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“I’m Auston. We talked on the phone.”
His voice sounded a lot friendlier than it had during my interview, if you could even call it an interview. Not that he had been rude during the call, but his voice was lower and had a bit of a growl to it, almost like he’d been hungover or exhausted. Maybe he had.
“Yeah, hi!” I took his hand, shaking it. “Thanks for the job. It’s a really… interesting place.”
He laughed while I took another long glance around the bar. “This is Logan. He helps me run it.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” I smiled at him, letting it drop when he just stared at me.
Logan raised an eyebrow with a small smirk. “Pleasure is all yours.” He chuckled, and next to me, Auston scoffed.
“Humble as always, dude. Humble as always.” Auston rolled his eyes and turned back to me, obviously mildly amused at my baffled stare. “Logan can be kind of a sarcastic dick, but you get used to him.”
“Hey, I resent that!”
“I’m not wrong.” Auston put his hand on my upper back and led me away from the bar. “Ignore the guy. Let me show you around, huh?”
I wanted to laugh. What was he going to show me? From where we were standing, I could see the front door, the hallway that surely led to the back door, and all twelve tables. The jukebox that probably didn’t work in a place like this was against one wall, and the sign that pointed to the restrooms had only half the letters lit, spelling RESRO.
Still, I followed him down the short hallway while he pointed out the door to his office and the back door to the parking lot. On the way back up to the bar, he showed me the storage closet with the extra liquor.
“And this over here is the walk-in cooler. Just be careful. Sometimes this thing gets stuck, so try not to let the door close all the way behind you.” He shivered slightly when he said it, and I assumed he had been locked in there at some point.
“Noted.” I giggled. “I’m honestly surprised it’s so quiet. I thought it would be more… lively.”
Logan cleared his throat behind me, and I jumped. “There aren’t a lot of bars around here that are busier than this at four on a Tuesday afternoon, but it gets hectic on the weekends. Hopefully you can handle it.”
I winked at him, accepting that my new reality may not be as exciting as I’d imagined it to be. “Oh, believe me. I can handle it.”
Chapter 3
Logan
“Dude, I think it’s clean. What the hell are you doing?” Auston half scolded me from his spot on the stool next to the new girl.
I was honestly not sure the counter by the register had ever been cleaned so many times, but wiping the damp rag over the surface was better than leaning against the bar and listening to her sickeningly sweet voice. “One of us has to work,” I snapped, gesturing vaguely to the mostly empty bar around me.
Simone giggled, as if she was already laughing about some inside joke. “Are you always this uptight?”
Uptight?
“I’m never uptight.” I tossed the rag behind me and into the bin, grabbing a shot glass and a bottle of gin. The cheap stuff—otherwise Auston would make me pay for it.
“If you say so…” The judgment on her face was obvious.
I poured the liquor into the glass, carefully replacing the bottle cap before I swallowed the shot. She and Auston both rolled their eyes. “You weren’t going to offer us one?” He already knew the answer to his question before he asked it.
“You work here. Do it yourself.” I glared at him before looking over at her. “You both do.” I poured a second shot, and when I didn’t grab two more glasses, Auston leaned over the counter and did so himself.
“Fine,” he said. Auston and Simone tapped their glasses together, and she cringed when she swallowed the sweet liquor.
“Not a fan of gin, hmm?”
She scowled. “Not really. More of a whiskey kind of girl, but Momma didn’t raise a little bitch.” The way she emphasized each syllable of each word took away some of the punch of the statement, and I scoffed.
“Okay, okay. Tell us about yourself, Simone. You’re from Detroit?” Auston, always playing the mediator. He wasn’t one to enjoy an uncomfortable silence, so it was rarely quiet for long if he was around.
She chewed at her lip for a second, running her finger in circles around the top of the glass. “Yep, born and raised!”
