The Country Club Pt. 1

  Monday morning my alarm goes off at six a.m. I sit up with a groan as I turn it off. Today is the day I have been dreading for weeks. The day I start work at the Winding River Country Club. I used to be a member there, me and my husband. But as it turns out, the other members of the club frown on insider trading and apparently, so does the federal government. Now my husband is a member of a very different kind of club for the next five years with the possibility of parole after two and I have been downgraded from member to employee. 

  I guess it was lucky in a way. It turns out when you haven't worked for about ten years, your resume is not super impressive to potential employers and job hunting may leave you frustrated and day drinking at your best friend Charlotte's house several days a week. 

  It was actually Charlotte's idea for me to apply at the country club and whether she suggested it out of the kindness of her heart or just to get me off her sofa and out of her liquor cabinet, I'll never know. But it turns out Mr. Taylor, the man in charge of hiring at the club, always had a soft spot for me and Teddy. Although I think he probably favors me over my criminal husband at this point. 

  So today I begin my new job as the poolside bartender for rich women who spend their afternoons lounging by chlorinated water that they never even set foot in for fear of ruining their hair, and drink heavily to forget that their husbands love money more than them. 

  I walk to the kitchenette of my new-to-me but actually very old one bedroom apartment and stick an English muffin in the toaster. It pops up a minute later not at all toasted. I sigh and take a bite as I grab my keys and head for the door. The pool bar doesn't open till eleven but Mr. Taylor wanted me there early to give me the lay of the land. 

 When I reach the gate, the security guard smiles at me. "First day on the job, Miss Miller?" 

I somehow manage to smile back.

 "Sure is. Good to see you again, Roy," I say, as Roy presses a button and the gates swing open. Instinctively I start driving to the member parking lot and then at the last minute, swerve toward the employee one. 

I finish my English muffin in two big bites and walk toward the clubhouse. Mr. Taylor greets me at the door way too happy for seven in the morning. 

"Good morning," he says. "And way to be on time. Punctuality is the perfect way to start the day." 

"Don't I know it," I respond, trying to sound even a tiny bit enthusiastic. 

"First things first, head over to the desk and William will print up your name tag and then I'll meet you poolside." 

 I walk to the reception area and William is there typing away on his computer. 

"Morning," he says without looking up. "New hire?" 

"Yep, that's me." 

He types a few more things.

"Name?" 
"Callie," I answer. He nods and keeps typing.

"Nice name. Short for anything?"

I pause.

"Um yeah. Calamine."

William's typing stops instantly and he slowly raises his head to look at me.

"Calamine? Like calamine lotion?" 

"Yeah," I say, avoiding eye contact and awkwardly poking at a pen sitting on the desk. "My mom thought the name sounded pretty so she gave it to me. I just go by Callie now." 

William stares at me for a couple more seconds before looking back to his screen. 

"Callie it is." 

My name tag is ready a few minutes later and I take it with me out to the pool area. Another employee is already out there putting towels on the ends of the chairs that none of the women will use because why would they get wet at a pool, and I notice his name tag says Ethan. He smiles and waves as I walk by and I smile back.

"Alright then, Callie," Mr. Taylor says as I come up to the bar. "You told me you've tended bar before so I trust you know what you're doing but I wanted to just go over some pointers. We want to make sure drinks are refreshed before the guest asks. Obviously your first priority is whoever is sitting at the bar but when you have a free moment, walk around the pool and ask if you can bring anyone a fresh drink, alright?" 

 I nod and Mr. Taylor gives me some more instruction on my appearance, "hair tied back at all times", and my demeanor, "always greet them with a smile."

 "And that's about it. Glad to have you on board, Callie." 

 "Thanks, Mr. Taylor. Glad to be here." 

I look down at my phone. 7:35. I was called here four hours early for a ten minute pep talk and now have over three hours to do nothing.

I sit on a bar stool and pull out my phone, losing myself in reels.

  Around 10:45, guests begin to arrive at the pool and when I say guests I mean strictly women who don't work and their only responsibility for the day is to spend their husband's money and look perfect doing it. I see a few familiar faces among the sea of sun hats but nobody acknowledges me. I guess I can't expect them to. I'm a black sheep by association with Teddy. 

