Brixton

Chapter Two

*Brixton*

As they finished, everyone was clapping and cheering, and I watch the bouncer help the girls back down behind the bar.  I stand up and fully slap both hands down on Jay’s shoulders as I walk behind him, “I’m going to get a beer, want anything?”

“Lauryn knows what I want,” Jay says with a sly smile like he was trying to get under my skin, and for whatever fucken reason, it worked. The thought of them being closer than the employee and manager relationship kind of irritates me. I make my way down the stairs, fight my way through the crowd to finally reach the bar. As I wait for Lauryn to work her way down the bar to me, I notice she’s completely unphased by the men continually hitting on her. She never leans on or over the bar towards a customer, just takes their order, gets their drink, and moves to the next. Lauryn steps up to the bar, cross her arms in front of her, and leans against the bar towards me. 

“Well, I was wondering when Jay would send his little sidekick down here,” she says with a teasing smile. 

“Sidekick? Yeah, I’m not a sidekick,”

“Whatever makes you sleep better at night, bicycle boy. What can I get you to drink?”

I would have been really insulted by her little comment there if she didn’t look so damn cute with that big ass, teasing smile on her face. I put my hand on my chest in fake pain, “Ouch, ‘bicycle boy’! That one is really going to bruise my ego, and I thought buckle bunnies were supposed to be nice…”

“BUCKLE BUNNY?! HA! First of all, hotshot, I don’t hang around any rodeos; second of all, I don’t go for cowboys; they don’t have any brain cells left after being bucked off the back of a damn bull.” 

Lauryn raises an eyebrow at me and points a finger in my direction as we both start laughing. This was the most anyone has bantered with me in a long time. It’s nice, most watch what they say around me because they don’t want to piss off the Prez, but Lauryn doesn’t seem to give a s**t about any of my patches. 

I stick my hand out towards her, “Brixton.”

“Lauryn,” she says as she grabs my hand and shakes it. 

“Now, are you going to order something or just chit chat all night?”

“You really think I’m hot?”

“What?”

“You called me hotshot, so you obviously think I’m hot.”

“Oh my god… don’t flatter yourself, Brixton,” Lauryn says, rolling her eyes at me.  She leans down, stands back up with a bottle of beer, and pops the top off. She looks up towards the balcony, points at Jay, gives a quick nod, and then makes a Jack and Coke. 

“Since you still have yet to tell me what you want to drink, beer is what you get. Also, this is Jay’s,” Lauryn says as she sets the glass of Jack and Coke in front of me. 

I quickly wrap my hand around her hand that’s holding the glass. “See you tomorrow,”  I say as I give her a wink, then lift my hand off of hers and pick up the glass with just my pointer finger and thumb as I turn and walk away.

*Lauryn*

As I start making my way down behind the bar, I can’t shake the feeling someone is watching me as I’m telling the girls ‘hey’ and giving hugs. I turn to see some guy walking up the stairs behind Jay, he turns back, looking down at me right before he walks into Jay’s office. 

“Oh Hey… looks like you caught the eye of Mister MC Prez. I could see him drooling from here,” I hear Novah say from behind me. We both watch Jay and ‘Mister Prez’ walk into the office before I turn around and head over to my station behind the bar to make sure everything is ready to go since it’s time to open. 

We are swamped tonight, and orders haven’t stopped since the doors opened. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Novah sauntering over with her annoying, know-it-all smile plastered across her face. 

“So I’ve been thinking…”

“We are paid to make and serve drinks, not think... Here’s your drink sweetie,” I tell the girl on the other side of the bar as I set her drink down on the bar top in front of her. 

“HEY! YO BARTENDER CHIC!” we hear someone call out from Novah’s section.

“HEY CALM YOUR t**s,” Novah yells back and turns back to face me. “You should give Prez your number.”

“What?! Why would I do that?”

“Because he's hot, and he obviously likes what he sees in them jeans!” Novah says as she slaps my left ass cheek.

“Ow! Stop doing that! You know I don’t date, so, no, I’m not giving anyone my number…” I turn away hoping she would leave; I feel her hands on my shoulders turning me back around. 

“Girl, you are wound so tight, he could touch your hand and you would need to change your panties afterwards… Look Lauryn, the s**t that happened with Douchebag Derek, you gotta let it go and move on. Plus there’s noone better to help you get over it than that s*x on a stick wrapped in leather, Mister MC Prez.  If you never put yourself out there you’ll never know if someone could make you happy. Plus you would look damn hot wrapped in his leather… just sayin.

Novah slaps my ass again and bounces on the balls of her toes as she turns and walks away. “Ow! Really wish you would stop doing that!” I yell back as I rub the spot she keeps slapping. 

I see Teddy walk to the opening at the end of the bar; I grab my bottle of pineapple rum and make my way over to Teddy. I put the bottle on the corner of the bar top and turned around with my back facing Teddy.  He puts a hand on either side of my hips, I hold his wrists and slightly jump as I’m lifted up way higher than I need to be and settle my feet on the bar top.

“Thank you my sweet Teddy Bear!”

“Anything for you darling!”

I pick up the bottle of rum and start making my way down the bar top. The crowd knows what time it is… it’s time for the midnight bar top dance. This is something Novah and I started when we first started working here during our freshman year in college. One night it was so slow we were bored out of our minds, so we did the only logical thing... we told the DJ to play a few songs; Novah, me and the two girls who were working with us at the time hopped on the bar, started dancing, and it exploded from there. Over time we’ve nailed down a pretty fancy line dance that all the bartenders know so it makes it a lot more fun. 

