers and started begging for help.
I didn’t stop until I had traveled to three different bars and got enough that I felt would get us by. I just had to make a trip to start picking them up. I left my office and went back through the double doors to get in the bar, when I spotted Brayton.
“Did you bring your truck to work?” I asked him.
He arched an eyebrow and nodded. “Yeah, why?” he asked.
“Well, there was an oversight with our beer order. I need to go pick some up and you can’t get much in an Aston Martin. So, can I borrow it?”
Brayton didn’t even think about it. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the keys. “Thank you!” I replied. I hurried through the bar and out the front door. I needed to get the beer and get back to the bar before we had a mob on our hands. You never knew when the last beer would be served.
Jasmine
The pen made a noise as I rolled it across my desk. I heaved a sigh and then looked blankly at my computer. The company I worked for was in charge of bringing other companies back on their feet and building them back up financially. Employees would go out and get involved to help these companies out. One would think it was exciting, but for me…it was anything but.
My job was to assist the employees, to make their lives easier, so they could do the real work. So, basically, I was a gopher. I would get coffee, file paperwork, doing errands for these high paid individuals. All the while, they would have the fun and interesting parts of the job, while I would be stuck in the office and shuffling papers around. Somehow, it didn’t seem fair.
No matter how much I explained it to the boss, he didn’t seem to understand my issue with it. So, really, it was like talking to a brick wall. It was just sometimes I felt more compelled than others to make my move and hope that he finally would see that I wasn't any longer the woman that was fresh out of college and looking to do any job I could get my hands on. I was now a grown woman that knew her mind and wasn’t afraid to go after what she wanted.
So, one day after getting the umpteenth coffee for one of the co-workers, I knocked on his office door. Max looked up and motioned for me to come in. “How can I help you Jasmine?” he asked.
I took a deep breath, before I just laid it out there. “Look. I’ve been with the company for two years now. That’s two years of filing papers, getting coffee, running out and getting laundry from the dry cleaners, and any other task that came about.”
He groaned, knowing full well where I was going with this, but I continued.
“You keep saying that I just need to give it time and eventually I might be asked to do an assignment. How much time?” I asked.
He snickered and continued to look at me.
“Jasmine, you know I think you’re a great worker and I would love to give you some field work, but come on…you’re just not ready.”
My jaw dropped. I couldn’t believe he was still playing that card.
“What? How can you say that? I have worked just as hard as any of these other people.” I then frowned. “Is it because I’m a woman?” I asked. It was true that the majority of the people working on assignments were men, with only a couple of women. Those women just happened to have been employed with the company from almost day one.
His eyes grew wide when I asked the question. “You know I don’t discriminate. This has nothing to do with whether you’re a man or a woman. Trust me that it doesn’t.”
I knew that he was right. I didn’t see him as the type to discriminate, but I didn’t know why I wouldn’t be given a chance.
“Then why won’t you give me the opportunity?” I asked.
He sighed and leaned back in his chair.
“The truth is that we just don’t have any more cases that aren’t being handled.” He shrugged. “If we did, then it’d be yours. I’m sorry, but things have been slow for us.”
I crossed my arms and looked at him. “When you get a call with your next project, will you give me a chance?”
He tilted his head and for a minute or so we held a staring contest. He tossed up his arms. “I’ll consider it. That’s the best I can do.”
That was better than a no, so I had to make it work. He was going to consider it. I nodded and left his office. It wasn’t quite the resounding yes I would have hoped for, but it was better than what I usually got.
I got back to my desk and was only seated for a few minutes before my phone lit up. I answered it, putting a smile on my face. “This is Jasmine.”
“Hey, it’s Roger. Will you come scan in some of my files? They’re getting backed up.”
I rolled my eyes, but was right on it. “I’ll be right there.” I hung up the call and got up from my desk.
I went down the hallway, until I got to his office. When I walked in, my eyes immediately went the stack of paperwork on his desk. I pointed to it. “Are you talking about this?” I asked.
He snickered. “Yep!” He motioned towards his wall to a cart. “That will help you transfer them to the scanner.”
