Harlem's POV
"Har?" I looked up at Gio while wiping a glass.
"Yeah?" I answered turning to see Gio looking at me sheepishly. Uh Oh.
"I'm going to need you at the VIP section to waiter." he winces. Seriously? "I know, I'm sorry. You're the bartender and I really shouldn't be making you do the waitress work but Layla and Karmen are not very experienced in dealing with important guests"
"It's fine Gio, you don't need to explain. What am I here for?" Calmly smiling, I rounded the bar table and stood in front of him, collected the order he took from them and scanned it. 2 bottles of Whiskey and Brandy. Wow, guess our VIPs are here to get wasted.
"I know, but I just feel guilty when I ask you for this" Gio said, rubbing his neck.
"Really Gio, its fine." I say going to get the drinks and glasses. I understand what he means, he wants the VIPs to enjoy the best service from his best employees, me of course, and while Layla and Karmen are dolls, they're not the best at customer service. Smiling, Gio takes my space behind the bar and gets to work while I carry the tray with enough alcohol to get a bear drunk.
Walking to the VIP Section, Lexi; my bestie influencer, who just got back from the US was calling. We met at an important event where she was the invited content creator and The Beatdown Bar was supplying the drinks; we hit it right off at Whiskey on the rocks. I have never been alone again since then.
She went away like two weeks ago and she's supposed to be back today, she has a spare key to my apartment which is probably why she's calling. She was supposed to stop by at my apartment before going to hers to hang out but I had to take this shift to add up for rent.
"Sweetheart, I'm literally at your apartment right now but all I see is Bimmy. You're not here." I hear Lexis smooth voice over the phone. I'm not supposed to be using my phone on shifts but I knew she would probably call and fuck it, Gio literally owes me.
"I know. I just realized I need to catch some more shifts to cover the rent." I say while adjusting the phone to my other ear and trying to balance the tray. The VIP section was at the far end of the bar so I couldn't see the said VIPs yet. "Really? Damn. So, when can we meet?"
"Probably tomorrow love because it's not looking good today, and as a matter of fact, I will make it up to you by coming over instead."
Lexi sighs. "Fine, make sure to come with sleepover shit though, I'll think about forgiving you if you do."
I smile "Of course Lex".
I told her bye and arrived at the VIP section which was shielded by a black door-like screen from the rest of the bar, it was empty except for where about three women and three men sat.
I walked closer to the table to see about two of the men and two women bent over the table with some white powder sticking to their noses. I squinted my eyes just a bit to understand the situation all while balancing 500ml of alcohol and shocked would have been an understatement to what I was feeling. You have to be kidding me...they're doing coke?!! In this bar??
Fuck. These guys are trouble. Okay, I have to calm down, obviously they think this is some 5 star cocktail bar where the bar covers up their crime filled footprints because they threw thousands of pounds at them. I beg to differ. We actually have values at this bar.
I walk up to them, give them a smile I hope looks real. I distribute glasses and pour half of whiskey and brandy into different glasses. They barely acknowledge my presence, the women are so scantily dressed and the men are obviously so high of their rockers. There's one woman in the middle sitting beside an empty space, who is hard to dismiss with blonde highlighted long hair, blue eyes, an obvious boob job, a spaghetti strap red bodycon dress, a scowl on her face and eyes of malice sitting quietly and folding her arms. She's looking at the guy going at it with a scowl like she couldn't be bothered if he suffocates on it. Probably.
Her eyes keep darting towards the VIP bathroom, she's beautiful, if only I could have said the same about her future personality. You see, I'm a great judge of character and I can tell none of these people here care if children and women die if they have to choose between a 24karat gold wristwatch and feeding displaced people. They look like trouble and I'm about to find out.
Straightening up, I drop the whole bottle, since they paid for it, and clear my throat, loudly. They all stop what they're doing and look up at me. One of the guys start laughing like I said something funny, Lord help me, these people are so high.
