Down London Road (On Dublin Street #2)(6)
Author: Samantha Young

Our manager, Su, worked odd hours. She rarely worked the weekends during opening hours, trusting her long-standing staff members and the security guys to take care of the place. Sometimes she worked Monday through Wednesday at night, foregoing Thursday through Saturday, which happened to be the busiest nights. I didn’t mind. It was actually nice not to have a manager breathing down my neck, especially since my boss at my day job was such an irritant.

It didn’t occur to me not to give Su Cam’s number. He’d been an a**hole to me, but I couldn’t help but feel for him being out of a job. I guess fate felt the same way, because for the first time in a long time, I caught Su just before she left. We met on George Street, at the top of the steps to the bar, and I literally had to stand in her path to stop her escaping, she was so clearly desperate to be away from the club.

‘Jo, what’s up?’ she asked, almost bouncing on the balls of her feet as she tilted her head back to meet my gaze. At five one, Su was this tiny, curly-haired, energetic forty-something whose mind always seemed to be on anything but what it was supposed to be on. It amazed me that she managed Club 39, but the owner, some elusive person named Oscar, was one of Su’s closest friends.

I smiled down at her brightly. ‘Are you still looking for a bartender?’

Su sighed heavily, jamming her hands into her coat pockets. ‘Yeah, I am. I want another guy like Craig, so obviously I get a ton of girls applying and no guys as hot as Craig.’

Charming.

It hadn’t escaped my notice that the bartending staff at Club 39 were all attractive, but to hear it put so bluntly without any regard to ethics in the workplace made me choke on a snort. I covered it quickly with a rueful smirk. ‘Well, I may have the answer to your problem.’ I pulled out my mobile phone. ‘His name is Cam, he has bartending experience, he can start immediately, and he’s pretty hot.’ A total dick, but a good-looking one.

Su took his number with a wide, infectious smile. ‘Sounds promising, Jo. Cheers.’

‘No problem.’

We bade each other goodnight and I hurried down the basement steps, smiling a bright hello to Brian, the security guy, and Phil, our doorman for the night.

‘Evenin’, Jo.’ Brian winked at me as I passed.

‘Evening. Did the missus forgive you for forgetting her birthday?’ I asked, slowing down as I turned to wait on his answer. Poor Brian had arrived at work on Saturday night in the worst mood. He’d forgotten his wife’s birthday, and rather than being angry, Jennifer, his wife of ten years, had been hurt. There had been tears. Brian, who looked like a grizzly bear but was more the cuddly kind, was distraught.

Not so much now, if his grin had anything to do with it. ‘Aye. I had that movie set up like you said. Worked like a charm.’

I chuckled. ‘I’m glad to hear it.’ I’d suggested that Brian talk to Sadie, one of the students who worked at the bar and was in the film club at Edinburgh University. I thought she might be able to get permission to use one of the uni’s projectors so Brian could take Jennifer to a private screening of her favourite movie – An Officer and a Gentleman – on the big screen.

‘You still dating that lottery winner, Jo?’ Phil asked, his eyes running the length of me. Not that there was anything to see – I was wrapped up in my warm winter coat.

I tilted my head to the side, my smile flirtatious now. Phil was just a few years older than me, single, cute, and perpetually asking me out to no avail. ‘I am, Philip.’

He sighed heavily, his dark eyes glittering under the twinkle lights around the club door. ‘You let me know when that ends. I’ve got a big shoulder here for you to cry on.’

Brian snorted. ‘Maybe you’d have a chance with her if you didn’t spew shite like that.’

Phil huffed and swore at him. As this was almost a ritual now, I laughed and left them to their bickering.

‘There she is.’ Joss grinned at me as I wandered into the empty club. She was leaning against the bar, and her expression changed when she saw my face. ‘Something happen?’

‘I had’ – I glanced around to make sure we really were alone – ‘a difficult time with Mum tonight.’ I took the steps down to the bar and ducked under it. After I brushed past her, I heard her footsteps following me into the small staff area.

‘What happened?’ Joss asked quietly as I shoved my bag in my locker.

I turned to her, shrugging off my coat to reveal the same uniform she wore – a white tank top with CLUB 39 scrawled across the right breast and black skinny jeans that made my long legs look even longer.

Joss stood before me in all her attitude. Her thick mane of blonde hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail and she gazed at me in concern with her exotic grey feline eyes, her full lips pursed. Joss wasn’t a traditional beauty, but she was sexy. I could see why Braden had fallen for her. Her cool smartassery was so at odds with her unintentional but overt sexuality, any guy would be intrigued.

Yeah. We made a pair. And we got good tips.

‘Mum fell out of bed, broke her last bottle of gin, and took her usual tantrum when I said I wouldn’t get more for her. Once she calmed down I had to help her get ready so she could leave the flat to get some booze.’ I snorted bitterly. ‘Then I had to leave Cole there.’

‘He’ll be fine.’

