9. Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Jesse
Tuesday nights at the club were notoriously slow, which was why I’d chosen today to start training our newest bartender. I had him come in early so we could run through a few of our signature drinks and make sure he knew what was expected of him. Then he would work with Shae, one of our more experienced employees this evening. If things went well, I would have him work the rest of the week with her and then put him on the schedule.
Victor was in the office reworking next month’s budget now that we’d agreed to add the second Daddy Night. I could tell he was resistant to the idea, but he’d agreed to give it a shot anyway based on how popular the original one had been.
“So you have bartending experience, but I want to make sure what you’ve learned lines up with how we do things here.”
“Sure thing, boss man,” Clay said with a grin. “Everyplace does things a little different so that makes sense to me.”
It was hard not to like the kid. He was personable and easy to get along with. I thought he was going to work out well. I was hoping to move him to our Daddy Nights because I thought the Daddies would eat him up, and that would mean good tips for him.
He’d come recommended by a friend of mine from Abilene. He’d been working at a country western bar there and was looking to move to Vesper to be near family, and his interview had been interesting.
He’d seemed nervous about something the whole time, but he’d had all the right answers to my questions, and he’d obviously done some research on the club before showing up.
He’d been aware of our themed nights and even mentioned that he’d worked a couple of drag shows back in Abilene at a local bar until the place closed because the owner retired.
Finally, when we’d finished up, I smiled and asked if he had any questions for me.
He ran his hand through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck. “Just one. Is it going to be a problem if I’m straight? I mean, I know it’s a gay club, so I didn’t know if that matters or not.”
“Do you have a problem with queer people?” I asked.
“No.” His brows furrowed, and he shook his head. “Not at all. My brother’s gay, and I was the best man at his wedding.”
“Is it going to bother you if the patrons flirt with you? Cause I gotta tell you, Clay, they’re going to. You’re a nice-looking guy. We do have a no-touching policy, so it shouldn’t go beyond flirting, though.”
He chuckled. “Tips are tips, man. I don’t care who they come from.”
“Then I don’t care about your sexual orientation. As long as you’re comfortable working here and can make a good drink, you’ll do fine.”
After that, he’d seemed to relax, and we’d chatted a bit before agreeing he would show up today for training.
“How’s it going?” Vic asked, stepping up beside my barstool.
“Good. Clay here was just about to make me some drinks.”
“Sounds like I’m just in time.” He took a seat next to me at the bar. “I was actually hungry and was thinking about ordering something for lunch. Do you two want anything?”
“Sure, but it’s my turn to buy,” I reminded him.
“It is, isn’t it? Maybe I should pick Enigma then,” he teased.
“They don’t even do take-out, you ass.” I turned to look at Clay. “Enigma is one of the fanciest restaurants here in Vesper. The kind of place you might take a girl on a first date if you really want to make an impression.”
“And if you want to spend your entire month’s paycheck,” Victor pointed out.
“Exactly, and that’s why if I’m treating you two to lunch, it’ll be from someplace much cheaper.”
“I was actually thinking the Dairy Barn or Farolitos,” Victor said.
Both of those choices were a far cry from the kind of food he ate when we first met, but over the years, I’d rubbed off on him, and he’d learned that some of the best food came from some of the much more down-to-earth places. “Mexican sounds good to me. How about you, Clay?”
“Mexican works. I love me some enchiladas.”
Victor tapped the bar. “Okay, you give me your card, and I’ll place the order. What kind of enchiladas do you like, Clay?”
“I like them all. Surprise me,” Clay said.
I handed him my card, and he got up to leave, but I called after him. “I thought you were going to test these drinks with me.”
“Nah, that’s your department. I’ll be back with the food in a bit.”
“You didn’t tell him what you wanted,” Clay said after Victor had left.
“I don’t have to. We order from there a lot, so he knows what I get.”
“Are you two—”
“A couple? No, not at all. We’re friends and business partners, but more than that, he’s like a brother to me.”
If I had a dollar for every time someone assumed Victor and I were more than just business partners, I could buy him out of the club. But it had never been like that between us. Even when we were still a couple of young fools figuring out who we were and what we wanted, we were aware that the two of us didn’t work as a couple. We both liked control too much. Victor landed more on the Dom side of things, while I’d gravitated more in the caretaker direction, but we both felt that we needed to be in charge.
“Now, while he goes after our lunch, why don’t you make me a couple drinks? We’ll start out easy. How about a lemon drop and a mojito?”
By the time Victor got back with our food, we’d tested most of the drinks our patrons ordered. I’d only had a small sip of each because getting smashed in the middle of the day wasn’t exactly a good look, but Clay was good, and I wouldn’t have minded drinking all of a couple of them.