I see Teddy lift Dani on to the bar, I pour a few more shots then lean back and hand the bottle to him. 

“Let’s go Leather Lauryn!” Novah yells as we walk past each other and smack each other's asses. 

I turn my head just enough to see that Jay and Mister Prez are leaning on the railing upstairs. I give Novah a side-eye, shaking my head at her as she sends me a kiss, then runs the tips of her finger up her hand and arm, then shakes her body like she’s shivering. I can’t believe her, I think she worries more about my love life than her own. I turn, look at the crowd and start doing the normal hype stuff to make them even more excited. 

As the music picks up we start getting into the really fun dancing, we use to have guys try to reach up and touch us or grab us, but after some smashed fingers under our boots, or over exaggerated leg swings to the hands and arms, they don’t do that anymore… which is kind of a bummer, Novah and I had a contest running on who could smash the most fingers in one night. We did the final double stomp along with the last beat of the song to bring our dance to an end. I stand there and clap and dance to the new song playing with the crowd until Teddy makes it down to where I’m standing to help me down. 

I start taking orders again, after a few minutes I can feel someone staring at me. I glance over as I’m making one of the drinks and see Mister Prez has made his way down to the bar. I finish up the drink I was making then go stand and slightly lean on the bar in front of him. 

“Well, I was wondering when Jay would send his little sidekick down here,” I say with a teasing smile. 

“Sidekick? Yeah, I’m not a sidekick,”

“Whatever makes you sleep better at night, bicycle boy. What can I get you to drink?”

I have a big teasing grin on my face, loving the way my sarcasm makes his forehead wrinkle as he seems to be at war with himself, trying to figure out if he feels insulted or not by my comment. Now that he’s close enough I can actually see his facial features, and this man is seriously the sexiest man I’ve ever seen in my entire life. He has short dark brown curly hair that’s clean cut and looks like he rubbed some gel in it using only his finger to push it backwards. He folds his tan, very muscular, tattooed arms, and sets them on the bar, leaning closer towards me. He has dark brown eyelashes and brows, framing his amazing hazel eyes, and he has well groomed scruff across his face. He gives me a big smile, and those pearly white teeth could be in a toothpaste commercial. 

“Ouch, ‘bicycle boy’! That one is really going to bruise my ego, and I thought buckle bunnies were supposed to be nice…” he says with a mischievous smile as he covers his chest with his hand in fake pain.

“BUCKLE BUNNY?! HA! First of all, hotshot, I don’t hang around any rodeos; second of all, I don’t go for cowboys; they don’t have any brain cells left after being bucked off the back of a damn bull,” I fire back at him, raising an eyebrow and pointing my finger at him as we both start laughing at my small outburst. 

He's fun to banter with I’ll give him that; being an MC Prez or not, he has a fun personality hidden under that leather cut. 

“Brixton,” he sticks his hand out towards me.

Goddammit even his name is sexy too.

“Lauryn,” I tell him as I grab his hand and shake it. 

“Now, are you going to order something or just chit chat all night?”

“You really think I’m hot?”

His question slightly confuses me for a moment.

“What?”

“You called me hotshot, so you obviously think I’m hot,”

Wow... yup, I knew it was too good to be true. Brixton is just as self-absorbed as every other guy.

“Oh my god… don’t flatter yourself, Brixton.”

I roll my eyes at him and since he won’t tell me what he wants, he’s getting a beer. I lean down, grab a Bud Light, stand back up, pull my long thin bottle opener out from under, the arm band around my forearm, and pop the top off. I look up towards the balcony and point at Jay; he gives me a quick nod, letting me know he wants a Jack and Coke. 

“Since you still have yet to tell me what you want to drink, beer is what you get. Also, this is Jay’s.”

I set the glass of Jack and Coke in front of Brixton. He quickly wraps his hand around my hand that’s holding the glass. “See you tomorrow,” Brixton says as he shoots me a wink, then lifts his hand off of mine and picks up the glass with just his pointer finger and thumb, turns, and walks away. 

I hear Novah snickering beside me, “Shut up… no changing needed.” I flick her off, as she rolls her eyes and mouths OK, back at me.

 The rest of the night went on just like any other busy Friday night, a lot of drunk idiots dancing around and a few fights here and there. We finally closed, so we can start cleaning up to go home for the night and come back and do it all over again  tomorrow. I head into the locker room, kick off my cowgirl boots and pull on my black fold over combat boots. I pull my black hoodie over my head, push my arms through the long sleeves and tuck my gun in the front hands pocket of the hoodie. I grab all my hair into my hands, wrap it in a hair tie, tuck it into the back of my hoodie and throw on my backpack.

“Alright Nov I’m out, see you at home… Love you long time ladies!” I yell over my shoulder as I make my way out of the locker room then out of the bar. 

I turn the corner of the building to where my bike is parked. I place my backpack on the bike, I usually have my keys in my hand before I walk out the building, but today I forgot. I hear footsteps behind me getting closer, I slide my hand in my front pocket, pull my gun out, keeping it in front of me and out of the sight of the person coming up behind me. When their footsteps have gotten close enough I quickly turn around, holding my gun with both hands out in front of me.

“You better back the f**k up!” I say through gritted teeth, bringing the man standing not far from me to a halt.

“Whoa, easy there sparky!”

I lower my gun realizing it’s Brixton standing there.