24. ZARA
ZARA
I regretted I was driving the minute we arrived, because as soon as I saw who was serving behind the bar I knew there was a good chance that I was going to be in desperate need of a drink before the night was over.
“Tilly, it’s so lovely to see you again and you too of course, Zara.” The reason for my sudden need for alcohol was throwing cocktails together like she’d been doing it all her life, and I couldn’t help but be impressed.
“Elizabeth! I didn’t know you worked here.” Tilly looked over the moon to be seeing her partner in crime from Theo’s party again.
“I don’t,” she admitted with a groan, “but Theo still hasn’t got around to replacing the girl who left last week.” Tilly was practically vibrating with excitement now. “So muggins here got volunteered to fill in until he sorts something out.”
“In that case, I’m about to make your night. You’re looking at your new cocktail waitress. Just show me what to do.”
“Theo didn’t mention that he’d taken anyone on.” She gave Tilly a doubtful look. “You should probably wait until he gets back. He shouldn’t be gone long. He’s just out doing some errands. And by errands I mean Lisa,” she added with a grin.
“Oh, it was very recent.” Yeah, so recent it hadn’t happened yet. “He probably didn’t have time, or it slipped his mind. He’s been ever so busy lately. Do I get a tee shirt?”
Elizabeth’s hesitation only lasted a few seconds, evaporating when a large group of what I guessed were shifters from the size of them came barrelling in and headed straight for the bar shouting out their orders.
“Oi, you lot, tone it down will you. This is a respectable establishment, not a sports bar. If you want to get served, you’ll show some manners.” Wow. Maybe Tilly was a good fit for the job after all, because the rowdy bunch immediately calmed down and a few of them mumbled apologies.
Jamie, the bartender I remembered from the party, stuck his head around a door at the back of the bar, presumably to see if Elizabeth needed backup, but she waved him away.
I sat at the bar and watched patiently for an hour while Elizabeth showed Tilly the ropes, then instead of coming and talking to me she went over to the group of shifters who were still milling around at the other end of the bar and started flirting with them.
Charming. Muttering to myself about ungrateful sprites who abandon their friends, I took my lemonade over to a table and scrolled through my phone while I waited for her to notice I still existed.
“I’m hoping you’re going to tell me why there’s a sprite behind my bar.” I looked up into Theo’s amused eyes. “Although I do realise I should probably be grateful that she’s behind it rather than on it.”
“Hello Theo.” I hadn’t seen him come in and he’d snuck up on me while I was engrossed in my phone. “You’re looking at your new cocktail waitress. Did you forget you’d hired her? Apparently you were far too busy to remember to let anyone know.”
“Lizzie really fell for that did she?”
I shrugged. “I think she was delighted at the prospect of being relieved of duty. And Tilly’s actually been doing a really good job.
If you genuinely are looking for new staff you could do a lot worse.
Although she’ll have to cajole Jed into giving her a portal stone because there’s no way I’m playing chauffeur every time she has a shift. ”
“And you just got abandoned over here while she played cocktail wizard did you? Some friend.” He gave my drink a dubious glance. “Is that lemonade?”
“I’m driving. And working later,” I added, in case he thought I was angling for a ride home.
“Are you still avoiding using Jed’s portal stones on your own?”
I shrugged and took a sip of my lemonade to try and hide my embarrassment.
Jed had offered to give me my own set of portal stones, but I’d declined.
Stepping into one someone else had opened was one thing, trusting myself to do it right was another thing entirely.
Thankfully he took pity on me and didn't press the issue.
“It’s good to see you here though, Zara, regardless of how you got here. Seth would be glad you’re not shutting yourself away.”
I snorted. “Not much chance of doing that with Tilly around. Fair warning, she’s angling to come and invade one of your nightclubs too.
I was thinking I might make a proper girls’ night of it if I can rope enough of us in.
” Now I’d said it out loud, I liked the idea of that.
I could invite Ali too if I could get it arranged before she left.
It was high time she met all the others.
“If you let me know when you want to go I’ll reserve a VIP section for you. I suppose I’d better go and deal with onboarding my newest staff member now.”
He gave me a resigned look before striding over to the bar, and I slipped my phone back into my bag, picked up my glass and followed him. No way was I going to miss this conversation.