“Okay, guys. Take a break. Food’s here.” Vic walked in carrying our food.
“How about if I turn on a game while we eat?” I asked. I wasn’t a big soccer fan, but Vic loved it, so I figured since he picked up lunch, letting him watch a game was the least I could do.
I grabbed the remote and started flipping through the channels, looking for a game, when I landed on the local news channel and saw that they were covering a fire over on Pine Street.
“Damn, that’s the old comic book shop.” I shook my head. “They’ve been closed for years. Back when I was a kid, we used to go there after school and pretend we had money to buy stuff.”
“Is that Andy’s crew?” Vic asked, setting down our food at a table and walking back over to the bar.
“I don’t know. They haven’t shown the firetrucks yet, just the building.”
“Who’s Andy?” Clay asked Victor.
“My brother. He’s a firefighter here in Vesper.”
“Oh, that’s cool,” Clay said, genuine admiration in his voice.
“I guess,” Victor grumbled, keeping his eyes glued to the screen.
The reporter was going on and on about how the building sat between two other local businesses and that the firefighters were trying to get it under control before it spread.
I didn’t know much about fires and how they worked, but I did know that part of town. It had once been a busy area with lots of small shops and stores. Most of them, like the old comic book store, had been put out of business by newer and bigger strip malls and shopping centers. The ones that remained were barely getting by, and I hated to see something like a fire be the end of their fight to survive.
“Looks like something’s going on here,” the reporter said. “This is an abandoned building, but for some reason, the chief seems to be sending more men in. I hope everyone is okay inside there.” The camera panned to the left to show two firefighters rushing into the burning shop, and I could just make out the truck number in the distance.
“It says one-thirteen on the truck, so that isn’t Andy’s, right? Cause he’s at Station Sixty-nine.”
“No, that’s him. He’s at Station Sixty-nine, but the truck number is one-thirteen. Dammit. I hope he’s okay in there.”
We all sat there, riveted to the screen, watching and hoping everyone would come out. The news reporter kept blabbering on about nonsense to fill the air space while we all held our breath. A minute or so later, a group of firefighters came out of the building carrying what looked like gas tanks of some kind.
Victor huffed out a long breath of air before pointing at the screen. “There he is, right there.”
“What were those gas tanks doing in there?” I asked.
Victor shrugged. “The place was abandoned. Maybe the previous owner left them.”
“Like I said, it was a comic book store. There’s no reason he would have those in there at all, much less… how many were there… three maybe? And they were big ones.”
“I don’t know. All I know is that kid is gonna be the death of me.”
“He’ll be fine, Vic. He knows what he’s doing.”
“Does he, though? He could start that party planning business he used to talk about, or whatever. There’s no reason for him to be sticking his neck out all the time.”
“I hear you, Victor, but you have to let him find his own way.”
“Yeah, well, this way is gonna get him killed. See that right there?” I looked back up at the screen to see the firefighters all working together to put out the fire. The good news was it looked like they were winning this one now. “That right there is why I need this vacation.”
Andy
After I got off shift on Tuesday, I came home and crashed hard. I hadn’t slept as well as normal at the station after the fire in the old comic book store. Who knows why? Maybe because an arsonist tried to blow us all to kingdom come.
It wasn’t just me. Sleep hadn’t been easy for any of us, so we’d sat around most of the night theorizing about what the guy’s deal was. Not that any of us actually knew. The truth was, unless they caught him, we might never know.
Seph woke me up around two that afternoon wanting to play, which was a good thing because I was meeting the guys at The Spotted Dog for dinner, and I had chores to do.
I spent the afternoon getting the yard done and playing with Seph before I came in and took a shower so I could meet the guys at The Dog.
It was one of my favorite places to go in town. The bar and grill was owned by a retired firefighter and was a popular spot for first responders to hang out. Most everyone could be found hanging out there on the weekends, but after the day we’d had yesterday, we all decided a drink was in order.
I pulled up and actually got a parking spot right in front of the building for once and went inside. Ford, Kevin, Ronda, and Chief Sheridan were already there sitting at a table.
“Hey, guys,” I said to the other three, then nodded at Chief Sheridan. “Chief.”
“We’re not at work, Andy. You can call me Sam.”
“Sure thing, Chief,” I said, and everyone laughed. “Are Robert and Jeremiah coming?” I’d noticed that they’d gotten a table that was large enough for everyone, so I assumed they were.
“I know Robert is, and Jeremiah said he might. He’s still not sure about his spot at the Sixty-nine, so I think he’s unsure about getting too close.”
“Well, he can just stop worrying,” Sam said. “Mario put in his retirement papers, and I’ve already requested his permanent assignment to the Sixty-nine. If he wants it.”
