"And you must be Darby," said the tall brown haired man, looking over the top of his glasses at Darby who sat on an uncomfortable blue chair in the dimly lit hallway.
"Yes, thank you for calling me in," she said, rising to her feet and wincing slightly at the stiffness in her lower back. The man caught on and offered an apology.
"I'm sorry we don't have a more comfortable waiting area. The chairs in my office are a little better. Come on in," he offered, pushing the door open and gesturing Darby to enter. She walked past him and her eyes lit up at the plus leather chair in front of the man's office. She plopped down and and gave a happy sigh.
"Thank you for agreeing to an interview. I'm Jake Lawson and I own this bar."
Jake walked to the other side of the desk and lowered himself into a grey spinning office chair. Picking up a pen, he looked down intently at some paperwork and wrote a few things. Darby sat up straight and quietly anticipating his first interview question.
"Right now I am looking for a couple new waitresses. The two girls I have now are moving on to bigger better things," Jake explained with some resentment in his voice.
"Do you have any experience being a waitress?"
"Yes I used to waitress back in the twenties and-" Darby caught herself and blushed. Jake raised an eyebrow.
"What I meant was in my early twenties I worked as a waitress," she corrected. "For about two years."
"Excellent. Do you have a resume or any references written down that I can look over?"
"Yes of course," Darby said, handing over a sheet of paper listing several places she had worked. Jake fell silent as he scanned the page and made some marks with his pen.
"This is an excellent resume," he commented, setting it down on a stack of papers on his desk. "I will definitely give some of these places a call. And I'm guessing they will have only great things to say about you."
Jake looked up at Darby with a smile and she smiled back. "I can only hope," she said, forcing a little giggle.
Jake's smile grew bigger and Darby noticed him looking her up and down with his eyes.
"I think you will fit in very well here, Darby," Jake said, taking off his glasses and leaning forward on his desk. Darby frowned slightly and pushed herself back against the leather chair.
"Thank you, Mr. Lawson."
"Please, call me Jake."
"Jake," Darby repeated, shifting uncomfortably.
"How soon can you start?" Jake asked, not making eye contact with Darby. She cleared her throat loudly and his eyes rose quickly to her face.
"I can start right away," Darby said, in a firm businesslike voice.
"Excellent," Jake said, springing up from his chair and making his way around the desk. Darby stood also.
"I look forward to working with you," Jake said, offering his hand to shake and giving her a sickening smile. Darby put her hand in his and it was immediately engulfed by his fingers. Jake put his other hand on the back of hers and slowly slid it up her arm.
Darby felt her face flush with rage and in the next second she had freed her hand from Jake's, slapped it on his chest and shoved him hard up against the wall. A picture of a city skyline rattled and slipped off its nail falling to the floor and cracking its frame.
Jake looked at Darby with wide surprised eyes. She looked back at him with fire in hers.
"You will never put your hands on me again," she said fiercely, looking deeply into Jake's eyes. "You will give me this waitressing job. I will come in for the late shift after it is dark. You will never again look at any part of me below my neck. Do you understand what I am saying?"
Jaked nodded, a faraway mindless look on his face.
"I will give you this job. I will not look at your body or touch it ever again."
"That's right," Darby said with an evil smile, letting her fangs show a little bit. "If you ever do, you will regret it."
Darby stood there a few more seconds enjoying the hold and power she had on this pathetic man. He looked at her like a little child agreeing to do as he was told. She laughed and took a step back releasing Jake from being pinned against the wall. He shook his head and looked around confused as if waking up from a trance.
"Well uh...Darby," he said, recovering himself and straightening his jacket, "I am happy to offer you a job here. You can work the late shift and will be treated with only the utmost respect."
"Thank you, Mr. Lawson," Darby said with a knowing look.
"In fact, I am short one girl tonight. She called in sick but I am guessing she is just out with her boyfriend," Jake said, going back to his manager demeanor.
"If you don't mind covering her shift that would be amazing. It's only a three hour shift."
"I would be happy to. Is there a uniform I need to put on?"
Jake attempted to look down at Darby's outfit but found himself unable to do so.
"I'm sure what you have on is fine," he said, looking somewhat confused. "Everything you'll need is behind the bar. Drake is the bartender, he will help you out."
Ten minutes later Darby found herself in the middle of a noisy bar holding a pad of paper and a pen much like the one on Jake's desk. She located her first table. It was a high top in the corner with two chairs. Only one was being used. A petite blonde girl wearing office clothes sat there looking completely miserable. Darby walked over with a smile and set a drink napkin on the table next to her.
"Hello I'm Darby and I'll be serving you tonight. Can I get you a drink? Or maybe an appetizer?"
The girl at the table looked up at Darby and her eyes were red as if she had been crying.
"A drink would be great. Do you have anything to make me forget my evil boss?" she wanted to know.
"Um.." Darby paused as she knew nothing about drinks. All of her other waitress jobs had been at all night pancake restaurants.
"I keep hearing about something called a Bloody Mary. It sounds delicious," she said, running her tongue over her fangs."
"I'll take one of those then," the girl said, leaning her elbow on the table and resting her head on her hand.
Darby scribbled the order down on her pad. "Great I'll be back with that in a moment." She turned to leave but the girl's voice called her back.
"I know this is weird but do you have a moment to talk?"
Darby looked around at her other tables and noticed they were empty.
"I suppose I have a couple minutes," she admitted, sitting in the other chair at the high top table.
"What's going on?"
"I just had a really bad day and I need to get it off my chest."
"Do you not have girlfriends for that?" Darby asked. The girl looked up at her and glared.
"Yes. Can't you see I'm surrounded by them?"
Darby smiled at the girl's sarcasm.
"My apologies," she offered. "Go ahead. Tell me about your bad day."
The girl sighed.
"So I went to work this morning and my boss told me she wanted a raspberry scone..."
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