The Rebel - Raleigh Ruebins Page 0,99
that comes through these doors. I reminded a customer that it was her mother’s birthday the other day. A huge place like Cobalt couldn’t do that even if they tried.”
He tipped his head to one side. “Well, nowhere else could be just like Brew for You, that’s for sure.”
Brew for You was a coffee bar by day, a beer bar by night, and always my pride and joy. I had opened the bar two years ago and had been pouring my heart and soul into it ever since. We certainly weren’t the most popular place in the whole town, but I had been happy with our growth. We weren’t in the busy downtown Rose Falls Promenade where rent was highest, but I liked the sleepy little side street we occupied. It was just us, Rose’s Mini-Mart, a couple takeout restaurants, and not much else. We had our fair share of locals and regular customers, and that was all I needed.
And then a few months back, construction on Cobalt began. Gossip started to spread about the new bar that was set to take Rose Falls by storm. It was supposed to be hip, trendy, and big—everything my little café wasn’t.
I had been trying my best to ignore the existence of the new bar, to pretend it wasn’t there, to put it completely out of my mind. But last week, my only night waitress, Alexis, had quit to go work at Cobalt instead. And today I had hoped that people would have the decency to stay quiet about the opening. But when the second—and then the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth customer came strolling through my door that day talking about Cobalt, I gave up.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about Cobalt, though,” Dennis said. “Guy who owns it is supposed to be a stickler for making sure his employees are friendly as can be. Has a long training program for all the bartenders, all that stuff. I read about him in the paper this morning.”
“Must have missed that article,” I said.
Dennis laughed, the wrinkles around his eyes bunching up. “You’ve got a good attitude, Patrick, and don’t let anyone tell you different. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“See you then, Dennis.”
He nodded and headed out the front door. I turned to the back of the bar, watching as Emmett cleaned up, restocking cups and lids. Emmett had become a much better and happier employee ever since he started pursuing his own hobbies more outside of work—I knew I could count on him, not only as a worker but as a friend.
“So, Patrick,” he said, eyeing me with a mischievous grin on his face, “have you heard of this new bar called Cobalt opening tonight down the street? I hear they have really great cocktails….”
“Oh, come on,” I said, leaning against the back counter next to him. “The way people are talking about it, you’d think Cobalt was just a big iron wrecking ball set to destroy Brew for You the second someone flips a switch. Do they have no confidence in my ability to run my bar?”
Emmett leaned over the front counter, looking out the big front windows. “Well,” he said, squinting as he looked out, “have you… seen what’s going on out there?”
I sighed, crossing over to the front of the room and glancing out. There was a sizeable line of people outside already, waiting for the new bar to open. It was half past four o’clock, and Cobalt wasn’t even opening its doors until five.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” I said, waving a hand as I came back around the counter. “Any time there’s somewhere new to go in Rose Falls, people go nuts. I’m sure the hype will die down in no time. A place like Cobalt belongs in the city, not in our small town.”
I wasn’t even sure if I believed what I was saying. It was probably more like wishful thinking. I needed Brew for You to do well. I had poured all of my savings into it, accepted a sizable loan from my parents, and quit a better-paying job to open this bar.
Everyone had told me I was crazy. My parents still acted as if Brew for You was some wacky experiment or phase I was going through—they didn’t see it as a legitimate career and investment, and for the first time in my life, I could feel them judging me for every decision I made. I had to prove Brew for You could do well, if not for