  I slink behind the bar and busy myself polishing glasses that are already perfectly clean. A few minutes after eleven, a size zero blonde woman in a pale blue two piece with her hair pulled back in a perfect bun to display the diamond studs in her ears walks up to the bar and sits down.

 "Oh my goodness. Callie!" she exclaims. "I had no idea you were working here now." 

I turn around and look at Lorna who I used to consider a solid acquaintance and almost a friend. We spent hours sitting by the pool gossiping and sipping martinis reapplying sunscreen every thirty minutes just to be safe. That's right. I used to be one of the sun hat wearing, non swimming, day drinking wives. 

 "Hey, Lorna," I answer her, setting down my towel. "I just started this morning. Turns out I needed some extra money after...everything that happened." 

 Lorna shifts ever so slightly on the bar stool.

"Oh of course, darling. I'm so sorry," she says, sliding her sunglasses up to sit on top of her perfect blonde hair. 

"Could you not just use your trust fund?" Lorna asks and then covers her mouth with one hand, her French tips lightly brushing her cheek.

"Oh my, I forgot. It was Teddy's family who had the money."

I force a pained smile but I couldn't blame her for forgetting. Sometimes I tried to forget that I was raised by a father who owned a failing hardware store and a mother who never finished high school and could only get a job working at the town diner. Teddy had been my knight in shining armor carrying me from poverty to prosperity. Now he was sitting behind a very different type of metal. 

"Can I get a drink?" I ask Lorna. She considers it for a moment, then shakes her head. "I'll wait a minute for Bethany to get here. Just a water for now."

 I fill a glass with ice and water and set it in front of Lorna hoping against hope that Bethany's car gets a a flat tire or is maybe struck by lightning on her way to the club. I look up at the sky and see nothing but blue sprinkled with fluffy white clouds. Maybe not the lighting. 

 Bethany's husband Raymond is a defense attorney who chose to take on Teddy's case against the advice of pretty much everyone. When he lost, he was welcomed back to the country club with a million "I told you so"s and hasn't been back since citing a "buttload" of new cases he's working on. Bethany would sooner be parted with her thumbs than lose her lazy afternoons by the pool and so she has continued to patronize Winding River Country Club but keeps a low profile. I have only seen her a couple times since the trial but each time she has given me a look that says the verdict was my fault. As if I should have requested a sidebar and asked the judge to go easy on my husband so as not to upset his lawyer's wife's social calendar. 

  Despite my wishes for a flat tire or some act of God, Bethany shows up a few minutes later, her brown hair cascading down her back in neat waves and her solid black one piece swimsuit clinging to her perfect figure. She comes to the bar immediately and takes a seat next to Lorna. 

"Good morning, darling," she says, putting a perfectly manicured hand on Lorna's arm. "You look amazing." 

  Then her gaze turns to me.

"Good morning, Calamine." 

 Oh yeah, that's another thing. Bethany absolutely insists on calling me by my full name. 

"Good morning, Bethany. Can I get you a drink?" 

"Vodka cranberry please. And one for Lorna." 

Bethany and Lorna had been friends for years but there was definitely a hierarchy in the friendship. If Bethany said, jump, Lorna said, how high and can I get you anything while I'm up there? 

  I make two vodka cranberries and set them in front of the swimsuit clad women. They are lost in chatter and sip on their drinks without acknowledging me. 

Since no other guests have sat down yet, I decide to use this opportunity to walk around the pool perimeter and ask if I can get drinks for anyone. I walk past a couple chairs and pause at one where an older lady in a red swimsuit is sitting reading a book.

"Oh just a soda water for me, dear," she says sweetly. I nod and walk a couple chairs down to a mom who just arrived with her two sons. She is smearing sunscreen on their backs and looks up at me when I ask if she would like a drink.

"Gin martini," she says simply. "Thanks." 

I turn to walk back to the bar and as I do, one of her sunscreen covered children dashes in front of me and yells "cannonball!" before jumping into the pool. I watch in what feels like slow motion as he goes down into the pool and the displaced water comes shooting up. I feel it rain down on me and I stand there, my now wet hair dripping onto my shirt. 

"Chase, will you watch what you're doing?" the mom yells. "You got the drink lady all wet!"

  The drink lady. I have gone from being a bikini clad princess to a bar maid slinging drinks.

Oh yeah. This is the life.