Page 25 of Nick & Nora Martinis

“Afternoon, what can I get you?” I ask the man approaching the bar.

"Is midday too early for cocktails?” he asks.

“No not at all,” I tell him with a smile on my face.

“Well in that case then, I'll have two Sex on the Beach, please. Do you serve tea or coffee?” he asks.

“Sure, what would you like?”

I look over towards where a middle aged woman and a young girl are just about to sit down. I've seen the girl here before. They must be her parents. On that, the girl looks up and gives me a wave.

“One sugar and a drop of milk. Thank you.” Jay goes off to make his tea while I mix his drinks and take his money. When she returns after taking the drinks over to the family, we continue with our conversation.

We talk a little about our nights, laughing and giggling in between serving our customers and doing general cleaning and tidying of the bar. As I pass Jay the glasses out of the washer, she puts them back on the shelves, “I can't believe Rob forgot to empty this machine, telling me he has done everything.”

“That will be about right, love it when people say it's all done when clearly it's not,” she says. I smile at her.

“Jay I have something to tell you, just after you left last night you had a visitor. Now I don't know…” I'm trying to find the right words to let her know her cheating boyfriend is here in Birmingham. But for some reason I'm finding it hard, I don't want her upset because she's been through enough. … “and please keep your cool, but …”.

“Jayne, my sweetheart,” Ian says.

I stand up and look in the direction of the voice. Jayne looks at me wide-eyed, horror and anger etched on her face, her back is to the doors, but I know she can see him in the mirror. “I was just about to tell you.” Jayne freezes. “You're going to have to face him, go into the back. I don't want any disturbance in the bar.” He continues to approach us.

“What the fuck ?” she snarls at him as she turns to face him. “No you have to go, I'm working, so please leave.”

“Jayne, sweetheart. Five minutes, that's all I want.”

“Take it out back or outside,” I tell her, just as Mary turns up for her shift.

Without saying a word she walks around the bar and out of the door Ian just walked through. I look at my watch, it’s five o'clock, where has the time gone? I thought the day was going to go slow, especially after Rob left. I chat to Mary about work. “Would you like a cuppa? I'm just going to make one.”

“No thank you. But if it's okay with you, can I have a cold drink?”

“Yes, just write it in the book. Give me two mins,” I tell Mary.

My phone starts to ring, looking at the call it's Rob. I don't have the time to talk to him now. I place it back down, finish making my tea and go back out to the bar.

“Wow, where are all these people coming from?” I say to Mary as I walk and look around the bar.

She shakes her head and shrugs her shoulders at the same time. She looks about the bar and then starts to serve. We both talk in unison.

“What would you like?”

“What can I get you?” And still no sign of the men. What the hell is going on?

Chapter Fourteen

“Sorry I'm late Abi, my car wouldn't start so I had to call my mom to come pick me up and drop me here,” Paul says.

He's a new starter, and fits in perfectly. He has been here a week now. The girls certainly like him. He's a real charmer. I smile at him.

“It's ok, seems to be one of those days.”

He quickly gets into the spring of things, saying hello to the other staff members. Looking at my watch, time is getting on.

I walk around collecting the empties and chatting to the customers.

I'm by the door when my thoughts turn to Jayne, she's been outside a while, and on that, she waltzes through them with Owen at her side, laughing. 'I thought he was going to kill you when you kissed me,' she's saying.

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