“Next time I go for a job I’m getting you to negotiate the salary for me.”
Tilly had overridden every single one of Theo’s objections to her working there – although I was only half convinced he hadn’t just been throwing them at her for the fun of it – and then, with Elizabeth backing her to the hilt, she’d had the cheek to tell him if he thought anyone worth employing would work for what he was offering it was no wonder he was short staffed.
Then she’d got him to up the already generous hourly rate by fifty percent, telling him if it wasn’t “the type of establishment to encourage tipping” – complete with air quotes – then he’d better be prepared to make up the difference.
“Meh. He can easily afford it and besides, I’m worth every penny.
That group of shifters that came in tonight were only planning to have one drink and then go off and play pool somewhere.
They stayed until closing once I started flirting with them.
Give me a couple of weeks and I’ll have him wondering how he ever managed without me. Then I’ll ask him for a raise.”
“Tilly! He’s already paying you nearly double what most bar staff earn.”
“Like I said, I’m worth it. And so’s Jamie.
I told Theo he has to give him a raise, or he’ll be walking out when he finds out I’m earning more than him.
And I’ll make sure he does find out, so Theo better keep his word.
” She let out a huge yawn. “I’m going to bed.
Tomorrow I’ll get Phoebe to tell Jed he needs to programme a portal stone for me. Night.”
She rushed back into the room just as I was grumbling to myself again about her being an ingrate and launched herself at me.
“Thanks for taking me. Sorry I deserted you. Needed to make a good impression, have fun at work,” she gabbled before dashing back out, leaving me feeling like I’d just been tackled by a pint sized rugby player.
The next morning, Phoebe arrived with the portal stones. Tilly had apparently texted her about them in the middle of the night because she was too excited to wait until morning. She was looking unusually serious and asked if she could have a word with Tilly in private.
“Have I done something wrong? Have I been spending too much money on the card you gave me? I can pay you back soon now I’ve got a job.
I promise. Or have I done something to upset Zara?
Is that why you can’t tell me in front of her?
” Her words were starting to run together as she got more and more upset.
“Please don’t make me go back to Avalon with you. ”
“Tilly, calm down. You haven’t done anything wrong. I need to talk to you about your father, and I just thought you’d rather we spoke privately.”
“What’s happened to my dad? Is he okay? You can tell me in front of Zara.”
“He’s fine, Tilly, now will you please come and sit down so we can have a rational conversation. Nobody is going to make you come back to Avalon if you don’t want to. But your father misses you. He keeps asking Jed how much longer you’re going to be away.”
“What about Quinn?” she demanded suspiciously. “Has he been bending my dad’s ear about making me go back? So they can forge ahead with their plans. That traitor.” She hissed the last two words with a surprising amount of venom for such a sweet person.
“No of course he hasn’t. He… well, I think it would be better if you heard that from him rather than me.”
“Oh, yes, trick me into coming back with you. I thought you were my friend.” Phoebe sighed and I could feel the exasperation coming off her in waves.
“I’m not trying to trick you into coming back, Tilly. I thought you knew me better than that.”
I jumped as Tilly’s hand landed on my thigh, her nails digging in painfully.
“Don’t let them make me go back, Zara. Promise me you won’t.”
“Nobody is taking you anywhere you don’t want to go,” I promised, trying unsuccessfully to loosen her fingers before she drew blood.
“Tilly, stop being ridiculous.” Phoebe took a deep breath, in and out, before she said anything else, and I could see she was struggling not to completely lose her shit.
“Nobody is going to force you to stay in Avalon, and Quinn isn’t going to try and force you into anything either.
He thought he was helping you by agreeing to consider a match, he didn’t think it would send you running for the hills.
Why can’t you just come back to Avalon and talk to the pair of them for fuck’s sake? ”
Tilly shot me a panicked look, and I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring nod.
“If I did come back, it would only be to talk. I’m not staying. I like it here and I’ve got a job now. I can’t just quit and leave Theo in the lurch.”
“Nobody’s asking you to do that, Tilly. Just come back with me and visit your father. He hasn’t been the same since you left.”
“And you’ll bring me back here in time for work?”
“You have my word. And you also have portal stones yourself now that will bring you back here or to Theo’s any time you want,” she pointed out. “If you really don’t trust me.”