Fated From the Start

Living a RomCom

Harlow POV 

Of course. That gorgeous mountain of a man that my heart had been beating out of my chest over all night was a god damned i***t. He'd easily just dropped like $500 without giving it a second thought, and for what? To buy me a few hours of peace from my piece of s**t boss? The guy was still going to be my piece of s**t boss come tomorrow and after Ash's dumb stunt I'd probably spend tomorrow's shift cleaning c*m off the chairs next to the stage and waiting on the groping perves that insisted on sitting front and center. 

Good thing I now needed to claw my way through the crowd around the bar to get 25 f*****g shots, I could burn off a little steam before I made it back upstairs and had to be the perfect bubbly server again. 

Being small had its advantages, I dipped and ducked my way through the crowd without much of a fight and before long I had made it to the drink well and was face to face with Flynn's megawatt smile. Flynn was Cameo's long standing bartender and was probably the only guy that worked here that wasn't a completely pervy jerk. We'd had a few less than innocent encounters since I started here but it was just for fun and wasn't headed anywhere serious. The boy was a looker and a damn good kisser though and I'd make out with him on break any time he'd like. The added bonus of our occasional makeout sessions was I pretty much never had to wait for my drink orders. Flynn was already feverishly filling a tray with the shots for my section. He was a Flair bartender and an incredible show off so making this many shots came with a lot of bottle flipping and spinning and the crowd was oohing and aahing away with each trick. 

I was perched at the drink well laughing at him as he shot me winks and smirks between tricks, acting like this whole show was being put on just for me. Man the boy was a shameless flirt. 

His little enthusiastic display had managed to melt the hostility I had been feeling off and I was ready to get back to work. I hoisted the tray of drinks up over my head and turned to face the crowd, thankfully drunks have more respect for alcohol than they do for tiny humans so this time they parted like the sea and let me pass effortlessly. When I made it to the top of the stair my section erupted into cheers, the table that was celebrating a 21st birthday was completely plastered and was hooting and hollering like I'd just scored the game winning touchdown. I quickly dispersed the drinks and intentionally kept Ash's for last.

I held the very last shot glass out to him and just before he could take it from me I turned back to face the crowd and raised it high above my head. "To s**t jobs, asshole bosses, and chauvinistic men who wrongly think it's their job to save the world" I toasted loudly before tossing back the drink and slamming the glass down on the table. 

All 5 of the men stared at me in disbelief, Ash's disbelief mixed with a coy smirk and a small hint of hurt in his eyes. I turned to walk away and Ash grabbed my hand to stop me, the second his skin touched mine it was like there was fireworks erupting between us. Seriously, what was it with this boy. I returned his smirk to let him know my toast was meant as light hearted fun and that I wasn't actually harboring ill feelings towards him. 

"Let me take you out and make it up to you" he blurted out. The whole area fell quiet with anticipation since everyone's attention had still been on us from the toast I'd just made. 

"Girrrl, if you don't go out with that fine ass man I will." A male voice hollered from one of the other tables and we all erupted with laughter. 

"Fine, I guess." I breathed out between hysterical laughs and Ash's face found a devilish smirk that made me wonder exactly what he was thinking. 

The rest of the night happened quickly, Ash's grand gesture actually set off a chain of the various men in my section buying a round of shots for everyone and my ass got to run up and down the stairs retrieving them. I missed my converse- the stairs in these pumps was no joke. Ash and I exchanged numbers, he wrote his on my hand in sharpie like we were in highschool since I had to leave my phone in my locker while working, and we agreed to meet for coffee on Monday.

Finally, the night had come to an end and I was sitting on the bench in front of my locker half changed into my sweats, resting my insanely sore feet, and counting my tips. A good night in the VIP section usually brought in $100 per table give or take, but tonight the stack of money I held vastly surpassed $500 and I was counting it for the third time in disbelief. $2000. I had cleaned up in a hurry so I hadn't paid much attention to the giant stack of bills on the table of the gods, I assumed it was a stack of $1s because that happened all the time in the strip club, turns out it was a stack of $50s. I was seriously going to have to chat with this guy about throwing his money around like he was made of gold or something, and I certainly needed to get through to him that I didn't need him using his money to "save" me or whatever he was trying to pull. However, pair his more than generous tip with the constant stream of heavy tips that came with each round of shots and I had literally had the best night of work ever. Will was gonna cry when I told her we could get any food she wanted this week. 

I quickly gathered the rest of my things and got out of there like a bat out of hell. I couldn't wait to get home and shower off the night and pass the f**k out, hopefully Will was asleep when I got home so I could save the story that was tonight for tomorrow. 

I tiptoed through the door of our apartment to find Willow perched on the couch under a mountain of blankets shoveling popcorn into her mouth, deeply enthralled with whatever cheesy romcom she had running on the TV. This was Willow in her natural habitat and I was only mildly surprised to see her still in it at 3 am. She didn't have to work tomorrow so she was apparently taking full advantage of not having to wake up at 4 am by staying up until 4 am instead. This girls sleep schedule was a joke and she wondered why she was some permanently exhausted pigeon that ran on four shots of espresso daily. 

I flopped over the back of the couch, half landing on her, bringing my hand to my forehead to feign feeling faint and sighed loudly. She groaned and shoved me off her, my ass landing on the hard wooden floor with a thud. We both burst into hysterical laughter, this was a pretty normal interaction between the two of us. 

Before I realized what was happening she grabbed the hand where Ash had sprawled his phone number and brought it to her face, seemingly unbothered by the fact it was still very attached to my body, that was still on the floor.

"Is this a phone number? A man's phone number? Did you get a man's phone number at work?" She excitedly interrogated, her voice elevating further with each question. "Tell me everything right now woman!" She shouted down into my face. 

As much as I wanted to shower away the night I knew I wasn't getting away with not telling her every last detail immediately so I hoisted myself up from the floor and joined her in her nest on the couch. I sat and gushed over every detail from the magnificent way he smelled and his stormy blue eyes that peered into my soul to the way just the sight of him made my heart quicken and my knees weaken. I told her about him trying to buy Sal off my back and how he asked me on a date, that I surprisingly couldn't wait to go on. 

"You're literally living in a romcom" she squealed, guestering wildly at the TV in front of us. "This stuff doesn't just happen to normal people. Love at first sight isn't supposed to be REAL" she added emphatically. 

"WOAH WOAH, no one said anything about love. We're just getting coffee." I retorted. 

"Say what you will, but that man sounds like he's already head over heels for you" she added definitively, letting me know she wouldn't be entertaining my argument on the matter. 

"I forgot the best part" I squealed, reaching into my pocket where I'd tucked the massive wad of tip money. I handed it to her without saying anything else. She counted it quietly to herself as her eyes got wider with each additional bill.

"Who'd you blow to get this?" She puzzled in disbelief. "You left out that part of the story" she added with a devilish smirk. 

I shoved her playfully and snatched the wad of money back from her. I walked to the kitchen with it and split it half into the rent envelope and half into the groceries envelope, minus $100 bucks for gas and getting my nails done. I wasn't a girly girl that required a ton of primping, but keeping up appearances was definitely part of the job and part I actually enjoyed. 

"There, rents covered this month and we can actually put some real grocery in the house for a change" I chimed gleefully. While I didn't want Ash's money, it was a relief that this month would be much less of a struggle than most were. 

"I think I'll have phone bills and utilities covered by the end of next week" she retorted. "Does that mean we'll actually have some fun money this month?" She pondered in disbelief, not really looking for an answer from me.

"Imma go catch a shower and get some sleep, you should maybe consider that sleep bit here soon too." I yelled as I putzed up the stairs.