CHAPTER 7
S he had gotten the job. Well, sort of. Her old boss had been called and asked to act as a reference, and he’d texted her to let her know that he had given her a good one. Then, Candace had called and asked if she could come in tonight on a probationary basis. Logan would need to demonstrate her ability to make a few drinks, serve them, and be polite to guests, and should that go well, she would officially get the job. She knew how to bartend, so that wouldn’t be a problem, and she could turn on the charm when she needed it. Hopefully, that would lead to some good tips, but until then, she’d keep up the Lyft driving whenever she had the time to supplement the income from the bar. If it turned out that the bar didn’t pay enough or otherwise didn’t work out, she would quit and find something else.
At thirty years old, Logan was so far behind where she once thought she would be. Planning to follow in her father’s footsteps and take over his electrical, plumbing, heating, and air business from him after she got all of her certifications and several years under her belt, she had instead managed to bankrupt it and put it out of business. Her father had had to return to his job as a master plumber for another company. He made good money, but because she’d gambled his business and life savings away, he’d be working well past retirement age, and he still had her debts to pay off until she could get the money to pay him back herself, which she was working on. At this rate, it would take her the rest of her life, but she was determined to try to make up for everything she had done to her family over the years as a result of her addiction.
Logan hadn’t thought to ask about any kind of dress code for the bar, but it had seemed pretty casual the other night, so she went with what she would normally wear and left the apartment. Opening and closing the door slowly so as to not make any noise, she made it out to her car without her neighbor asking her if this could be their next time. Then, she drove to the bar, arriving about five minutes early, but she still had to find parking. Thankfully, a car was pulling out about a block away, so Logan took that spot and walked quickly, not wanting to be late on her first probationary day at her new job. When her hookup app pinged with a notification, she checked her phone and saw that she had a message request. She’d have to deal with that later as she was pulling open the door to the bar now, which was probably closed because the bar wasn’t open yet.
“Hey,” Candace greeted her while she placed salt and pepper shakers on a table.
“Hi,” Logan said.
“We have a back door for employees that you can use, if you want. Not a requirement; just letting you know that it’s there. Parking around here isn’t great, but there are about ten spots behind the bar that all the businesses on this street use. If you get here early enough, you can park back there. Basically, most of the businesses on this street close up shop around five, and people start going home around six, so if you manage to get here around then, you might get lucky.”
“Cool. Thanks,” Logan replied. “What would you like me to do first?”
“Tonight, I’ll pay you by the hour, cash in hand, and you can keep any of your tips, obviously. If it works out, I’ll get you a time card, and we’ll put the paperwork in. It’s Saturday night, so it might get busy.”
“I’ve worked in the Quarter, so I’m good with busy,” she said.
She didn’t mention that she needed to be busy because it helped her avoid the need that was with her twenty-four-seven.
“Great. We open in thirty minutes, so let’s see how you make a few drinks first. I’ll just have you walk me through it, though, so that we don’t waste the booze for now. Most of the customers I hope to attract here will be beer people, so nothing too fancy, but how are your mixology skills?”
“Not bad,” Logan replied. “I’m not a mixologist or anything – that’s a skill – but I can put a decent drink together, I think.”
“Okay. Let’s get you behind the bar, then,” Candace said and motioned for Logan to follow her.
They spent the next ten minutes going over where things were behind the bar and reviewing the computer system for orders. Logan was familiar with it, so that didn’t take long, and soon, Candace was testing her bartending skills by putting in drink requests. At first, Logan talked her through how she would make a certain drink, locating the ingredients as Candace watched over her, and then, Candace asked her to actually make a couple of drinks, too. The woman nodded after tasting both, so Logan assumed that was a good thing.
After going over a few more logistics, Candace walked Logan into the back, where there was a small kitchen and an even smaller office, and she introduced her to Mickey, the cook who would only be there on the busier nights of the week. Logan would need to learn how to make some of the food items on any day he wasn’t there, but that wouldn’t be too hard because they only had six fairly standard things on the menu, and while some of them were made fresh, others were frozen and easily reheated.
