The Ties that Bind

Chapter 5 | Hello

Selene started work at eleven o'clock the next morning. There were no customers, except a few quiet people sitting in a booth. It was warm and smelt of bar polish and the sharp scent of barrel-aged whiskey. A woman was standing at the bar and smiled sweetly when she saw Selene approaching.

"You must be the Selene everybody's talking about," she said.

Eek. Already the talk of the town? She knew Haven was cosy but she found she didn't like being the center of people's attention. "You must be Janey."

"That I am," she flipped the book in front of her closed and put her pen behind her ear. She had three gold earrings on the curve of each ear, flawless Mediterranean skin with ruby red lips and she radiated good energy. "Ted told me you were coming in today. I'm to show you the ropes."

Selene smiled back, suddenly taking a breath, "It's nice to meet you." She didn't really know what else to say before adding a sheepish, "Everybody's talking about me?"

Janey half-shrugged and chuckled, "Believe me when I say it's all good things."

She flicked her head towards a door behind the bar. "Follow me, I'll show you around," 

She wore a spaghetti strap tank-top and had a full round bust. Her high-waist jeans wrapped around her small waist and tucked into her branded high-top shoes.

The back room was a small four wall area with a large steel refrigerator door on one wall and a small three seater couch on the other. One door led to the kitchen, but there was a small corner  which consisted of a mini-fridge and a basic coffee machine on a table. "This backroom was originally used for storage, but Sascha -- you'll meet her tomorrow -- had the bright idea that we should use it as a break room. It's not much but damn you're thankful for it during a rough nice service."

She led her through the backroom and out a side door which took them back to the main floor of the bar. "Bathrooms," she gestured to the clear WOMAN | MAN sign above the bathroom door which was around a small dark corner. 

Janey led her around the bar and pointed towards the pool tables, "I'm sure you know what pool tables are. On the weekends the pool-tables are usually occupied by the 'boys'," she used air quotes and looked about as pleased as she would be talking about dead fish, "They're my cousins and they're probably the most annoying people you'll meet. You're new here, and you're pretty so they'll probably be all over you but don't take any of their shit. They're absolute shit heads and wouldn't know how to be gentlemen if it smacked them on their big fat heads."

Ugh. Her stomach heaved; she didn't want to deal with persistent jerks. She had enough of that at the Blair but she figured that she couldn't escape it working at a bar, "There's always that one group," Selene said, "You guys get very busy around here?"

For a split second she looked almost offended but a smile appeared on her face, "Oh honey, we're a small town sure, but we have people from all over show up here. Surprises me how many people we can even fit in this bar sometimes. We're in the middle of the week so you don't have to worry 'bout it getting too busy. If you're lucky it'll just be Theo and Gabe tomorrow, the family came down from the North for a wedding so everybody's been a little busy," she slapped her hand on the solid oak countertop. "Theo usually breaks anything up before it happens, but don't let that fool you. He's probably the worst out of all em'."

She was burning with curiosity. Some small part of her just hoped they were at least good-looking. "What's so bad about him?"

Janey flicked a wry, perfectly glossed smile over her shoulder and circled the pool table. "Besides everybody in town thinking he's the second-coming of Jesus? He's a notorious flirt, has a right-hook like a steam train, and things get pretty fucking hairy when people piss him off."