Voir Dire (N.H.)

two

Kelsey hated being late. And today she was late, later then she had ever been to her shift at Manhattan, the up-scale and overpriced bar in Los Angeles that she had been employed at for nearly three months now.

She knew it would be cutting it close, but you couldn't exactly tell your current boss that you might be late because you are interviewing for a slightly better paying job now could you?

It wasn't the type of job she ever imagined applying for, but considering the extremely high cost of living in Los Angeles, and her extremely low wages as a bartender at the Manhattan (even including the very generous tips), she hadn't had much of a choice. These days her own earnings were all that were getting her by, and by getting by she meant living on a diet of mainly ramen noodles and cereal. 

"How was the interview?" Maya, Kelsey's favorite co-worker, asked as Kelsey slid behind the granite-topped bar to begin slicing limes. Maya was the only one that knew about the interview and Kelsey wanted to keep it that way, especially with the way her luck was turning out these days.

Kelsey had always considered herself lucky. She had been blessed with supportive parents, fantastic friends, and a will to do whatever she set her mind to. She had it all together...until she didn't.

Like some stroke of bad luck, Kelsey had went from a girl with a picture perfect family to a girl whose family was being ripped apart by an affair. She went from the girl who had the most tight-knit group of friends the world had seen, to a disastrous falling out with her best friend over the boy Kelsey had always pictured herself walking down the aisle to. And to put the icing on the cake, Kelsey had went from the girl with every academic accomplishment in the book, to a girl that wasn't accepted into law school because of her extremely poor LSAT score.

So Kelsey found herself three months post-college graduation, working as a bartender, living alone in the big city of Los Angeles, just trying to find ways to make ends meet so that maybe in a year she would be accepted into her dream law school- Stanford University. The bartending job was only supposed to be temporary, but considering the lack of lucky breaks in Kelsey's recent life, she was beginning to think the gig might be slightly more permanent.

Kelsey shrugged as she turned to Maya. "It went fine, but you know if it doesn't work out it doesn't work out." Kelsey moved on to unloading the dishwasher, the heat of the glass leaving a slight sting on her fingertips.

"You're going to get into law school Kelsey. I know you will," Maya set a hand of encouragement on Kelsey's shoulder, before joining in the joyous task of unloading glasses. "I mean think of all the connections you've made so far, the Manhattan clientele are not your average Joe's."

Maya was in fact right about that. The Manhattan was exclusive in every form of the word. Instead of a bar filled with drunk college students, raging alcoholics or lonely old men, it was filled with CEOs, celebrities and those of the upper class looking for a drink to take the edge off.

And Kelsey had made connections. She'd served a bottle of $300 wine to one of the top estate lawyers in the city, called a cab for the defense attorney of choice for celebrity "mishaps", she'd even run into a few politicians- Stanford law grads themselves.

They'd tipped nicely, they'd asked her what had brought her to the city, they'd even offered their words of wisdom a few times. But were they going to take the girl in the bar pouring their precious drinks seriously? Did they really believe this girl had what it took to get into law school? Absolutely not- they'd go back home, to their wives or their coworkers and they'd laugh about the bartender who thought mixing drinks was going to be her gateway into winning cases.

"I'm just trying to be realistic," Kelsey sighed, reaching to pull her chocolate brown hair into a knot at the nape of her neck. 

"When did realism get anyone anywhere," Maya said with a roll of her eyes. Maya was a dreamer. Like many people that came to Los Angeles, Maya had made the journey in hopes of getting her big break in music. She was good; a gifted singer, but in a place like Los Angeles being good wasn't good enough, you had to have connections. Despite the numerous demos Maya had snuck into the hands of Manhattan patrons against the explicit rules of management, she had yet to recieve her big break. 

"Speaking of 'realism'," Maya laughed. "The AMA's are coming up this weekend. Think we will get anyone good at the bar?"

Kelsey laughed. "You wish."

"I'm telling you girl, one day Beyonce herself is going to walk through these doors and get her hands on one of my highly prized demos. Mark my words." Kelsey rolled her eyes at her friend's daydream. Maya wouldn't want to be hanging out with someone as unlucky as Kelsey if she wanted that to happen.

"Opening in five ladies," Tom, the head bouncer announced from his perch in front of the glass double doors. Kelsey and Maya nodded in understanding.

"Maybe Beyonce's waiting outside those doors?" Kelsey joked.

"Now who's the dreamer," Maya laughed and the two began a busy night of mixing drinks.