Finally, the door was opened, and Logan was behind the bar, waiting for her first customer and silently hoping that this worked out. She needed this to work out. Not only was it extra money coming in, but it was something to do other than driving. She would be off at one in the morning, which still gave her time to make a few Lyft runs before she would need to get some sleep, and that was her plan until she knew how much, on average, she would be able to pull in here.
The first customer walked in a few minutes later, and he sat in a booth in the corner. Logan wasn’t busy yet, so she walked over to him and asked him what he would like. As expected, he ordered a beer, and she brought it out for him. The man sat there, looking around the bar, while he sipped his beer. He didn’t pull out a phone or seem like he was waiting for someone, so Logan figured he might want to strike up a conversation with the bartender.
If he had, though, wouldn’t he have sat at the bar?
“Nice night, huh?” she asked loudly, testing the waters.
“Yeah,” he said and gave her a small smile. “I like this time of year. Not too hot yet.”
“Exactly,” she said. “Thank God for air conditioning, right?”
The man let out a deep chuckle in response, and two more customers walked in. They sat at a table and ordered beers, so she brought it out to them, and when she returned to the bar, she noticed another person sitting at a table. It was Rory from the previous night, sitting there with books that didn’t look like light reading, from what Logan could tell, and she was wearing a sundress. This woman was wearing a sundress in a local New Orleans pub, with a stack of books in front of her. She looked so out of place that it was actually pretty adorable.
“Hey,” Logan said to her.
“Oh. Hi,” Rory replied, looking up at Logan and then quickly back down to her book.
“Logan,” she said.
“I remember,” Rory replied and looked back up.
“It’s Rory, right?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“Aurora,” Logan recalled.
Rory shook her head at that, and it was cute, so Logan laughed.
“Don’t call her Aurora. She gets mad,” Candace noted as she walked into the room from the back. “Hey,” she said to Rory.
“Hi. I’ll just sit here in case you need me,” Rory spoke.
“Thank you,” Candace replied with a smile. “Keith will be here later, too, so I think you can probably just hang out tonight if you want.”
“Where is he now?”
“Sleeping. He’s on that overnight schedule at work, so it’s great for a bar owner to have a boyfriend who’s used to being up in the middle of the night, but he didn’t get to sleep until after five. Neither did I, but I have no choice.”
“After five? Why?” Rory asked.
“Rory, he’s my boyfriend who lives hours away… I’m sure you can imagine why we’d be up late when I haven’t seen him in a few weeks.”
“Oh. Right,” Rory said.
When another customer walked in, Candace took care of them while Logan went to clean up the now-vacant table and pick up the cash, including a dollar tip left for her by the man she’d spoken with before. On her way back to the bar, though, Logan decided to stop by Rory’s table because she was curious.
“So, what are you studying?” she asked.
“Social work,” Rory replied.
“That’s cool.”
“Yeah,” Rory said and looked up at her.
“You and Candace have known each other for a while?”
“Since freshman year. We were roomed together in the dorms. She didn’t stay at school long after that because she decided to go to bartending school, but we remained close friends,” Rory explained. “Did you go to bartending school?”
“No,” Logan said with a small laugh. “Uh… I went to a trade school after high school. I was going to get my plumbing and electrical certifications. I got a few of them and put in the years to get a few more.”
“You’re a bartender, a plumber, and an electrician?” Rory asked.
“No. My dad owned a company. I was going to take it over one day when he retired. He’s a master plumber. I was going to work my way up.”
“Was?” Rory asked.
“Didn’t work out,” she said and shrugged a shoulder.
“Sorry,” Rory replied.
So was Logan, but she’d just met this woman, really, so she wasn’t going to reveal her whole life story or look like someone who needed pity because she’d seen that look on Ava’s face the other day after their little encounter, and it had about killed her.
“Can I ask about the dress?” Logan nodded toward it.
“Dress?” Rory asked, confused.
“Yeah. You’re wearing a dress in a bar, which isn’t uncommon, but it’s a nice dress and not really a going-out kind of dress; not one I’m used to seeing around here.”
