fired.”
His eyes narrow at my attack on his scheduler, who I know is him. It’s always him. He likes being a hands-on kind of owner, and while that’s not a bad thing, he’s slipping if he thinks these two are up to the job of the main bar.
“Maya is on her break. They’ll be fine once she gets back,” he says defensively, and I know I’ve struck a nerve.
“Then I’ll take over until she comes back from her break. I’ll come to see you in the office then,” I call back as I stride away toward the bar.
I know he hates that I just basically dismissed him, but what he hates even more is the idea that his bar isn’t being manned properly. I can fix that, at least. Everything else between us tonight will go to hell pretty quickly once I step into his office, but at least I can get his main source of income here straightened out in the meantime.
As I come around the corner of the bar, I flash a blond in my way a smile and announce, “Ladies and gentlemen, what are we all drinking?”
They all call out drinks and I laugh that no one got the joke. Okay, I guess it was an inside thing. Cici and Cam look at me like they aren’t sure if I’m there to help or cause a hassle, so I call them in toward me.
“Cici, take the end of the bar down there. Don’t get flustered. Just do one drink at a time, and do it as fast as you can. Cam, you do the middle third, and I’ll do this end down here. Don’t worry about how many people there are. They all want drinks, so they’ll wait a minute. Just don’t make them wait two. Okay, let’s go!”
They scurry away to where I’ve told them to go, and I turn to see the pretty blond giving me the eye. “What can I do for you tonight, beautiful?” I ask and get a sexy smile in return.
“Moscow mule. I’m Kirsten. What’s your name? Superman come to save the day?” she yells over the crowd cheering about something a few feet away.
I toss her a smile and nod as I begin to pour her drink. “Feel free to call me Superman. Give me a few seconds and I’ll have you taken care of.”
“Are you the man in charge?” she asks, and I shake my head.
“Not me. I’m just some off-the-street guy come to do a little bartending. The guy in charge is wearing the black suit and green tie and looks like he doesn’t know what a good time is,” I say, leaning over to place her drink in front of her.
She slides me a twenty and a piece of paper before flashing me another smile. “Well, Superman, keep the change and give me a call sometime. I’d love to see what kind of other superhero feats you can perform.”
I could explain to her that I’ve got someone, even though I’m not sure that’s the God’s honest truth about what Hailey and I are doing, but what’s the point? This is a bar, the blonde wants to flirt, and I’m a bartender whose job is to make customers happy. So I smile and give her wink.
“Time for me to go save more citizens of Metropolis.”
With that, I make my way to the cash register and give the mighty Stefan March his take and pocket the ten I made with just a smile and a little sweet talk. It’s too bad I hate doing this job. It’s not hard and I could probably haul away half a grand tonight, if my father hadn’t scheduled Maya too. Why does he insist on having me come in if he doesn’t need me?
Well, he needs me, but that would mean sending poor Cici and Cam home. But my father has other plans for me, I’m sure.
Twenty minutes later, my third of the bar has more people than the rest of it because my two co-workers took my pep talk and disregarded every word. I’m halfway to what I might have made all night because of them, so I guess I can’t be too disgusted with how bad they are at this job.
I’m not the one who’s in charge of who works and who gets fired here, but if I was, they’d both be gone.
“Stefan Junior,” a voice says behind me, and I turn to see Maya back from her break.
She knows I