Amber blew a breath of air from her mouth, making an audible groan of irritation. “Just pass on the message, will ya?” She roughly turned away from me and hurried back to Sam, her project partner.
I didn't even bother wasting enough precious air to respond. Sam gave me an apologetic look before turning back to his work. Sam was one of the three bouncers. He towered over me at an astonishing six feet, five inches. He was blessed with well-defined muscles, like a bodybuilder. He had deep golden, short hair with bright hazel eyes.
After the decorations were complete, we had an enormous Angel with hollow eyes hovering over the service area of the bar. Her wings were gorgeous dark gray with swirls of white. They reminded me of a storm cloud.
A demon, possessing seductive, black eyes, was ready to collect the entry fee. The demon’s light grey wings were torn and brittle.
The table centers showcased the apocalypse. There were a variety of crumbled buildings with flickering lights inside, which made the buildings look as if they were really on fire. Each table had a different ruin, but as a whole, they completed the apocalyptic scene. Gray and black spray-painted spider webs provided the dust and debris from the explosions. Of course, it just wouldn’t be Halloween or a post-war world without bloody body parts everywhere. Yep, bloody body parts were strategically placed around the business, including the restrooms.
Our special just happened to be the flaming Dr. Pepper. Joe really wanted to set the place on fire, I guess. I hated Halloween.
“Hey, thanks for coming in. Everything looks really great. Check your mailboxes for bonuses before you leave.” Joe looked around smiling pleasantly. “Myra and Vanessa, thanks for coming in to help. I don’t want to see either of you until your vacation is completely over. Vanessa, I’m serious. We can get along without you for a few more days.” He said before turning back to admiring the decorations.
This time of year really pleased Joe, because his bar was crazy popular all throughout the holiday season, especially New Year’s Eve. Tourists came from all over the globe to visit the two museums in town. Of course, they found it necessary to stop at the bar during their visit. They loved to come see the theme year after year. As far back as I could remember, theme choices had never been repeated.
The museum owners, Michael and Matthew Roday, provided most of the decorations for the town, including our bar, to ensure their theme was promoted throughout the entire town all season long.
The rest of the year, Michael and Matthew put on several big shows. The shows happened in the museums, downtown, and the lake. Little mini-battles took place at the different small businesses. Sometimes, events spontaneously broke out all over town simultaneously. I found it scary and unnecessary. I guess people loved all the spectacles because they came back every year and brought friends. The twins really kept the town alive, which had seen more holy wars than the world had seen… period. Somehow, no matter which side won, nothing was ever resolved.
Ten
Myra and I returned to work to find the new bar back, Corey, had already quit and had been replaced. Myra was disappointed on the one hand, but hopeful this guy would be even more gorgeous. I could care less about the new or previous bar backs. My mind was still too cluttered with other more important issues. The decorations were a frightening distraction from time to time. My endeavor to avoid running into body parts or demonic angels was a full-time job.
“How’d your time off treat you, Ves,” Brad asked as he handed me a serving tray.
“Good. It was nice to have some time off with Myra. We shopped a lot. And by a lot, I mean a lot. I somehow managed to drag her to the gym a few times.”
He laughed. “Sounds nice. Hope I’m invited next time,” he teased. “Well, you look much better than when I saw you last. Now, go make me some money. Daddy needs a new flat screen TV,” Brad half-joked.
“I’m on it. Thanks for sticking up for me the other day.”
As the bartender, most of his money came from the waitresses paying him ten percent of our tips. If we didn’t make money, neither did he, so the threat he made to Amber would have hurt him as well.
“My pleasure. Anytime.”
I walked up to table six and low and behold, there he was again, the guy who freaked me out on his previous visit to the bar. The guy everyone was threatening me over. The guy I had dreamt about my entire life. I probably should have turned around and told Brad, but I was feeling refreshed and generous that night. I’ll see how it goes, I thought. “What can I get you on this fine evening?”
“Well, well, well, it’s Vessi. How are you? I hope I didn’t scare you the last time we met.” He had an angelic smile plastered to his sexy, scrumptious face.
Oh God, I want him, I thought to myself. At least, I hoped I hadn’t verbally expressed that statement. It was like sex oozed from his pores. His smell, his eyes, and that certain something else about him all pulled me toward him. It was a power he must have held over me. I seemed to float toward him as if my feet left the ground every time that man was around. I’d never experienced anything like it before. I shoved those thoughts to the very back of my mind. It was extremely hard to