“Do y’all know what you’re ordering? Or are you still waiting on people?” our server, Don, interrupted.
“We’re still waiting, but let’s get started with an order of the loaded nachos for the table while we wait. And also bring us a pitcher of beer,” Ronda said.
“Sure thing, I’ll put in the nachos and be right back with the beer.”
A few minutes later, Robert and Keith joined us. “Hey, everyone, look who I found sitting around his house moping while my son was up at the library for a meeting of some kind.”
“I was not moping.” Keith hip-checked Robert out of his way and took the chair he’d been about to sit in. “I was perfectly fine at home with my dog. You’re the one who was moping because Del is out of town this week.”
Once both men were seated, Don came back with a pitcher of beer and a stack of glasses.
“Is this all of you?” Don asked.
“No, we’re expecting one more, but we aren’t sure. Maybe we should go ahead and order?” Ford reached for the pitcher and poured himself a beer.
“Or we could wait for Jeremiah since he just walked in the door,” I said, waving at Jeremiah so he would see where we were sitting.
“Okay, I’ll go check on your nachos and give you a minute to figure out your order.” Don turned and walked away.
“Hey, Don,” the chief called after him. “Can you bring us a second pitcher of beer when you come back? We have some celebrating to do.”
He looked at us back over his shoulder. “Sure thing.”
“Here, have a seat,” Robert said when Jeremiah approached the table. “We weren’t sure you were going to make it.”
The chief clapped him on the back. “But since you’re here, pour yourself a drink. I have some news for you.”
“For me?” Jeremiah asked.
“Yes, we have a spot on B shift for you if you want it.”
“Another temporary assignment?” he asked.
“No, this is a permanent position, assuming that’s still what you want.”
A smile spread across Jeremiah’s face. “It is, thank you.”
Don set another pitcher of beer on the table and slid a large platter of nachos in the middle. The chief picked up the new pitcher and poured himself a beer.
“Good, so as I said, we have a lot to celebrate. Andy here managed to divert a disaster by finding those propane tanks before they exploded, and now we have a new member of the Sixty-nine.”
“Sixty-nine!” we all said and clunked our glasses together.
“I don’t want to interrupt your celebration, but are you all ready to order?”
We all placed our orders, and he promised to keep our beer pitchers full. We talked a bit about B shift, letting Jeremiah know what he had to look forward to. He took quite a bit of ribbing about joining the B team instead of the A team. But it was obvious he was thrilled with the news.
Eventually, our conversation turned to the fire we’d fought the day before.
“I can’t help but wonder where he will strike next. I mean, how many abandoned buildings are there in Vesper?” I hadn’t been here long, but so far, from what I’d seen, most of the town was filled with new shopping centers and the like.
“Too many,” Kevin said. “As the town moved south, a lot of the older businesses were forced to either close or to move that direction.”
About the same time, our food arrived, and Don placed a plate of wings in front of me. A lot of people came to The Spotted Dog because the owner was a former firefighter, but I came for this right here. I quickly grabbed a couple of wings before the other guys could snatch them.
“I don’t understand what the guy’s hoping to achieve,” Ronda said.
Don looked up from the plate he was putting in front of Keith. “How do you know the arsonist is a guy? I mean, I assume that’s who you meant. It’s all anybody’s talking about after that fire yesterday.”
The chief cleared his throat. “Statistically, most arsonists are men, but you’re right. We don’t know for sure that this one is.”
“Still, man or woman, y’all must be scared when you get a call out now.”
“Pfft,” Ford scoffed. “We aren’t scared. Fighting fires is our thing.”
“Yeah, but the news said if Andy here”—he pointed at me—“hadn’t found those canisters, you could’ve all died.”
“True.” Ford nodded. “But he did find them because that’s what we do.”
“Right, well, good job, Andy,” Don said as he put the chief’s plate down in front of him.
“You look familiar, Don. Did you go to school with my son, Steven?”
“I did, actually. We graduated the same year. I haven’t seen him in ages, though.”
“I hear you, I haven’t either. He’s always working. When I see him, I’ll tell him you said hi.”
“Yeah, you do that,” Don said.
We dug into our food and finished off our pitchers of beer. Don stayed true to his word and kept them coming, so we never ran out.
Eventually, Keith and Robert stood up. “We need to get going. Del and Caleb will both be home by now.”
“I need to get going, too,” the chief said. “But seriously, we have a lot to be thankful for, and I’m proud to be part of this team.”
We all raised our glasses one more time. “To the Sixty-nine,” Robert said, same as earlier.
“To the Sixty-nine,” we all repeated back as we all downed the last of our beer.