Protect Me (2 page)

“Ahhh, so you must be Country” the girl said with a large grin, taking her hand “I’m Judy. Trent told me about you. He was definitely right.”

“I’m sorry; I don’t get what you mean?” Abbi said feeling her cheeks flame, as the girl eyed her from head to toe

“You have to know he has the hots for you right? He had mentioned you had the right… assets for the job” she said with a laugh as she leaned around Abbi looking at her backside “Yeah, you will do just fine here.” Giving her a wink.

“Oh, well, I am sure that he says that about everyone.” She said turning her back the opposite direction of the girl’s eye line. She was out of her league here.  Nervously she grabbed a towel and wiped a cleaner smelling of lemon onto the bar top.

“Yeah, I guess that’s true. He is a bit of a horn dog. So you gonna be here slinging drinks with me and Ashley tonight?” Judy threw her keys into her purse as she tossed the bag onto the shelf below the bar.

“Yeah it looks like it. Hopefully I don’t fall too hard on my face.  I have to admit this is nothing like the shit hole I served in back home” picking up a stack of glasses she maneuvered her way around the bar, setting them back down next to the lighted beer taps.

“Girl listen, every bar is the same.  People come in looking to get drunk, get laid, and forget about their problems.  Just lay that smile on thick and shake your ass, you will be rolling in the big bucks before you know it.”

The two made their way around behind the bar, stocking up the glasses, napkins, and straws. Since Judy had already been working since opening night, she showed Abbi a few pointers, and helped her to become familiar with the layout they would be working in. She seemed to be an open book, it was no holds barred. Some of her stories were a bit wild, but she didn’t seem embarrassed or ashamed of anything she had done.

Judy explained that she too had been from a small town and as soon as she had graduated High School she burned rubber out of there as fast as she could.  Like most small town girls she felt like she had lived most of her life pent up in a small space. So she packed as many things as she could into her 89’ Camaro and hit the road. She sold things as she went to pay for gas and food. She had landed a few gigs here and there working bars for the weekend before heading to the next town. It fueled her drive to just keep going as far as she could until she reached water.  Just as Judy was finishing up her story of the time she ended up in a tent with a number of unnamed people in a campground in Yellow Stone tripping on acid, a curvy brunette walked up.

“Hey bitches! Are you ready to get this shit started?” The brunette slung her purse over the top of the bar as she hopped onto it, slinging her legs and body around to the other side and hoping off.

“Oh, hell! Trent actually let the two of us work together again tonight? I figured after the stunt we pulled last weekend we would’ve been shut off!” Judy said with a wicked look in her eye.

“Girl, you know he wants to be sandwiched in between the two of us” The girl said as she clipped her curly brown hair onto the top of her head. Abbi watched as Ashley pulled the front of her v-neck shirt down adjusting her bra to reveal a lot of cleavage.

“By two of us, you must mean your big ass tits!” Judy said with a laugh. “Hey Ashley this is Abbi; Abbi this is Ashley.” The two girls exchanged a hand shake at the introduction. “Watch out for this one Abbi, if she goes missing it’s probably with a big tipper to the bathroom stall.”

Ashley wiggled her eyebrows up and down as she smiled. “What can I say? I like to make sure they are returning customers.”

The three laughed and joked as they continued setting up. Abbi slowly started to loosen up as the two girls helped her become more familiar with the LA night scene. They had been long time running partners behind more than one bar and in their off time they found themselves sitting on the opposite side of the counter. These two girls spelled trouble in all the right ways. If one thing was for sure, working with them both would be fun and eventful.

They made sure they had almost double what they would need for the night.  The grand opening of Mist had been two weeks back, however the club had been slam packed with patrons every night since. Many took advantage of the private booths available in the back of the club. Unlike bars in New York and Manhattan, if a bar opened up with enough VIP taste and glitter it would stay busy with customers, not die off once the next best thing came along.

For a pricey fee one could reserve a VIP Lounge and also request a personal bartender. They had a variety of clientele already, consisting from some of the wealthiest bankers out of the financial district to a few well known celebrities. The ladies would have to be on their toes to make sure everything went smoothly behind the bar and in the VIP Lounge, while ensuring that all the waitresses serving the floor were taking care of their customers as quickly as possible.

