Teambuilding Who: Brianna, Brian What: Delivery, Catching Up When: Present, Just Before Noon Where: Lucky's, Searchlight Ratings: Low
The delivery had arrived just in time for her to check through, prepare the bundles, and include a name tag to make them easier to distribute to the right people. The last bundle, for Brian himself, was placed on top and the flaps of the box closed again, ready to take downstairs. A quick check she had everything, a glance in the mirror showing jeans, a checked shirt and a subtle blue silk scarf at her throat, she made a call and one of the bartenders appeared to carry the boxes downstairs and load them into the boot of the Uber.
"Thank you, and please check with chef that the special fish delivery came in for Miss Santorini, would you? And confirm to Mr Sa… Gabe?" She didn't normally call the hotel guests by their first name but Gabe had insisted to her, and the staff.
As they responded with a smile and nod her phone buzzed and a message appeared on the screen, from Radek.
Are you sure I can't drive you?
Brianna smiled and slipped into the seat of the car, fastening her seat belt as the driver pulled out of the car park and turned for Searchlight. She replied to Radek:
Already on my way. If you are so keen for a drive you can come down in an hour to collect me.
She smiled when a quick response confirmed the immortal would do that. Forty minutes and some pleasant small talk with the driver later the vehicle pulled up outside Lucky's. She had arranged her visit with Brian for just as they opened, and with the help of the driver was soon carrying the boxes into the empty bar.
It had taken Brian a while, but he finally figured out that his favorite place was that low-slung building on the southern end of Searchlight. It didn’t have his couch or an improvised music studio. It didn’t have the kitchen table where he ate too much red meat with his girlfriend to be heart-healthy. What it had was bikers and a sea of familiar faces, some human, some not.
The bells on the gambling machines had grown on him. So had the green felt on the pool tables that, if he was honest, smelled a bit. Brian was fond of the leaky sprayer hose that got his clothes wet if he didn’t dodge fast enough. He loved the creaking stage and the graffiti on the bar, and he wore the four-leaf clover on his t-shirt with pride. He looked forward to being stalked by the unexpected, which is what brought it home for him this morning.
After clocking in to get the place ready to open, Brian was staring at a new, blood-red stain on a ceiling tile of the men’s bathroom. “It showed up out of nowhere,” Nikk said after calling him over.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll check it out before the customers get here.” A few minutes later, Brian returned with a flashlight in his hand and the cook’s motorcycle helmet on his head. He climbed a ladder, removed a ceiling tile, and slowly eased his head into the dark. Brian was prepared to find a mutilated animal, or an alien rodent who crawled in through the roof and took a colorful leak, but all he found was dust and a few loose roofing nails. He patted the top of the tile. It was bone dry.
“What the fuck?” he asked, just as his clothes were saturated by a Super Soaker full of freezing cold cranberry juice. “Shit!” Brian flailed and reached out to the wall to steady the tilting ladder. Ruby and Nikk took off for the bar in hysterics, but not before Snapchatting his reaction on the Lucky’s account. “You’re fired!” he yelled through the helmet, then collapsed over the top rung in a combination of relief and laughter.
That was the moment when he knew he was in love with his bar, because those were his people, and it feasibly could have been an alien rodent in this place. He emerged from the men’s room a few seconds later to an animated reaction from his staff. Brian took off the helmet and tossed it at its owner, just as Brianna came through the door carrying a box.
The lighting was dim after the blaze of the pre-midday sun outside and she pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head after depositing the box on the nearest barstool. An eruption of raucous laughter had her blinking rapidly to try and see what was going on. She managed to make out Brian appearing, and throwing what at first glance looked like a large ball, but was quickly revealed to be a motorcycle helmet when the cook caught it, his laughter matching the others.
"A bit of team building to start the shift?" she asked innocently, eyebrows raised.
“Something like that,” Brian said, trying to set his hair right as he walked over to Brianna. In the background, his coworkers were huddled around a phone laughing at a video of a stream of juice firing at the manager’s bare abdomen, his t-shirt having ridden up when he aimed the flashlight into the corners. Brian was dimly aware of it settling in his belly button, sticky and cold.
“Don’t tell me you don’t have prank wars at le Breeze.” He smiled at her. Last week, he had rigged an air horn can to go off whenever anyone slammed open the door of the breakroom. Things like that took the edge off the weirder shit that went on at Lucky’s and kept everybody feeling like they belonged to a team, if a woefully underpaid one.