I shook my head. ‘I’ll worry about him all night. You mind if I keep my phone on me?’

Joss’s brow puckered in consternation. ‘Of course not. But you know what the solution to that is, right?’

‘A fairy godmother?’

‘Yes.’ Her mouth tilted up on one side. ‘Except instead of a fairy godmother, he’s a suit-wearing fairy caveman.’

I didn’t get it.

‘Braden! He’s offered you a job so many times, Jo. Part-time or full-time. Just take it. If you took a full-time position, you’d be working during the day so you wouldn’t have to worry about working nights away from Cole.’

I tried to feel only gratitude as I strode past her and into the bar and tried very hard to ignore the irritation. ‘Joss, no.’

She followed me and I didn’t even have to look at her to know she’d be wearing the mulish expression she used to reserve for when people asked her questions she didn’t want to answer. ‘Why tell me these things unless you want a solution?’

‘That’s not a solution,’ I replied quietly, tying the short white apron around my waist. ‘That’s a handout.’ I shot her a smile to soften the blow of my words.

My friend clearly wasn’t having any of that tonight. ‘You know, it took me a long time to figure out that we can’t do everything on our own.’

‘I’m not on my own. I have Cole.’

‘Okay.’ Joss shook her head and took another step in my direction. I turned towards her slightly, my stomach flipping at the edge in her voice. ‘I’m just going to say it.’

Brace yourself, Jo.

‘How can you take Malcolm and all those other guys’ help but not a friend’s?’

Because it’s a totally different thing! ‘It’s different,’ I told her softly. ‘It’s just part of being in a relationship with a guy who has money. I’m not good at many things, Joss. I’m not a scholar like Ellie or a writer like you. I’m a girlfriend. I’m a good girlfriend and my boyfriend likes to show his appreciation by being generous with his money.’

I was surprised by the utter fury that flashed in Joss’s eyes, and I automatically stepped back. ‘One: there’s much more to you than that. Two: do you realize you pretty much described yourself as a glorified whore?’

She might as well have punched me. Hurt cut me deep as I reared back from her words, feeling the sting of tears in my eyes. ‘Joss …’

I saw regret pass over her face, and she ducked her head, shaking it. ‘There’s so much more to you, Jo. How can you be happy to let people think these shitty things about you? Before I knew you, I thought you were a cool girl but a mercenary gold digger. I had you pegged all wrong – and so does everyone else. And you let them think that. Do you know how many times I wanted to kick Craig in the balls for the way he talked about you? No one respects you, Jo, because you don’t ask for that respect. I’ve only known the truth for a year and I’m finding it hard to hack it. I don’t know how you hack it. I don’t even think you do.’

Laughter and chatter filtered into the bar from the door and Joss moved away from me in preparation for our first customers. I watched her, feeling shell-shocked and raw … like someone had scrubbed off the top layer of my skin and I was exposed and bleeding.

‘I respect you,’ she told me softly. ‘I do. I know why you do what you do, and I get it. But from one ex-martyr to a current martyr … get over your bullshit and ask for help.’

The customers entered the club and I turned to serve them with a bright fake smile, pretending my closest friend in the world hadn’t just called me out on all the things I feared about myself.

As the night wore on, I was able to push Joss’s opinion to the back of my thoughts, and I flirted with good-looking customers, leaning across the bar to whisper in their ears, giggling at their jokes – good or inane – and generally pretending to have the best time in the world.

The tip jar filled up fast.

Two seconds after an attractive thirtysomething guy wearing a Breitling sports watch slipped me his number before he left the bar, Joss was at my side shaking up a cocktail.

Her eyebrow was quirked up in question. ‘Weren’t you just telling me last night how much you like Malcolm?’

Still feeling sore from her earlier flaying, I shrugged nonchalantly. ‘Just keeping my options open.’

She sighed heavily. ‘I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings back there.’

Not acknowledging the apology, not sure I was even ready to, I nodded down the bar. ‘Your customer is waiting.’

For the rest of the night I avoided conversation with her and constantly checked my phone in case Cole tried to contact me. He didn’t.

When the club closed and we’d cleaned up, Joss cornered me as I shrugged my coat on.

‘You’re a huge headache, you know that.’ She huffed as she pulled on her own coat.

I snorted. ‘That’s the worst apology I’ve ever heard.’

‘I’m sorry what I said came out so bluntly. But I’m not sorry for saying it.’

Pulling my bag out of my locker, I shot her a weary look. ‘You used to let people get on with their lives. You never butted in where you weren’t wanted. I liked that about you.’

It was Joss’s turn to snort. ‘Yeah, I know. I liked that about me too. But Braden’s rubbing off on me.’ Her mouth twisted into a grimace. ‘He has this thing about sticking his nose into the lives of the people he cares about whether they want his nose there or not.’

I felt some of the hurt from our earlier encounter recede, a warm balm spreading gently over it. ‘You saying you care about me?’