By the time the doors had opened the butterflies in Abbi’s stomach had begun to dissipate.  She began to feel more comfortable knowing that Judy and Ashley had her back; she had already served a few drinks and managed to not spill anything on anyone.  With the music cranked up loud, the nightclub began to fill. Abbi was practically dancing behind the bar. The beat of the music seeping into her muscles and causing her to sway her hips and bounce along to the bass, as she served up drinks that had names she had never even heard of.

By midnight the party was in full swing. Abbi grabbed the twenty dollar tip off the bar top left by the last customer, as Trent came back behind the bar.

“I just wanted to make sure you ladies were doing ok.” Trent was practically yelling to be heard over the music.  

Abbi looked over at Judy who was also gyrating along with the music and then to Ashley who was dry humping a Jack Daniels bottle.

“Yeah I think we are all good for now.” She laughed. You had to love that girl’s enthusiasm.

“Great, just wanted to give you a heads up that we will have a high up in here in about twenty minutes. Some rapper that reserved two of the private booths and a bartender in the VIP Lounge. Make sure he is well taken care of.” Pausing he looked over at Ashley “Hell maybe send Ashley over to be there to handle their drinks.” He said joining her laugh.

“Ok, I will let the girls know. Thanks for the heads up.” Abbi replied.

Abbi made her way over to Ashley who was pouring a drink with the recently fondled whiskey bottle. Damn did she pour her drinks strong. The smell of whiskey floated over to Abbi’s nose. She watched as she splashed just a little bit of coke into the top of the glass. Sitting a lime wedge onto the side of the glass, she slid it across to the customer.

“Damn girl, I could get drunk from just smelling that.” Abbi said scrunching up her nose.

“The drunker they get, the better they tip! That’s my motto.”

Abbi made a mental note as she watched Ashley take a fifty dollar tip and slide it into her back pocket. “Trent said we were going to have some rapper coming in, in a few minutes; said he reserved two of the back booths and a bartender. You wanna take that one?”

“I think it’s time that you started swimming the breast stroke sister.” She said with an evil grin “I tell you what, how about you take the booths and let’s see who can make the most in tips tonight.”

“Oh no Ashley, I think you’d probably handle that whole thing better than I could. I can already feel the dry heaves coming on.” She wiped her palms against the small scrap of shorts she had on.

“I tell you what, if you take it and you beat me at tip out tonight, I will give you my black patent leather peep toes. Manolo Blahnik’s. If that doesn’t turn you on I don’t know what will!”

“Ahh shit, are we placing bets over here because I think I could beat both of you skanks out. Especially when shoes are at stake” Judy said bumping her hip into Abbi. “Really, you got this girl. Remember it’s the same no matter what bar you’re behind.”

“Ugh you two are gonna be the death of me.” Abbi put her hands on her hips and leaned over towards the floor. Just a second, to breath, to panic, to cry, she wasn’t sure. She just knew she needed a second.

“You are such the drama queen!” The two girls giggled as Judy smacked Abbi on the ass. Hard.

“Ow! Ok ok! I will go.” She stood back up smiling.

“Oh, hell! Country is coming over to the dark side!” Judy high fived Ashley as Abbi turned to grab a stack of glasses.

She muscled her way through the back of the crowd. It was hard moving people out of your way politely when you had your hands full, and the music was so loud you could barely hear your own voice coming out of your mouth. She managed to only have to seriously elbow one or two people by the time she made it to the booths. Mentally she made a note to tell Trent that he needed to rope off an area for them to walk in between the bar and the booths in the back. She didn’t want to constantly feel like a battering ram just to be able to get to a different section of the club. Which was still much larger than any place she could have worked in back home. Hell it was bigger than most people’s houses.