"Manny and Chef ruled that out in the brewery and kitchen, too much risk of things going dreadfully wrong!" she replied, laughing, her hand resting on the box she'd carried in. The reputation of the establishment was what kept their clientele returning and their new guests coming. And her employer also believed strongly in paying above award for above standard work, something she knew built a good work ethic in her team. Both venues had their worlds, both essential and each individually suited for it.
She hadn't been to Lucky's before, in fact hadn't even set foot in Searchlight. The tiny trailer town had a certain air about it, something she couldn't find the right words for, but was interested to learn more about. She knew what Radek had told her, and the immortal had been quite insistent about being with her when she visited, something that had piqued her interest. All he had admitted was that it was a place where 'inexplicable things happen inexplicably', which had just made her more determined to visit Brian. The only concession she had made was to go when they opened, when there was likely to be few if any customers as this suited the purpose of her visit better anyway.
Just as she was about to add something about pranks she noticed the damp patch on Brian's shirt and what appeared to be a few drips on the front hem. She looked at him and for a moment 'looked' closer, and had to quickly smother a laugh with her hand.
"Oh, it seems my timing is even more perfect than I'd planned!" she laughed as she opened the box and pulled out a bundle of cellophane-wrapped shirts. She held them out to Brian, trying not to laugh. The bundle contained three good quality black t-shirts embroidered with the Lucky's name and logo in the usual places, with a small 'le Breeze Craft Brewery' logo on one sleeve, the 'Independent Craft Brewer' logo on the other.
He recognized the gesture from a previous conversation when he told her their shirts were one hundred percent cotton. “Nooo… you didn’t.” Brian leaned closer to Brianna, holding onto one of the bundles. “How’m I supposed to toughen them up if I don’t make them chafe for a little while?” The werewolf smiled and pulled the plastic off the gift so he could see one of them in person. How about that? A shirt that didn’t have the scent of Lucky’s baked into it. “They look good.”
Brian dug a bundle out of the box with the cook’s name on it. “Heads up!” He fired it at Kenny like a newspaper and watched him drop a towel to catch it.
Kenny tore it open and held up a shirt. “At last! My nipples are saved!”
Brianna laughed and called out the names from the bundles, the two often handing them out to the others who were on shift. There was soon a litter of cellophane and old t-shirts all around the bar, and Brianna's smile widened when they realised their names were embroidered on them in a script font. "So you know who's pinched your shirt!" she said with a laugh.
That was a new one on Brian. “Do people swap shirts pretty often at le Breeze?” he asked, smiling. Everyone at Lucky’s came dressed for their shift. If there was a spill, they kept spares in a set of individual lockers. He didn’t really expect an answer, so he backed away and ventured into the bathroom to rinse off the sticky residue of juice and come back in the clean shirt. The rest of the staff had gathered up the trash and gotten back to their tasks before the shift got started.
Brian gestured at Brianna to join him at a table a little farther removed and he collapsed in one of the chairs, legs stretching out underneath the table. He tied back his hair, which had just gotten long enough to go in an elastic band. “How’ve you been since the beer release?”
Sitting across from him she tucked her ankles beneath the chair and leaned on her elbows on the table, arms folded. "Good, thanks. Busy, but you would know what that's like," she answered, throwing a look around the bar where the staff were doing their thing. She paused before continuing, "I've been learning a little more about… how to manage things, within myself, too." She paused again and quickly added, "about what happens when you touched me, or anyone does for that matter."
“Hey! That’s awesome. So...” Brian sat forward with new interest. He wanted to know how it worked but needed to find a good way to put it. He rubbed his jaw. “Okay, say it’s like a valve. Are you learning how to shut it off completely, or dial it back?” Or maybe it was more about modulating her response to it so whatever Brianna saw wouldn’t overwhelm her. If whether he shifted or not depended on not touching anybody, Brian knew he’d be screwed. He couldn’t imagine not being able to dive into a crowd of people or wrap his arms around somebody he cared about without invading their privacy, or worse.
She thought for a moment, figuring out the best way to describe what she'd learned during the two week retreat with Radek and the others. "I think it's more something like a filter? As in there are layers and when I don't want to see, or feel things, all the filters line up and prevent it, or protect me, I guess. But I can then start to turn the filters to line up and let a little bit through, or a lot, though it can also depend on the other person, or the events or thoughts they're having." She felt a small shiver run down her spine and glanced around the bar quickly before looking back at Brian. "With my visions it's almost easier to think of polarised glass, like in sunglasses and a windshield, when you hold the glasses one way you can't see anything, and then as you turn them the vision starts to come through, like in aircraft windows they have now that don't have shades."
