Tobins POV
The music was pumping as Tobin stood behind the bar serving people that were crowding around her. She joked with the people that she recognized and tried her best to make newcomers or people she didn’t recognize feel welcome. This was after all her bar. It wasn’t big by any means, but it had its share of regular customers. The one thing that it had going for it was that it was within walking distance of the college campus in town.
She had opened the bar a year ago when she was 21 with the money that her grandparents had given her when she turned 21. She immediately opened the bar and got her liquor license. She then bought a sign that read “Heath’s” and put it on the building. She still kicks herself for not coming up with a better name for the bar. Truthfully she couldn’t think of anything good so she used her last name to christen the place.
Heath’s quickly became a favorite stop for college kids and that was roughly sixty percent of her clientele. After a while however, more and more people began to try out the new little “dive” bar in town and she now had a steady business. It helped that she had an impressive amount of craft beer available and on tap. That was what set her apart in this smaller town that had more bars than churches.
Heath’s was never jammed packed, even on the weekends, unless they had live music like they did tonight. Tobin envied her two employees that she had hired. They both got to mill around and serve the drinks, instead of being behind the bar 100% of the time tonight. Ashlyn, was blonde and had an impressive sleeve on one arm, had been her friend since they were both children. She had been with Tobin and Heath’s since the day it opened. Ashlyn did pretty much everything at Heath’s. She made drinks, served drinks and in the rare occasion, acted as a bouncer. Tobin was grateful for all the help that Ashlyn had given her over the last year.
Kelley on the other hand had brown hair and a smile for everyone who came into the bar. She was quite a hit with the male population of their customers and tended to make bank in tips whenever she worked. Kelley went to the college so she really only worked weekends and one night a week.
Heath’s was never really busy enough to need more than one person to work, but Tobin and Ashlyn worked nearly every night. She brought her attention back to what she was doing. The crowd around her was slowly diminishing and making their way back to the stage area to listen to the band. If Tobin was honest with herself she knew that this band was really not that great, but they were local. And Tobin tried her damnest to support local music whenever she could. If she ever booked bands from out of town that needed openers she turned to the numerous local bands in town first. Besides the local bands generally played for free so it turned into a profit for her.
Suddenly Ashlyn was beside her saying that some chick wanted a Washington Apple. She walked to where she had the liqueurs set up and made the drink. She gave the drink to Ashlyn who had just added it to that particular persons tab.
“Crazy night tonight, huh?”
“No kidding Tobs. I haven’t been able to rest for more than two seconds!”
Tobin laughed at her friend and went back to serving people at the bar.
She had finally served everyone who was waiting at the bar when the band announced they were going to take short break. Instantly a crowd formed around her to get refills on their drinks. And the band also came up to the bar wanting refreshments.
“Kelley! Can you help me please?” she yelled to her freckle faced employee.
Kelley made her way behind the bar and helped the closest person to her.
After they had successfully dealt with the latest rush of customers the doors to Heath’s opened. Tobin instinctively looked over and saw her best customers walk into the bar. The universities women’s soccer team. They ambled up to the spot by the bar where Tobin was currently washing some glasses.
“Sup Heath. How’s the band?” a girl with short hair asked.
“They’re all right. Local band.” Tobin responded.
“So can we get some beer or what?” the girl asked with a grin on her face.
“I’m going to have to say no, Meghan. Your coaches are up by the stage. And I know that they don’t want you guys drinking.”
“Shit….thanks for the heads up.” Meghan said as they left.
Tobin hated turning them away, but college athletics had its rules. Besides she wanted to make sure they didn’t get caught.
“Wait the soccer coaches are here?” Kelley practically screamed in her ear.
“Yes Kelley there are. You haven’t noticed them all night?” Tobin responded sarcastically.
When it finally slowed down at the bar Kelley practically ran towards the stage and pretended to be wiping off tables. Tobin smiled at herself because Kelley thought that her ogling of a certain coach with the biggest resting bitch face was not apparent to both her and Ashlyn. Kelley was crushing hard on Hope Solo.
The band started in on another setlist. They were trying to be speed up and make rock versions of current top 40 songs, and to be honest it wasn’t going that well. They were currently playing a punk version of a Demi Lovato song and Tobin was inwardly cringing. She made a mental note to not book this band on a weekend again. She looked at the clock and realized it was only 12:30 in the morning. Another hour and a half to go.
