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“Good, it’s not usually like that, I promise. Secondly, this is a place where we can talk about any ideas you have to drive customers into the bar. Anything you think this place is missing…Ooh, karaoke!” Taylor scribbled on her notepad.
Ben thought for a moment. “Do you do trivia nights here?”
Kayleigh shook her head.
“That feels like a good place to start. You could theme them, you know, movies, music, geography, that kind of thing. Also, it feels like a miss that there’s no mechanical bull here.”
“I like it, I like it. I wasn’t expecting you to have ideas as you only started this week, but I’m impressed.” Taylor continued scribbling furiously. At Taylor’s praise Kayleigh frowned at him and he couldn’t work out how he’d annoyed her.
“Also, along the line of the karaoke nights you could do themed ones like…Whitney Houston night, or Beyoncé night or,” He cleared his throat which suddenly grew tight. “Elvis night?”
“I’m loving this, yes Ben!”
“I maybe have an idea,” Kayleigh spoke hesitantly.
“Yeah?”
“We do Ladies’ Nights but, um, they’re for straight couples. We could maybe try, erm, doing like, an LGBTQIA series of them. There are other people looking for relationships and love, and this would make the bar stand out. It’s a safe place for the community to come and not be judged and just be…accepted.” Kayleigh wouldn’t meet their eyes, just picked at the edge of the table that was lifting.
“That’s a brilliant idea, Kayleigh,” Ben replied.
“Yeah, I never knew you felt that way,” Taylor said, staring at Kayleigh like she was suddenly seeing something she hadn’t noticed before. “That is a fantastic idea, and we’ll look to get those planned right away.”
Kayleigh nodded, a small smile playing at her lips. When the meeting finished, Taylor went back into her office a little ball of excitement. Kayleigh escaped back to the bar to serve one of the locals and Ben followed her.
“That was a really good idea by the way. Well done for speaking up,” he said.
She raised her dark eyebrows. “I’m sorry?”
His pulse pounded as her expression slipped into a cool mask. “Uh, well done for, ya know, demanding inclusivity? When someone stands up to demand inclusivity for others the world becomes a better place. But I can only imagine how nerve-racking it is to put yourself out there like that.”
She took a step towards him. “And why would that be scary for me?”
Ben began sweating in places he didn’t know he could sweat. “Because you’re fighting for your community and in some small towns like this a lot of people wouldn’t necessarily consider that a good thing.”
“My community?”
“I thought…aren’t you a lesbian?”
He panicked at her silence. “I…okay this isn’t going how I planned. I just meant to say that I thought you had a great idea, and I think including all communities is extremely important so I’m dedicated to doing whatever we can all do together to make this happen.”
She squinted at him but her shoulders dropped and she let out the air he didn’t realize she had been holding.
“Are we cool?” he asked, scared of her answer.
“Sorry, you’re right. Not everyone is accepting, and I wasn’t sure which side of the fence you were going to fall on.”
“The side of basic human decency? The bar is pretty low for that, huh?” he joked, nudging her shoulder until a small smile and those adorable dimples appeared.
“Wait, how did you know I like women?”
Shit, how did he explain that? Luckily, they were saved by Taylor coming back out to the bar and going over the dates of events with them that she had already planned. Once she left, they settled into a routine of Kayleigh showing him how to make some of the more advanced cocktails. Ben made her giggle by juggling some bottles and shocked himself by not dropping any. The afternoon picked up and they moved around each other in sync until the sun set and the moon rose high in the sky.
As the bar became more packed, the heat rose until Ben was stripping off his denim jacket and stuffing it up under the bar. He felt eyes on him, stroking over his back, but when he turned around, Kayleigh was busy serving more patrons. Taylor stepped in to help them out and it was pretty crammed behind the bar, so much so that Ben and Kayleigh kept brushing up against each other. He would stare down at her as she peeked up at him from under her lashes and his heart would do a little flip in his chest, until he reminded himself that it wasnever gonna happen…
As the evening wore on and the customers slowly left, something occurred to Ben.
“Didn’t your shift finish like, three hours ago?” he asked, sidling up to Kayleigh.
