Chapter Two #3
Virginia, seemingly ignoring her, hobbled around the bar to sit next to Caroline.
The two began talking, finally giving Aspen the excuse to check the beer levels in the cooler.
She made her way by the two cooks, who were in a heated discussion about oil temperature, to the walk-in.
Aspen pulled open the heavy insulated door and quickly closed herself inside.
Once it was just her and a bunch of chilling kegs, Aspen let out a long, exasperated groan.
Virginia had struck a nerve she had been trying to protect for the past few weeks.
Her birthday was coming soon. Too soon. And Aspen had stupidly thought she could mask all of her vulnerabilities surrounding it.
“It was going fine until Virginia stuck her nose in it,” she grumbled out loud, reaching out to tilt kegs to see which brew was close to being finished.
It was probably not as bad as Aspen was making it out to be, but everything in her personal life was best kept under lock and key.
Happiness didn’t come from vulnerability, it came from making other people happy.
It was why Aspen had moved from Eureka to Orick in the first place.
There wasn’t a better place than amongst tall redwood trees where she could ignore the disappointment of how her life had turned out.
Or at least, that’s what Aspen had convinced herself.
But before she could ponder it any more, the door flung open and one of the cooks popped in his head. “Virginia is yelling for ya.”
“Thanks, Ben,” Aspen responded sweetly, instantly masking any of her discontent before making her way back out to the bar.
Virginia was still next to Caroline, but there were now two short glasses of what she assumed was Bud Light in front of them. Aspen smiled wide, almost skipping to the bar before leaning over it toward the pair. “You rang?”
“You planning on leaving me this summer?” Virginia asked, her gruff voice lined with a bit of amusement.
“Now wait a second, Virginia…” Caroline began, her face paler than before. “We are not trying to steal Aspen from you.”
“Then how would Betty put it?”
“Well, as you both know, Betty pretty much runs our summers. At this point, she kind of runs the entire Redwoods Park Service. And, well, she is looking to bolster the programs offered by the visitor center for the coming season.”
“How so?” Aspen asked.
“By stealing my best bartender for backpacking trips.”
Excitement suddenly shot through Aspen, her head quickly spinning to Caroline for confirmation.
“Not steal, more like share? If you want to, of course.”
“I’m listening,” Aspen replied, already over the moon at the idea of getting more time outdoors.
Virginia cleared her throat. “Good help seems hard to find these days.”
“For the most part, yeah. Aspen is one of the few experienced backpackers who isn’t on the Park Service staff, so we were hoping you might be flexible with hours if the interest is high.”
“And I was telling Caroline here that Betty can’t be demanding my best bartender go gallivanting around in the forest for weeks on end,” Virginia gruffed, subtly winking at Aspen.
“It’s one thing to put up posters and signs in here for those events at the visitor center, but it’s a whole other thing to poach my employees!
This town only has a population of three hundred something, and most of ’em live and work at the park. ”
“Let’s take a few steps back here, I don’t want to upset you. That’s why she sent me to ask. The park ranger team would never want to break a good relationship—”
“Oh, honey.” Aspen couldn’t hold back from laughing anymore. Caroline’s distress was getting to her. “She’s just messing with you.”
“What?”
Virginia gave Caroline’s arm a quick squeeze, her own laughter now matching Aspen’s.
“Of course you can take Aspen. I was just giving you some shit because I get bored sitting here all day. I work her like a dog all winter long so she can play in the creek when it’s nice and low.
Besides, I hire a few seasonal people to fill glasses during the summer anyway. ”
“Oh good, I thought I was going to go back to Betty empty-handed.” Caroline breathed, obviously relieved.
Aspen thought about Betty for a few moments before reaching across the bar to grab Caroline’s wrist. “Virginia is cruel, but not that cruel.”
“Yeah, tell that beast of a woman she can have her favorite Girl Scout. Besides, if I didn’t let Aspen go, we’d have an influx of dead tourists who’d probably drown in the creek. I much rather they drown here in the bar.”
“Thank you so much!” Caroline grinned, sipping rapidly from her beer. “This tastes so much better now.”
“Now about the signage.” Virginia changed the subject quickly. “I’m thinking that one Smokey the Bear poster will look much better in the bathroom.”
Aspen tuned Caroline’s response out, her eyes closing momentarily as she thought about a summer filled with backpacking.
It was her favorite thing to do in the whole world, and Virginia had needed her a lot the past few summers.
Now it looked like her boss had taken notice, deciding to give her free rein.
But maybe she too had seen that Aspen needed a break, a distraction from all the things that had not panned out in her life.
At some point these feelings had to give way, and what better place to accept her fate but along Redwood Creek, beneath the towering trees?
At least, that is what Aspen told herself.