“I get you,” Brian said. And on a level, he did. It reminded him of when his body wanted to shift outside the full moon; he could let it happen or he could dial it back and take control, or allow just part of his wolf’s senses through— although that could be a dangerous game to play. Still, it sounded like a long way she’d come in a short amount of time, and it was the kind of thing that could change her whole life. “Before long, you’ll be shaking hands and giving dap.” Brian wiped a hand across his eyes, unable to keep a straight face at the idea of Brianna greeting customers like that in her checked shirt and neck scarf.
“What are you most excited about?” He relaxed his forearms onto the table and watched her.
She arched her eyebrows and gave him a 'look', then laughed herself. "Being more comfortable with the idea of being out?" she answered, looking toward the doors out onto what she thought might be a beer garden after a fashion. "Not being terrified of making skin contact, and being able to actually use what I have? And learn more about the full range of what is possible?" There were so many things, some personal, some more around what she could do, and the things Radek had suggested might be worth more investigation. All were exciting for her in different ways.
“Hm.” All responsible, reasonable thoughts. Brian drummed his fingers on the table. He sorted through what his answers might have been if he was in her shoes, in his early twenties and suddenly able to rub elbows with strangers after a lifetime of caution. He started naming off the G-rated ones. “Crowd surfing at a rock concert. Cannonball into a swimming pool full of people. Swiping right on Tinder.”
Brianna looked at him and, after a moment, smiled and ducked her head a little. "They're all the things my sister would have said, and has probably done," she sighed quietly. She studied the scars on the table's surface, each reminding her that she had existed in a very protected and secure world for more than half her life, once her abilities had started to become apparent to her father. She hadn't minded, it had been easier than dealing with some of the things she'd started seeing and feeling, and reeling from. Which in itself was ironic now, given how the immortals had helped her learn the control she had now developed. The sights and sensations of death, many times over, through various means, were now something with which she was very familiar, and while it helped her learn, it also educated her in just how cruel humans could be.
And her two attempts on the dating scene when she'd ventured out to university had both ended in disaster, so that was something she knew would be very much on the back burner for the time being.
"Have you done all those things?" She could imagine he had, and did wonder what it would be like.
“Sure.” Brian shrugged. “When you get where you want to be, I bet you’ll start a list just for fun. Probably look a little different than mine,” he surmised with a narrowed eye. He wondered if Brianna had taken on the mantle of the responsible sister, the high achiever, because that was what was left to her. Maybe she lived vicariously through her twin, who could go out and do those things. “I’m looking forward to seeing it. Actually,” he leaned closer to confide, “I’m looking forward to having an old fashioned thumb war with you. I’m pretty good.” He made a thumbs-up to demonstrate its dexterity. “Or even a game of Slapjack.” He frowned. “I sound really abusive.”
Again her eyebrows arched, only to be followed by a laugh. "If I didn't know better I'd… wait, I don't really, do I?" she smiled.
"What's it like? When you shift? Does it still hurt?" she asked quietly, unsure of just how many knew of Brian's less common traits.
“Not during the full moon,” he said. “Not after the first time. Any other time of the month, I feel it all. But I got used to it.” Brian interrupted himself by shaking his head. “Nope, that’s a lie. I didn’t. I learned to get through it as quick as possible.”
He leaned back, forearms stretching long across the surface of the table as he chewed on the subject a little longer. “I don’t hate it the way I used to. Anything I didn’t get a choice in, I guess there’s a chance I might resent it, but… I dunno. It’s part of me now. Everything in my life here connects to it, in some way, and none of it’s bad.” The last part, he said with some surprise. “I never could have seen that for myself. It was bad before, and now it’s not, and I don’t have to think about that if I don’t want to. I can choose to put it behind me, and just be here, now.”
“That sounds good,” she replied, watching his face and seeing the slight dawn of recognition. She paused for a moment before asking the next question, especially given what he’d just said. She remembered what she’d seen last time, and who. “Do you miss your family at all? Your sister?”
Brian nodded. “Yeah. Every day.” He messed with a black band around his wrist. “Especially Angie. I left home because I didn’t want to hurt them, and I stay gone because I don’t want anybody else to.” That was pack business, stuff he didn’t need to burden anybody else with, so he left it there. “What about you, who do you have back home? Where’s Juliet now?”