"I'm sorry to interrupt you're fun time but unfortunately I'm going to have to interrupt. We have a strict "no drugs "policy at this bar, as written at every corner, if you cared to look. And its a very strict one because we have officers of the law who come to this bar, we wouldn't want them to think we condone this kind of behaviour. So please, I kindly ask you all to refrain from activities." I had the fakest smile on my face right now, it hurt.
They all look at me like I just spoke Mandarin. Great, I hope they understand English? Because I'm not great at German.
Someone scoffed. I looked to see who it was and unsurprisingly it was little miss boob j- I mean blondie. "Who are you to tell us what we can and can't do? We paid for the VIP section, shouldn't we get VIP treatment?" she said in a sickly high pitched voice. Wow, this one had a mouth on her.
"I deeply apologize but doing drugs was definitely not part of the agreement. We don't and won't, under any circumstances, condone such at this bar." God, why did these people have to choose this bar out of all the other14 we have in this town. I guess I should be glad?
Miss blondie stood up and it seems like she's itching for a fight. No wait, I need to take a deep breath. Gio already has things rough enough as it seems, let me try to dissuade the situation as calmly as possible.
The other guys and girls eyes were bouncing from me to her like we were trying to start a high school fight in the hallway. Wonderful.
I smiled sweetly at her, but before I could even fathom the possibility of it even happening; she slapped me. Hard. And like that wasn't heartless enough she pushed me and I tripped and fell on my ass in front of all of them.
I looked up at her, my jaw on the floor; shocked to my bones. I held my cheek in my palm, not even my parents had ever hit me. The others had the humanity to snort and snicker, not that I could blame them, they'd probably not remember any of this tomorrow. Any moment now my cheek should start glowing bright due to my pale as hell skin.
Miss Blondie snorted "Aren't you just the help? What makes you think you can talk to us anyhow you like?" Miss blondie was seething.
Sighing, I stood up and dusted my ass, looked her in the eye and prayed to God up in heaven that this scene I was about to act would be very believable. I've decided I'm not going to put Gio through any more problems, he has enough already. I need to get my shit together even if I have to deflate my ego.
"I'm deeply sorry if I had offended you in any possible way, forgive me if I overstepped." I took a courteous bow to perfect the slave act and looked her in the eye again. She folded her arms at me with a subtle eye squint like she couldn't tell if I was just a very good actress or was telling the truth. Couldn't blame her; I was bursting at my internal seams.
She opened her mouth to say something again but abruptly stopped when she noticed something or someone behind me, God I really hope it's Ted. Maybe he heard the commotion and came to rescue me. I could literally cry at the possibility. He can literally haul everyone here out at once, not that it would do any good for the bar but at least I'll be temporarily satisfied. Downside is the assholes might decide to sue the bar and I'm not sure that's how I want this to end anyway.
I turn around and stare at the man wearing a baseball cap, a white tee, a jacket and matching jeans walking over. His eyes and some parts of his face were mostly concealed by the cap and I was trying really hard to care but I was just abused and I just couldn't find it in me to even care.
"What's going on?" I heard his deep voice. Little Miss Blondie literally shoved me as she strutted to the guy who kept looking at me. "Nothing baby, just the help causing some commotion, but I took care of it, the drinks are here though. You took a lot of time in the toilet, any problem?"
Great, now I'm being called an "It". I mean do I really give off "low life" so much? He basically ignores her existence, walked calmly to the table, swiped one of the complimentary nuts and a glass of whiskey like we're hosting a get together and turns to look at me again. "Are you-"
But before he could say something, like to ask me to dust his seat, I bowed the last time, and half-walked, half-ran out of there. I could literally feel the burn of their eyes on my back. But all in all, I swear this could have gone worse, I did my best though, right?
Well, to be on the safe side I'm going to ask Karmen to look out for this section and to avoid any run ins with police officers. Fuck this day for real.