Chapter 5
CHAPTER 5
“T oday is the day, Franklin.” Millie grinned at herself in the mirror on her apartment wall as she tugged her bright blue hair up into a ponytail.
Satisfied with the hair job, she nodded to herself and turned toward the counter where her leopard gecko’s tank sat. He lay on his warming rock, neck stretched out toward the heat lamp, a serene smile on his face. She loved that smile. It was why she rescued the poor little guy from that awful pet store her ex always took her to. Lindsey had been an okay girlfriend, but she had no regard for the safety of animals, which had been a deal breaker for Millie.
“First day at the new job, buddy,” she said as she took out his water dish to refill it.
She loved first days. Unusual, she knew since most of her friends hated the first day nerves. Millie, however, thrived on new experiences. She loved the endless possibilities stretched out before her, the wonder of discovering everything about this new journey she’d embarked on. Was it a little scary? Sure, but what was life without a tiny bit of fear? Boring, that’s what.
“Here you go, handsome.” She gently set the small dish filled with fresh water into his cage, making a mental note to stop by the local pet store for some live crickets after work today.
She’d only been in Kismet for two weeks. It was a world of difference from Idaho where she grew up. In the ten years since she left home to follow her circus dreams, she’d been everywhere from the east coast to the west coast. She’d even spent some time overseas performing in various aerial and circus shows.
“It’s been a wild ride.” She smiled at Franklin who flicked his tongue out, catching some water. “But now it’s time for my biggest adventure yet.”
Not her new job, though she was excited for that, but something more permanent. A studio all her own. A dream she started entertaining a few years back when the exhaustion of constant travel started getting to her. She still loved traveling and new adventures, but she also loved the idea of a home all her own. A place where she and Franklin could build a life. And who knew, maybe someday someone of the human variety would work their way into her heart too.
“Just a bit more savings and we got it, buddy.”
Franklin lifted his head, tilting it as he stared at her.
“Don’t look at me that way.” She frowned at her pet. “I know seven thousand sounds like a lot, but you’d be surprised how quick I can make that in tips.”
She was a good server, fantastic even. People loved her bubbly personality. But seven k in six weeks might be stretching it. Damn. She was so close; she had to make it. The studio up for rent in town was perfect for a small aerial arts space. She already had the security deposit and first few months of rent set aside. The real sticking point was the cost of setting up safe rigging for the aerial apparatuses.
She knew a guy from her performance days, but even with his friends and family discount it was going to cost her a pretty penny. He had her on the books for the end of the year, but if she didn’t get him the deposit in time, she’d lose her spot and have an empty studio with nothing to teach.
“I’ve got six weeks,” she said to herself and Franklin, determination setting in. “Who knows what could happen in that time.”
Anything. Anything could happen and Mille was going to make sure that getting the money she needed for the rigging would be the one thing that did.
Grabbing her phone and keys, she waved to Franklin as she headed for the door. “Bye handsome. Don’t get into any trouble while I’m at work.”
Franklin winked at her—okay he blinked, but she liked to think of her gecko as sassy. She headed out the door to her car. Jacks was close enough for her to walk, but far enough away that she knew after a long day on her feet, walking the mile home was the last thing she wanted to do to her body.
She pulled into the parking lot of the bar/restaurant. BJ had told her she could park at the far end of the lot where the employee parking was. She still couldn’t believe he was Ace’s twin. They were so different. It was almost comical the way they embodied the good twin evil twin trope. Not that she was saying Ace was evil—she didn’t know the guy well enough to make that judgment—but he was an ass. The rest of the Jackson siblings seemed great.
“Hopefully one of them is training me today,” she muttered to herself as she stepped out of her car and locked the door.
She walked across the lot, headed for the back door marked “employees only.” A giddy rush of excitement raced along the back of her neck. The moment she stepped inside, she couldn’t stop the wide grin from curving her lips. She’d worked in a lot of bars over the years, but never one that had its own distillery attached.
The huge, gleaming silver tanks that took up a significant portion of the back room were a novelty to her. A fun, new adventure . She couldn’t wait to get started.
“Millie! Right on time.”
She turned toward the voice to see Del walking across the room, a welcoming smile on his face.
“Ready for your first day?”
“You betcha.”
Del took her over to the wall opposite the tanks where a row of old school lockers stood.
“Put your stuff in one of these. You can keep your phone on you, but please don’t be on it when we have customers. Feel free to bring your own lock if you’d like, but we’ve never had an issue with theft here. People are pretty trustworthy in Kismet.”
Millie opened one of the lockers and placed her keys and bag inside, keeping her phone in her pocket. Thankfully it was still slim enough to fit in the thigh pocket of her yoga pants.