The private area in the back of the club was very luxe. Three white leather couches that wrapped around very modern tables almost glowed in the swirl of the lights from overhead. Set up against black walls, there were very modern abstract art pieces that hung just above the middle seat of the couch. To the left and right of the couches were tall high top tables. Cut outs in the center of the tables held empty black buckets. Hanging above them, crystal chandeliers threw sparkles of light throughout the room. Abbi imagined that it would probably cost quite a bit of money to reserve one of these booths. But there were a lot of people in this city with a lot of money to throw around.

She chose to set the space up farthest to the back of the private area. Tucked into a small corner was the bartender’s area. A small mini fridge contained an assortment of chilled juices and champagne for the guests to have at their table. Along with small round trays of hors ‘devours. She saw the order come across the touch screen computer sitting on the top of the counter. Let’s see if she could get this thing to work without kicking it like she wanted to do earlier. This whole idea of technology in every aspect of her life and job was new to her. She found the order on the screen and pulled it up successfully. Grey Goose vodka, tonic water, and orange juice.
How original
.

She made her way over to the mini fridge filling clear glass containers with the requested beverages. She filled a bucket with ice and carried it along with her to the table; careful not to drop anything with her hands full. She placed the containers and bottles of vodka into the bucket on the table before filling it the rest of the way with ice. She carried over two trays; one with a variety of cheeses and the other with a variety of olives. She made sure the pillows were straightened and that the floors were cleaned before heading back to the counter in the back corner to begin hanging the velvet ropes along the outside of the seating area.

Just as she finished getting the private area roped off, she could see Trent making his way through the crowd leading what looked to be a dark skinned man, a few scantily clad women with brightly colored dresses on, not to mention heels that she would probably have already fallen in, along with two body guards towards the back booths. So much for hoping this was a nameless wonder, anyone needing bodyguards to go out must be pretty famous.

Stepping back towards the corner she gave herself the mental pep talk.
All right Abbi, you got this. Just walk up to them like you own the place.
  How on earth did Judy and Ashley talk her into this? As he made his way up to the booths Trent looked at Abbi with a high brow, clearly expecting to see Ashley setting up the tables.  His quizzical look turning into a smile before his eyes traveled down towards her legs. She tried her best to push the self-conscious thoughts out of her head as she felt the blush spread across her body.

“Dirty Deuce this is Abbi, she’ll be your personal bartender for the evening. If you need anything at all just let her know. Enjoy your experience at Mist.” Trent gave Abbi a wink before he turned and headed back into the crowd.

Fumbling her hand towards the man “Hi, I’m Abbi. Can I get you anything Mr. Deuce, um Deuces, uh, Mr. Dirty?” She tried to keep a straight look on her face, but really, the guy’s name was Dirty Deuce.

“Girl, where you from?” he acknowledged her as he passed her hand, moving towards the booth towards the back.

“I am from Georgia originally.” Oh hell here come the butterflies, please don’t let her puke on anyone tonight. So much for being cool, now she was borderline pissed off and more nervous than when she got here this morning.
Keep your cool Abbi, keep your cool,
the mantra repeated in her head.

In his best attempt at a southern accent “Well
Geor-ge-yuh
, you ma’am could get me and my lady friends here a few drinks. That is if you don’t mind… ma’am.” The two ladies on his arms giggled, along with the two smug ass bodyguards exchanging glances with one another to the side.

“It would be my pleasure.”
Smartass
, Abbi gritted her teeth as she made her way closer to the couches, grabbing the bottle of Grey Goose and popping it open.  After pouring a few drinks and a few shots, she turned to head back to the bar up front.

“Wait a minute girl, get over here and take a shot with us.”

Abbi wasn’t really sure what the protocol was on this, and almost positive that he was just mocking her at this point she walked back over towards the table. God only knows, she honestly didn’t want to offend anyone on her first night. But her southern temper was beginning to build up inside of her.

“Um, I am sorry sir. I am pretty sure I can’t drink while I am working.”

“You just let me handle your boss man over there.” He said pointing in the direction Trent had left in, as he pushed the shot glass towards the edge of the table.

Why the hell did he have to drink vodka? It was like drinking rubbing alcohol, not that she made a habit of that but it sure as hell smelled like it.  Let it be Jack or Crown and she would be in without question, but vodka was never her drink of choice.