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“Fine. Kimber and Holly were in sync. I know I’m not either of them, but if you’d at least try to work with me, we can figure it out.” I overhear the end of Kelsey’s plea. Her eyes widen seeing me. The other woman rolls hers and makes a derisive “flavor of the month” comment about me under her breath. Something about high society serving vanilla.
I squeak a polite “excuse me” and move down the hall to where it opens up to the theater. There are a lot more people at Sweet Caroline’s than there were when I got here.
Standing at the entrance of the open space, Jake is visible behind the bar. He’s so tall it makes him hard to miss. He’s swift at the pour. Bottles come off the shelf as fast as they get replaced. I lean against the wall, watching him fill multiple trays. Cocktail waitresses carry them to awaiting patrons at the small round tables close to the stage, and the process starts again. He barks over the head of a person helping him pull beers to the guy who came in to tell Jake that Kelsey needed help. Yes, the crew needs him behind the bar to keep things running smoothly. Yet, they aren’t so busy that Jake needs to take out his frustration on anyone.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bother him, or you. At least I had backup half of the time before Jake forced Holly to quit.” Kelsey is at my elbow.
“Why would he do that?” I ball my fists.
“Got me. Sometimes it’s like Jake is in constant reaction mode. Like he doesn’t think things through… I, ah, I’m sorry, again. I shouldn’t have said that. Not after ruining your night together.” Kelsey sounds fearful that I’ll tattle on her.
I scoff. “Don’t apologize. The night wasn’t so great before.”
Jaw set, Jake decides to look up at that moment. Irritation pours out of his pores.
Kelsey steps forward, and I sling my arm through hers.
“Wait. Let him swing.”
The thing is, Kelsey needs help. Real help. I’m appalled that Jake is unwilling to do more than get angry at her.
“What? No. I might not be as good a manager as Holly or Kimber were, but I need this job.”
“Why were they good at it?”
“Kimber was a dancer first, so I’m going with experience and she’d earned their respect. Plus, according to everyone, she and Hol were a team. The dancers who tested Holly’s reserve when Kimber left didn’t last. The ones who stayed also waited until Holly’s shift and went to her when they had a problem. If Holly couldn’t fix it, then she forced Jake to. Holly could literally yell at him and got away with it. It’s only been a few weeks since she’s been gone. But now the dancers go to Jake to complain about me when I’ve already been to him with their concerns that I can’t manage on my own. But he doesn’t budge.” Kelsey shrugs. “I’m trying my best, but it’s like they ran out of chocolate cake for dessert and all they have left to serve is banana pudding.”
“I like banana pudding.”
“You would.” Kelsey lets out a nervous laugh. Jake is shooting dirty looks in our direction.
I get the impression the poor girl is walking on eggshells, as concerned about losing her job for poor performance as she is about spouting off to Jake to step up the way previous managers had no issue doing.
“I get what you are saying, though. When Holly left, they lost a confidante, an advocate. And so did you.”
“Yup. And Jake tells each employee what they want to hear, but solves none of the problems. So then I get double-whammied when nothing gets fixed.”
“Come on.” Our elbows interlocked, I tug Kelsey toward the office.
“Where are we going? Jake is expecting—”
“Too much out of you. So you’re going to tell me what you need and I’m going to take care of it.”
My business mentality refuses to let my employees swing in the wind. I can’t accept that Jake does. If Kelsey hadn’t approached me, I wouldn’t have known about the former managers’ stiff backbones.
Since Jake intends to use my disappearing act against me, I plan to do the same with whatever I learn about him. All the better if it helps Kelsey.
Back in the office Kelsey wakes up the laptop on Jake’s desk and my fingersclickety-clackover the keyboard while she describes her job—it has a lot of moving parts—and what she feels like is missing both now and before Jake let Holly go.
Kelsey is sweet. I can see how hesitating to put Jake in his place makes her uncomfortable. She’s also competent and thorough. From what I can tell, she’s doing the job of one too many people.
I’m sure I have my story straight that teamwork accounted for so much of the club’s success in the past several years. Though they hadn’t worked together long, even Kelsey and Holly had a practical system. Except then Kelsey kicks my theory into overdrive when she comments on how Jake’s friends also used to spend more time at Sweet Caroline’s. In some instances, Trig, a younger man named Morgan who lives at Trig’s house, and two others: Skye and Jasper, were here more often than Jake himself. But from what Jake said, most of these friends are now in committed relationships, which is how I got stuck here as the fake girlfriend.
Rooting out what details I can about Jake, I question where he was during that time and what would make him avoid his club. Kelsey looks like she wants to swallow her tongue when the man himself interrupts.
“Is there a reason you aren’t out on the floor, Kelsey? I don’t bring anything extra home in my paycheck when I do your job for you, and neither does my girlfriend.” He cuts to the chase while staring me down for having the audacity to sit with the computer open on the desk in front of me.
“Kelsey and I were whipping up an ad for another manager. A co-manager.” I lift and wiggle my fingers like I’m typing. “Thank you so much, Kelsey. I hadn’t meant to keep you this long, but we have everything we need now.”