“You’re going to be shadowing Trisha today. Come with me and I’ll introduce you.”
She followed Del out of the back and into the bar area. It was just after two, so the bar was fairly empty. A few older gentlemen were sipping beers at a far corner table. The jukebox was playing a Queen song that was familiar, but she didn’t know the words.
Del led her over to the bar where two women stood, one on either side.
“Millie, this is Kelley,” he said pointing to the woman behind the bar with a brown complexion and dark hair streaked with purple.
“Hi,” she waved to the woman. “Love the hair.”
Kelley winked. “Likewise.”
“And this is Trisha,” Del continued, pointing to the woman with brown hair and pale skin that stood on the same side of the bar as them. “She’ll be showing you the ropes today.”
“Nice to meet you,” Trisha said, extending her hand.
“Nice to meet you,” she replied as she shook the other woman’s hand.
“Well, I’ll let you all get to it,” Del said. “I’ll be over in the restaurant if you need me.”
“Yeah, yeah, abandon us to your baby,” Kelley said with a small chuckle.
Del grinned. “Oh Kelley, you’ll always be my first and loudest baby.”
The bartender grabbed a rag and tossed it at Del who ducked, gave her a wink then headed through the swinging door connecting the restaurant to the bar.
“Ignore them,” Trisha said, shaking her head with a small sigh. “They act like children and I’m surprised Del hasn’t fired Kelley yet with all the crap she gives him.”
Kelley snorted. “Sweetie, I love you, but you’ve only been here a year. Del wouldn’t fire me for anything. I’ve been here practically since the beginning. They couldn’t run this place without me. Besides, giving each other shit is Del and I’s friendship language.”
Millie laughed. She already liked the vibe of this place. She could tell she was going to love it here.
Trisha took Millie around the bar and showed her where everything was. Next, she caught her up to speed on the ordering system. Luckily it was an OS Millie was familiar with, so it didn’t take her long to get the hang of it. She was also grateful they used a computer system instead of written orders. Her dyslexia had led to several mistakes in orders over the years due to her misspellings Thank goodness most places used computers with spell check these days.
As the afternoon turned into evening the bar started to fill up. She shadowed Trisha until they got so busy, she started taking her own tables. Time flew by in a rush. Millie loved it. She was so busy taking orders, talking to customers, meeting new people, that before she knew it her shift was over. After thanking Trisha for helping her, she said goodbye to Kelley and headed to the back to tip out when she ran into Del.
“Hey, how was your first shift?”
“A blast,” she answered honestly.
He smiled. “Love to hear it.”
“I do have some suggestions though, if you’re open to them.”
Del cocked his head, a puzzled half frown marring his face. “Suggestions?”
Crap! She hadn’t worded that correctly. That was her one downfall in jobs. Since she’d had so many in her life, she could easily spot what was and wasn’t working at a place. She loved being helpful, but sometimes her offers of help came across as criticism.
“Sorry I didn’t mean to be rude. I just spotted some things tonight that could improve productivity, but I am totally out of line. It’s my first night, I should just shut up and go home. You know what you’re doing. I shouldn’t have said anything—”
“Millie,” Del lifted a hand in the air, cutting off her ramblings. “Just because it’s your first night doesn’t mean you can’t have input on how we do things. In fact, since it’s your first night, you have the freshest eyes. You can see things we’ve gotten used to. You’re like those efficiency experts that come in and revamp a workplace, only without the firing part.”
She let out a breath of relief at his understanding. How lucky had she gotten landing this job? A boss that was friendly and listened to the new employee’s ideas? What a dream job.
“Tell me your ideas,” Del said.
She listed off the few things she’d seen tonight that could be improved. Small things like changing up the table numbering and shifting where the drink pickup station was. Just little things she’d noticed that wouldn’t be hard to change at all. Del nodded as she talked, his eye lighting up with each suggestion. When she finished, he gave her a huge grin.
“I gotta say, I love ‘em. All your ideas sound easily doable and much better than the way we’ve been doing things.” He laughed, softly. “I can’t believe none of us saw any of this.”
“Like you said, it’s hard to see things like this when you’ve been doing it one way for so long.”
“I’ll talk to the others about implementing your suggestions. I know Charlie and BJ will be on board.” He hesitated with a slight grimace. “Ace will be harder to convince. I love my brother, but he hates change.”
Her happy mood deflated a bit. Right, Ace. The evil twin and antithesis to her in almost every way. Whatever. She didn’t care what Ace thought. Del liked her ideas, Trisha and Kelley were a blast and the rest of the Jackson siblings seemed great. One bad apple in the bunch wasn’t going to ruin this new adventure for her. Millie just knew great things were coming.