“Oh,” Rory said with a cute laugh. “I’m a nanny, too. I had classes this morning and worked for one of my families in the evening. I didn’t have time to go home and change.”
“They make you wear a dress to babysit kids?”
“No. Simon, the eleven-year-old I’m helping with, he had a piano recital tonight. He started taking lessons about six months ago, so it was going to be pretty terrible, but I promised him I’d be there.”
“Got it,” Logan said. “And was it?”
“Terrible? Oh, yeah,” Rory replied as she laughed some more. “He forgot about half the song he was supposed to be playing and made the rest of it up. The only entertaining part was when his older sister, who was sitting next to me, started rolling her eyes at him and making comments under her breath about how she was so much further along on the piano when she was his age. They’re ten months apart.”
Logan laughed a little, and she wasn’t sure when she’d last genuinely laughed. She only turned her head when she heard another customer come in.
“I have to…” She hooked her thumb toward them.
“Yeah, of course,” Rory said, understanding.
Logan returned to her spot behind the bar, but she continued to look Rory’s direction every so often, checking to see if she was still there, mostly, but also because Logan was a little intrigued by her, if she was being honest.
The bar got busy, but not by the Quarter’s standards, so she was able to handle it pretty easily. Then, midnight came around, and a woman walked in. She sat at the bar and ordered a martini, which was Logan’s first of the night. Logan placed it in front of her and went back to work, but the customer called her over a few times, obviously flirting with her. Logan figured she would be getting off work soon, so if this woman was interested in something else, she could use the distraction before she started driving for a few hours.
When she turned to see that not only was Rory still there, but she was actually looking over at Logan, something about knowing that Rory was watching her had her thinking that she shouldn’t be flirting with this customer, and she wasn’t sure why. Rory wasn’t her boss, and Candace hadn’t said anything about not flirting with customers. So, around one in the morning, Logan asked the woman if she wanted to hang out after she got off work, and she said yes. Logan collected her tips for the night from Candace and was told that she had gotten the job and they’d fill out the paperwork tomorrow. With cash in her pocket and a woman ready to leave with her, Logan was good to go, but something had her turning to see that Rory was gone now.
“You ready?” she asked the customer.
“Yeah, let’s go,” the woman replied.
Logan knew this woman shouldn’t be driving just yet, so she walked them to her car, and within minutes, they were parked in a church parking lot, which she knew had to be at least ten sins. Still, she had a woman in her passenger’s seat now, and Logan had her hands inside her underwear, flicking her clit back and forth, trying to make the most out of the angles and location as possible. The woman was taking forever to come, though, and Logan’s fingers were getting tired.
“Back seat,” Logan instructed. “Let me fuck you.”
“Yes,” the woman replied and climbed into the back unceremoniously.
Logan followed her and moved on top of her before her fingers returned to where they’d been, and she lowered them, sliding inside and pushing in deep. A few minutes later, the woman was coming beneath her, and Logan was ready to go home and get some sleep instead of picking up any rides for the night.
“God, you’re good at that,” the woman told her as she came down.
“Thanks,” Logan replied.
“I’m glad you picked up on what I wanted tonight.”
“Do you always go into bars and hit on the bartenders?”
“Only the hot ones I want to fuck me, and only a few times,” the woman replied. “Normally, I flirt with other customers.” She smirked up at Logan. “I’d offer to take you back to my place, but my husband is there.” When Logan quirked an eyebrow, the woman asked, “Do you honestly care?”
“No,” Logan replied.
“ Your place?”
“No,” she repeated.
“Here again?” the woman asked, lifting up her skirt to make it clear what she wanted.
“Not tonight,” Logan said. “I need to go.”
“Okay. Can’t blame me for asking.”
Minutes later, Logan dropped the woman off back at the bar, where she watched her get into her own car. Then, she drove home and showered the night off her body. As she was falling asleep, she wasn’t thinking about the woman she had just fucked in the back seat of her car but of the one sitting alone at a table in a bar, wearing a white-and-yellow sundress, and how she had looked at her almost sadly when Logan had been flirting with the woman she’d just dropped off.