Warning: Scenes of violence and drugs.
Harlem's POV
"Har?" I looked up at Gio while wiping a glass. "Yeah?" I answered. Gio was looking at me sheepishly "I'm going to need you at the VIP section to waiter". Seriously? "I know, I'm sorry. You're the bartender and I really shouldn't be making you do the waitress work but Layla and Karmen are not very experienced in dealing with important guests"
"Its fine Gio, you don't need to explain. What am I here for?" Calmly smiling I rounded the bar table and stood in front of him, collected the order he took from them and scanned it. 2 bottles of Whiskey and Brandy. Wow, guess our VIPs are here to get wasted.
"I know, but I just feel guilty when I ask you for this" Gio said, rubbing his neck. "Really Gio, its fine I said going to get the drinks and glasses. I understand what he means, he wants the VIPs to enjoy the best service from his best employees, me of course and while Layla and Karmen are dolls, they're not the best at customer service. Smiling, Gio takes my space behind the bar and gets to work while I carry the tray with enough alcohol to make a bear drunk.
Walking to the VIP Section, Lexi, my influencer bestie who just got back from the U.S., was calling. Of course she'd already broken into my apartment to babysit my guinea pig. We met at an important event where she was the invited content creator and The Beatdown Bar was supplying the drinks; we hit it right off at Whiskey on the rocks. I have never been alone again since then. She went away like two weeks ago and she's supposed to be back today, she has a spare key to my apartment which is probably why she's calling. She was supposed to stop by at my apartment before going to hers to hang out but I had to take this shift from Brandon, the other Bartender because I needed the money to add up for rent.
"Sweetheart, I'm literally at your apartment right now but all I see is Bimmy, you're not here" I hear Lexis smooth voice over the phone. I'm not supposed to be using my phone on shifts but I knew she would probably call and Gio literally owes me. "I know, I just realized I need to catch some more shifts to cover the rent" I say while adjusting the phone to my other ear and trying to balance the tray. The VIP section was at the far end of the bar and I couldn't see the said VIPs yet. "Really? Damn. So, when can we meet?". "Probably tomorrow love because its not looking good today, and as a matter of fact, ill make it up to you by coming over instead". Lexi sighs. "Fine, make sure to come with sleepover shit though, Ill think about forgiving you if you do". I smile "Of course Lex". I told her bye and arrived at the VIP section which was shielded by a black door like screen from the rest of the bar, it was empty except for where about three women and three men sat.
I walked closer to the table to see about two of the men and two women bent over the table with some white powder sticking to their nose. I squinted my eyes just a bit to understand the situation all while balancing 500ml of alcohol. You have to be kidding me...they're doing coke?!!!!! In this bar??
Fuck. These guys are trouble. Okay, I have to calm down, obviously they think this is some 5 star cocktail bar where the bar covers up their crime filled footprints because they threw thousands of pounds at them, I beg to differ. We actually have values at this bar.
I walk up to them, give them a smile distribute glasses and pour half of whiskey and Brandy in different glasses. They barely acknowledge my presence, the women are so scantily dressed and the men are obviously so high of their rockers. There's one woman in the middle sitting beside an empty space, who is hard to dismiss with blonde highlighted long hair, blue eyes, an obvious boob job, a spaghetti strap red bodycon dress, a scowl on her face and eyes of malice sitting quietly and folding her arms looking at the guy doing coke currently with a scowl like she couldn't be bothered if he suffocates on it. Her eyes keep darting towards the VIP bathroom, she's beautiful, if only I could say the same about her future personality. You see, I'm a great judge of character and I can tell none of these people here care if children and women die if they have to choose between a 24karat gold wristwatch and feeding displaced people. They look like trouble and I'm soo about to find out.
Straightening up, I drop the whole bottle, since they payed for it, and clear my throat, loudly. They all stop what they're doing and look up at me. One of the guys start laughing like I said something funny, Lord help me, these people are so high. "I'm sorry to interrupt you're fun time but unfortunately I'm going to have to interrupt. We have a strict "no drugs "policy at this bar, as written at every corner, if you cared to look, and its very strict because we have officers of the law who come to this bar, we wouldn't want them to think we condone this kind of behaviour, so please, I kindly ask you to refrain from such activities" I had the fakest smile on my face right now, it hurt.
They all look at me like I just spoke mandarin, great I hope they understand English cause I'm not great at German. Someone scoffed, I looked to see who it was and it was little miss boob j- I mean blondie. "Who are you to tell us what we can and can't do? We paid for the VIP section, shouldn't we get VIP treatment?" she said in a sickly high pitched voice. Wow, this one had a mouth on her. "I'm sorry but doing drugs was definitely not part of the agreement, we don't, under any circumstances, condone such at this bar" God, why did these people have to choose this bar out of all the 14 we have in this town.
Miss blondie stood up. Seems like she's itching for a fight. No wait, take a deep breath Harlem, Gio already has things rough enough as it seems, let me try to dissuade the situation as calmly as possible. The other people's eyes were bouncing from me to her like we were trying to start a high school fight in the hallway. This is not a show guys. I smiled sweetly at her, but before I knew it, she slapped me, hard, and like that wasn't heartless enough she pushed me and I fell on my ass in front of all of them, I looked up at her, shocked to my bones. The others had the humanity to snort and snicker, not that I could blame them, they'd probably not remember any of this tomorrow. I didn't even bother touching or checking my cheek, I knew it was going to turn red and sore any moment now due to my pale as hell skin.
"Aren't you just the help? What makes you think you can talk to us anyhow you like?" Miss blondie was seething. Sighing, I stood up and dusted my ass, looked her in the eye and prayed to God up in heaven that this scene I was about to act would be very believable, I'm not going to put Gio through any more problems. I need to get my shit together even if I have to deflate my ego "I'm deeply sorry if I had offended you in any possible way, forgive me if I overstepped." I took a courteous bow to perfect the slave act and looked her in the eye again. She folded her arms at me with a subtle eye squint like she couldn't tell if I was just a very good actress or was telling the truth, couldn't blame her, I was bursting at my internal seams. She opened her mouth to say something again but abruptly stopped when she noticed something or someone behind me, God I really hope its Ted. He can literally haul everyone here out at once, not that it would do any good for the bar but at least ill be temporarily satisfied, but these people might sue the bar and I'm not sure that's how I want this to end anyway. I turn around and stop in my tracks when I see a guy drop dead gorgeous man wearing a baseball cap, a white tee, a jacket and matching jeans walking over. His eyes were mostly concealed by the cap but I could tell they were a colour I hardly saw, deep green with specks of gold, suspiciously his aura was different. Who the hell was he?
"What's going on?" Nice voice too by the way. Little Miss Blondie shoved me as she strutted to the guy who kept looking at me. "Nothing baby, just the help causing some commotion, but I took care of it, the drinks are here though. You took a lot of time in the toilet, any problem?" Great, now I'm being called an "It". I mean can my crisp white shirt and black skirt be that bad? He just basically ignored her, walked calmly to the table, took a nut and a glass, turned to look at me again but before he could say something, like to ask me to dust his seat, I bowed the last time, I turned to leave, but I could still feel his green-gold eyes burning into my back. Whoever he was… he wasn't finished with me. But all in all, I swear this could have gone worse, I did my best though, right?
Well, to be on the safe side I'm going to ask Karmen to man this section to avoid any run ins with police officers. Fuck this day for real.