“Gee…thanks,” I mumbled. I started loading the papers up on the cart, then glanced at him when I was finished. “Anything else you need?” I held back the urge to say, sir. He shook his head and never looked back up as I left his office. I pushed it back down the hallway and to the large scanner in the corner where I started diligently working, humming the words to a song to stay awake. I didn’t know how much longer I could put up with this, before I had to get out of there.
***
A week passed by and there were no other jobs that came into work. I went about doing the everyday tasks that had come so familiar to me and trying to forget about the fact that I might never have a prominent job within the company.
On that Saturday night, it was Sydney’s engagement party. It was the first night I had gone out since she had told us she was getting married, which was the same night I caught my boyfriend screwing another woman. So, this was a milestone. It’d been a month of spending time at work and home, leaving no time for play.
I got dressed and basically forced myself to leave the house. Driving to the club, I thought about how I had let myself go since Josh and I broke up. Last time we spoke, he apologized profusely, begging me to forgive him, to which I gave him my reply. “I do forgive you, Josh. Life is too short to hold grudges. But I’ll be damned if I let you break my heart again.” I then dropped it and was relieved after the second time, he didn’t try to get me to change my mind.
I pulled into the club and looked up at the name in lights. Mercury Wild. It wasn’t normally the place I would grace, but that was because I wasn’t a member. It was too elite for my blood, but it didn’t surprise me that Sydney was a member.
I got out of the car and headed up to the door. The door opened automatically, and I found two women standing at the door to welcome me in. I nodded. “Hello!”
They said their greeting, then ushered me to hostess podium.
When I got up there, the woman gave me a curious look, as if to point out that there was no way in hell I belonged there. She was right. There wasn’t, but I had to assure her that I was in the right place.
“I’m here for the Maxwell and…” My voice fell off, I couldn’t recall Michael’s last name. I thought about it, then it slowly dawned on me. “Oh yeah! I’m here for the Maxwell and Vandingham’s engagement party.”
“Oh yes…of course,” the woman said. She smiled halfheartedly and then directed the way for me to follow her. We wrapped around several corners, until she led me into a room.
The room was set up to be inviting and looked very much open to being a lively party. There was a pool table off to the side, along with its only personal bar and bartender. Plus, there were also slot machines in the corner that provided the perfect atmosphere they wanted to convey.
I looked at Sydney and she squealed and ran over to greet me. I wondered if that was how this stuffy club wanted their members to act. I put on a smile and hugged her. We hadn’t seen each other for a week, as she had gone to New York to be with Michael
and his family, before both Michael and Sydney headed back to Maine.
“Good to see you!” I said, pulling her to me.
“I’m so glad you could make it!” She pulled back and she had a huge smile on her face.
I laughed. “I wouldn’t be anywhere else in the world.”
She smiled and turned to the man that was gawking at us and looking a little awkward. He definitely looked like the lawyer type. A little nerdy, but very distinguished. He walked up to us. “Jasmine, this is my fiancé Michael. Michael, this is my bestie, Jasmine.”
He smiled and I put out my hand, expecting a handshake. Instead, he surprised me by hugging me.
“I have heard so much about you, Jasmine,” he said.
“I have heard a lot about you, too,” I said. I lied, because I figured it was the only thing to do in that moment. When we parted, I smiled. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
He looked over at Sydney and she was beaming at him. “Likewise,” he said.
I then looked past them and saw a few people had arrived. I dismissed myself from the future bride and groom and went off to talk to some more of my friends. We chatted for about ten minutes, before we noticed staff coming in and asking to take our drink orders, then we all took a seat around the elongated table.
Michael and Sydney stood at the end of the table and Sydney tapped the glass of water in front of them. “We want to thank each of you for coming out and spending the night with us in celebration of our upcoming wedding.”
I looked around the table and all eyes were on Sydney. She did seem overly excited as she talked about their plans on getting married. A date hadn’t been set, but she said we should all look for that to be announced within the coming weeks.
The whole time, Sydney did all the talking and when she was finished and we were seated, I surveyed the happy couple a few times to find that he seemed quieter and more reserved than she was. I didn’t know if he was standoffish, or just quiet, maybe a little bit of both, but he definitely seemed different from the friend I had grown up with.
