3. Quinn
1348 Words
When I arrived at Rainbow Central later that evening, I found a young man leaning against the facade of the bar. A cigarette in one hand, the other firmly holding his phone. That had to be Caspian.
I waved awkwardly. “Hey.”
The guy looked up from his phone. “Yo.”
“Are you Caspian?”
“Yup. And you’re…”
“Quinn. I’m doing a trial day and Olivia said to be here at five.” I tightened my grip on the straps of my little backpack, hoping he wasn’t the chatty type. The more lies I had to tell, the more complicated it would get to keep them all straight.
Caspian nodded as he kicked out his smoke. “Aight. Follow me.”
The glass door clappered as he pushed into the bar. Immediately, the same smell from earlier wafted in my face and I had to stop myself from gagging. If I was going to work here, I’d have to get used to the vomit-inducing stench.
I followed the guy behind the wooden bar and into the same staff room where Olivia had taken my interview. Now that I wasn’t consumed with nerves and distracted by the beautiful but powerful woman, I actually had time to take in my surroundings.
An old couch with a well-used coffee table, a couple of dingy metal lockers that didn’t look like they could still protect anything valuable and a lamp without a shade. Under different circumstances, I’d never even consider working here. But my empty bank account was certainly encouraging me to suck up my pride and do it.
“So.” Caspian gestured around. “This is the staff room. You can leave your stuff in the last locker and then we get to work.”
“Okay.” I didn’t have anything of value in my bag, but it was good to know my keys would be safe. If I locked myself out of my room, I’d be in big trouble.
“Do you have any previous experience working in a bar?” the young man asked, studying me intensely.
“N— Yes.” Damn it. Such a simple lie and I almost f****d it up.
“Alright. So, as you can tell we’ve got some cleaning to do.”
“You don’t have a cleaning crew?”
Caspian chuckled. “You’re looking at the cleaning crew. Here.”
He threw a mop my way and I barely caught it. “So…”
“We clean the bar and the toilets after we close, but we do the floors the next morning.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “Olivia hasn’t said. I’m guessing it’s cheaper to pay staff during the day.”
“Ah…”
“We also fill the fridges now and make sure all the garnish is where it needs to be. Plus, attaching the taps. If you’ve worked in the industry before, you must know how to do that?”
“Totally,” I lied. Not.
“I’ll quickly show you around and then we’ll get to cleaning.” He motioned for me to follow him and guided me through the small, but cosy bar.
Big glass windows let the sunlight in and illuminated the small stages in the front and near the back. A couple of dingy tables hugged the wall, although I couldn’t imagine many people actually sat on them. They were all scratched up and didn’t look very comfortable either. Dark wooden floors pulled along the entire room and grey wallpaper adorned the sides. It wasn’t an unpleasant sight, but it certainly wasn’t fancy.
“Toilets are in the back,” Caspian gestured. “Stock room is through the staff room.”
“Okay.”
He led me back to the main area and patted the wooden bar. “There are a couple of small fridges under the counter and we have bigger fridges in the back. Whenever you’re running out of drinks and are grabbing them from the reserve, make sure to refill those as well. We don’t want to run out.”
“Makes sense.”
“We always put the garnish in this fridge. Limes, oranges, celery, that kind of stuff.” He pulled some cupboards open and handed me a stained drink card. “This is our price list. Keep it at hand so you can charge the right amounts. If you stay, you’d do well in memorising everything.”
I studied the list, the numbers and names already dancing. “That’s a lot of drinks.”
“Yup. We serve pretty much everything you can think of.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “Why not.”
“Okay…”
“How’s your math?”
“My math?”
“Yeah. You’ll have to do some quick calculations.”
Shit. I hadn’t thought of that.
“I’ll be fine.” Another lie. Math had never been my strong suit. What was the point anyway if everyone had a calculator on their phone?
Caspian pushed an empty bucket in my hands and gestured to the floor. “Let’s get to it.”
Probably a good idea. The residue of beer made everything sticky under my shoes. It would be a lot more pleasant when the place smelled and looked clean again.
With the tough broomstick rubbing against my palms, I bowed down for the task at hand. I hadn’t cleaned a floor in my life, but there was a first for everything.
What I lacked in experience, I’d make up in enthusiasm. These floors would be cleaner than they’d ever been.
“So what made you want to work here?” Caspian asked while pouring soapy water onto the floor.
“I need money. And I guess I figured I wouldn’t have to worry about my sexuality in a rainbow bar.”
He nodded. “You gay?”
“Pan.”
“Really? Nice. My sister is pan too. If it has a pulse, she’s on it. Oh, wait. That’s not the pan side. That’s just cause she’s a bit of a slut.”
I chuckled. “You don’t like your sister?”
“Oh, no. We’re very close.”
“That must be nice,” I said, wondering what it would be like to have a brother or sister. Maybe then things would’ve been different.
Caspian mopped the sweat on his forehead away. “You got any siblings?”
“Nope, only child right here.”
“Aha. You know what, that sounds amazing. If you want a sister, you can have mine,” he joked.
I laughed, enjoying the easy conversation. “You sure you two are close?”
“Yup. Doesn’t mean she doesn’t get on my nerves.”
“Hah… I bet.”
I could see why he was a bartender. I’d only just met him and it already felt like we’d been friends for years. The magic of an extrovert.
My hands were already raw from all the scrubbing and that made me feel pathetic. Some people cleaned all day and I was getting blisters from some light scrubbing. There was no doubt, I grew up privileged. But I’d take the stinky bar and hard work over money and mansions. Because in my world, those came with a gold-digging stepmother.
I wrung the dirty mop, disgusted with the grimy water drenching into the bucket. To distract me from the nasty job, I turned to Caspian. “So, do you like working at Rainbow Central?”
“Yup. Good hours, decent pay, and no boss breathing down my neck.”
“So Olivia isn’t here that much?”
“Nope. She has a meeting once a week with the manager and that’s usually it.”
“Ahh… And does she always look like she just bit into a lemon?”
“Ahem.” Someone cleared their throat behind me and even before I turned around, I knew I was in a world of trouble.
I held my breath as I faced the person standing behind me.
Olivia.
Olivia.
- Writer