*********
They had finally ushered the last of the customers out of the bar. The band was hauling their equipment out to their van and Tobin was still behind the bar washing glasses. Ashlyn was currently picking up the trash on the floor while Kelley was going to grab the vacuum.
The band had all their stuff and left.
“Well that band was like a 2 on the scale for originality.” Ashlyn said when they had left.
“That’s what you would care about. I thought they weren't that bad.” Kelley responded.
“That’s because you listen to that crap that they tried to rockify.”
“Rockify? Ashlyn really is that even a word?”
“It is now.”
“Guys I don’t want to be here till 4 in the morning.” Tobin laughed.
Tobin finished doing dishes and looked at the receipt for the evening. She saw that they had made a decent amount of money tonight even though the band was less than stellar. She was dreading tomorrow, because it was the day of the week that she and Ashlyn came in early to do inventory and ordered what they were running low on.
An hour later they were done with all the nightly chores that needed to be done before they could head home.
“I’ll see you tomorrow early to do inventory!” Tobin said in a falsely sweet voice to Ashlyn.
“Ugh..don’t remind me.” she groaned.
“Well I get to sleep in tomorrow! I don’t know why you guys decide to do inventory on Sundays.” Kelley said.
“First of all shut up and secondly that’s when the orders are due for some god forsaken reason.” Ashlyn responded.
“Honestly though, we get here at like 1 in the afternoon, so it’s really not that bad.” Tobin said.
They all parted ways and Tobin drove the mile back to her small apartment. She knew that school had just started and that meant that her business was going to pick up again. Oddly, her slow months were the summer months. Her bar was a favorite of the college scene.
When she got into her apartment she threw her keys in the dish by the door and kicked her shoes off. She didn’t drink while she was working. That was one of her only rules for her employees was that they couldn’t drink on the job. That proved to be the most difficult for Kelley, because dudes would buy her drinks all the time. She of course loved it, and it was amusing to Tobin. She opened a beer and proceeded to head to the shower. It was her ritual to have a shower beer after working at Heath’s.
When she was done, she pulled on her pajamas and crawled into bed. She set her alarm for a reasonable hour and was asleep almost before her head hit the pillow.
******
“Hey were down to only one keg of Bud Light. We should probably get some more.” Ashlyn yelled at Tobin.
Tobin sighed. She didn’t know how anyone could drink that stuff when they had a variety of craft beers on table and in bottles. “Is that the only thing on tap that we need to reorder?”
“Not sure let me check all the way.”
Ashlyn had a bad habit of just yelling out things that they were running low on, instead of making a list. Tobin and Ashlyn were in the basement where all the kegs were kept. They also kept bottles of liquor and all their extra bottled beers down here. It was nice they had a store room big enough to hold all of their back stock. It made doing inventory that much easier, though it still took them two hours every week to go through it.
“Hey Tobs? Just shooting a random question our here.” Ashlyn asked suddenly.
“Go on.”
“Have you ever thought of opening up that back section of this building so we could fit more people into the bar?”
“Yeah but do you think it would be profitable?”
“I don’t know it was just a thought.” Ashlyn said as she went back to where the kegs were held.
Truth be told this had been on Tobin’s mind for some time. They only had half the building open, to cut down on costs. But lately they had been getting bigger crowds, especially on the weekends. With college back in session their crowds were going to get even bigger. The thing that made Tobin really hesitate was that they would have to hire another full time employee. She couldn’t ask Kelley to be here five nights a week, because she was in college so Tobin would have to hire and train someone completely new.
After they had completed inventorying everything, they went upstairs to the bar and got the order forms out. This part was a lot easier because Tobin just marked what they needed and how much. After that was done it was 3:30 and they had just half an hour before they had to open the bar. Because it was Sunday only one of them really needed to be there. They gave Kelley Sunday’s off, and it was Tobins Sunday to work.
“Hey see you later Tobin.” Ashlyn said as she walked out the door.
Tobin waved goodbye and got everything ready for the beginning of the night. Like most Sunday’s very few people came in. The girls soccer team came in and they were the only customers she had for the majority of the night.
“So Tobin you ever going to expand this place?” Meghan asked her at one point during the night.
“Been thinking about it. But I would have to hire another full time bartender. I wouldn’t want them to have to deal with you guys.” Tobin joked.
“Ouch, Tobs! That one stings. Right here.” Julie said as she pointed at her heart.
All that night after the bar closed she couldn’t help but think that maybe it was time to opne the back half of the bar. She resolved to put an ad in the newspaper about needing another bartender. By the time she got home that night she had convinced herself it was the right time to expand.