Looking down at where he was fidgeting with the band she shook her head. “I don’t know where she is right now,” she admitted, hating hearing those words because now she knew more about why her sister was staying away - to protect her. She missed her twin more than words could describe, and she’d been the only one Brianna had been able to hug without any fear or intrusion. She’d asked Radek if he knew where Juliet was and the immortal had just shaken his head. ’Last I heard she was in Europe, but that was last year. I will ask if any have managed to hear anything more recently.’ She put on a smile and looked up at Brian. “Probably sunning herself on the beach of some gorgeous exotic place like the Greek Islands, or Monte Carlo!”
Brian lowered his voice. “There a lot of vampire activity in Monte Carlo?” He gave a gentle smile. He was the last person to guess where European vampires hung out. He guessed one tourist hot spot was as good as the next for food supply. “Well.” He gestured at his temple. “One thing I figured out is most of us didn’t end up here because we’ve got a lot of family around. So we get to take care of each other. Second family. We’re doing a Thanksgiving thing here next week so people don’t end up eating takeout on their couches. Think you might make it?”
She had been about to suggest they hold it at le Breeze, but stopped herself. Here was an opportunity to join with other people who, from what Brian indicated, didn't have family there either. "That would be lovely," she replied and added, "allow me to provide the drinks? Also? Would this include the other people on the contact list of everyone from the diner? I haven't really met many others and would like to know them a little better." She surprised herself with her own words and could imagine Radek's face would carry a similar expression.
Brian said, “Actually it might be more than that. It’ll be mostly word of mouth, but I’m not planning on turning anyone away. If there’s food or beer left, the door’s open. If you want to provide some drinks, that works.” Working in Lucky’s had made him comfortable throwing open the door to whomever walked in. For the most part, people kept it together and didn’t cause much trouble. “Just uh, just don’t bring any name tags,” he teased her, remembering how he debated which side to put his on when he came to le Breeze for the beer release. Brian raised his voice. “Half this crowd doesn’t go by their legal name anyway. Right, Nikk?” A few seconds later, a balled up flyer of the bar’s entertainment schedule went sailing past their heads.
She laughed, watched the ball of paper bounce off the wall and settle on the floor. She leaned down and picked it up, unscrewing and flattening it out on the table between them. It was a very different line-up to what they hosted at le Breeze and reminded her again of the two very different worlds they lived in. "OK, I promise I won't bring nametags," she agreed with a grin. "I will send some extra kegs and some cases of the new range in your next delivery," she continued, and looked up from the flyer. "Also, we have an amazingly good pastry chef, who is also a very dab hand at pies, so I could ask her to do some pies for dessert too."
“Oh, trust me, we’re getting most of it catered. Thanksgiving’s not in Kenny’s wheelhouse.” Brian rapped his knuckles on the tabletop. “Alright. I should get to work.” The door had opened once already, flooding the interior with daylight as a traveler checked to see if they were open. “Thanks for the shirts. Let me know if I can help with the other thing. You know.” Brian held up his empty hands at Brianna as he stood up. “I’m not gonna say it’s all sunshine and rainbows in here, but I’m probably better than some.” He slid his chair under the table.
She nodded, standing up and also returning her chair. “And believe me, the whole ‘sunshine and rainbows’ thing? Over-rated,” she replied, and glanced across as the doors opened again, recognising the figure now standing there, brightly lit, and blinking owlishly as he looked into the darker bar area. “Someone has perfect timing!” she laughed, waving to Radek. “Even though they definitely didn’t leave it an hour to leave home,” she murmured to herself, imagining the immortal pacing a little impatiently after their call then departing home anyway.
With a barely perceptible intake of breath she turned to Brian and held out her hand. “I might take you up on your offer, if that’s OK, when you have some free time.”
“Yeah, no problem!” Brian stared at her hand like he’d been dragging his feet and was afraid he’d shock her on contact, then decided to go for it. He didn’t know how it worked, exactly, but just in case it helped, he drummed up a good memory of running out in the canyon during the last full moon. It was a beautiful night, the sky was clear except for a few gauzy clouds, and he was alone. “Good seeing you, Brianna.” He gave her a handshake.
Watching his face she could see the hesitation, and smiled when he finally took her hand. As they shook she allowed herself a moment, exhaling briefly. Her smile widened when she felt the wisps of night air dance across her skin and a brief glimpse of a full moon had her nod slowly. “Good to see you too, Brian.” She could feel Radek’s eyes on her and could, without looking his way, sense the eyebrows rising and the glasses being pushed back up his nose.
“I’ll talk to you before Thanksgiving,” she added, releasing his hand and turning toward Radek, indicating she was coming.