Just two gals having lunch Who: Izzy, Brianna What: Lunch When: 21st Nov Where: The Dillinger, Boulder City Ratings G
Brianna had spent the morning interviewing candidates for the role of assistant manager and had reached the conclusion this was going to be harder than she expected. When she looked up from her screen after making notes on the last interview she realised she needed to get a wriggle on to be on time to meet Izzy for lunch.
She had originally planned to just meet Izzy for coffee, but their schedules only lined up on the Saturday so she'd suggested lunch, her morning already booked up with the interviews. There was a place one of the concierge team had suggested was worth checking out so she had also told Izzy this was a 'recon mission' therefore Brianna's treat, and she would welcome Izzy's feedback.
Stepping from the Uber outside The Dillinger she checked out the surroundings and access, then headed to the entrance. She had booked ahead, wanting a table outside, and was soon seated, perusing the menu and sipping on her glass of water.
The Dillinger was a place Izzy had gotten to know very well over the last six months, being only ten minutes walk from her house. If she wanted a burger it was a go to spot, and the whole area around the intersection of Arizona Ave and Nevada Way had just about every kind of food or drink a young woman raised in the mecca of southern California could want.
She was glad Brianna had picked the place. If the other woman ended up being nothing more than a professional acquaintance going forward, then at least she’d get a good meal out of it. Having been out and about in Vegas earlier in the day she’d barely made it home in time to walk over and avoid hunting down a parking spot.
Spotting Brianna sitting out at a table she waved.
“Hi,” she slid into the seat across from her. “How’d your morning go? Busy?”
Brianna smiled when she saw Izzy, placing the menu on the table as she greeted her. "You could say that, yes. I had a slew of interviews with potential candidates for the position of assistant manager, and I'd forgotten how much fun that can be, not!" Even without her abilities she could read the details of micro-expressions and body language, so in that sense she'd read a book the equivalent of War and Peace. It certainly added to the complexity of the selection process.
"How has your week been?"
"Busy but that's normal when you're very much the junior member of an engineering team, and one of two licensed electrical PEs on said team." Izzy shrugged. "I get all the jobs the senior guys, and it's all guys, don't want to do. It keeps me hopping but it's a good way to learn."
She shrugged. The last few months had very much been about paying her dues and proving she knew what she was doing. As a woman, especially a young attractive one in a male dominated profession, she'd have to prove she wasn't just eye candy. It hadn't been any worse than what she'd encountered in school early on. Of course she'd been tempted to put hexes on a few people in the process, but fortunately she'd limited herself to ranting to her mother instead.
"I'd imagine you must be kept pretty busy running the show where you work and live?"
"It has been, yes, though it is quieting down a little, or at least as much as it ever does in Las Vegas, I guess," Brianna replied with a wry smile. "The owner had set up quite a good operation, though, so it almost runs itself," she added with a soft laugh. "I have a great team of people who are the backbone of the operation, and I've learned a lot from each of them."
She glanced down at the menus and opened hers again. "Shall we order? I was thinking I might order a few of the entrees, and we can share those if that's OK, and also please order whatever you'd like to have?"
"Works for me!" Izzy agreed readily. "I've been here several times and haven't been disappointed yet." She opened her menu and scanned it briefly to see what caught her interest on this occasion.
"So what do you like to do when you aren't working?"
Brianna scanned the menu, selecting the artichokes, calamari, and sweet potato fries, along with the Chinese chicken salad.
"To be honest, since I arrived four years ago my whole world has been basically centred around firstly getting my feet under the table as manager both with the staff and our suppliers, and establishing the reputation of le Breeze, especially the microbrewery. We've been granted the right to use the Brewer's Association 'independent craft brewer' seal on all our craft beers just recently, which is a great step for Manny, our master brewer."
Brianna stopped and gave an embarrassed smile, realising she was talking about work when the question had been about 'not working'. "I'm sorry, here I am going on about work and that's not what you asked, which clearly indicates that I basically don't have a life?" she admitted.
Izzy laughed but her smile was rueful. "Considering most nights and weekends the last several months I've been rehabbing my house I'm not sure I'm one to judge. What did you do in your free time when you had some?"
She decided on a grilled chicken sandwich with fries, and an IPA to wash it down.
Brianna ordered and passed the menu back to the waiter before resting and elbow on the table and her chin in her hand. "What's this thing you mentioned? Was it 'free time'? What's that?!" she laughed.
"Before here I was at university, did a bit of a high workload so again, not much in the way of a social life and what there was was usually short-lived," she said with a wry smile. "Before that I was a bit of a nerd, spent most of my time with books, or my sister." She left out the details of her ‘home life’ that meant spending most free time with her father at his lab to avoid their mother. Instead she gave Izzy an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, I'm probably about the most boring person of our time!" she admitted. "What about you? Did you grow up in California? And what was it like at university? I hear engineers are a rather different breed!"
A nod as Izzy leaned back in her seat. “I am a Californian born and raised, yes.” She gave Brianna a wry smile. “Like I said earlier, I can’t judge as my college years were about the same. I was trying to do a masters program and two minors in as short a time as possible and still get a high GPA. Call it insanity or a glutton for punishment but I did it. Then studying for my licensing exams, then finding a job out here, finding and rehabbing a house on top of that. You could say I’m finally getting back to having free time again after not having it since halfway through high school.”
Her beer arrived and she paused long enough to smile at the waiter and thank him by name. “My one guilty pleasure during that was karaoke on Friday nights. Even if I didn’t have time for anything else that week I would carve out a few hours to hit the bars and do that.”
"Oh really? You enjoy getting up in front of a crowd and performing?" Brianna asked, admiringly. "You probably have a great voice," she added, nodding her thanks as the waiter placed her drink on the table.
"What's it like, being up there in the spotlight?"
“Depends on the bar, the crowd, and the song, honestly.” Izzy had another sip of her drink, then smirked. “And how drunk everyone is. If you’re with friends and it’s a bunch of regulars, it’s a blast. If you’re a stranger and it’s your first time at that bar, it can be a little nerve wracking. The first few times I did it I was honestly scared to death, my friends almost had to drag me onto the stage, but once I got hooked I enjoyed the energy. It’s like getting high without smoking anything. Hella good.”
As Brianna listened she sipped her drink. “Interesting. One of our more permanent guests has quite a good voice. No, actually he has a really good voice. He sometimes comes down late at night, after the staff have gone, and sneaks into the restaurant where there’s a piano and plays. I’ve not heard most of the songs he plays before, and they sound as if they’re old. Some are quite haunting and others are like something sailors sing, what do they call them? Sea shanties! And all of them are in either Greek, or Italian, or Turkish or something along those lines, I don’t really know which.”
“You have long term guests?” Izzy hadn’t expected that. “I suppose with Las Vegas that makes more sense. Where did he learn them?”
"Yes, Gabe has been with us off and on for a few months now. He has a place in Searchlight also," she explained. "His family is big in shipping in the Mediterranean and he grew up amongst it all I think. He used to have a stammer as a boy and it was singing that helped him deal with it, that's why his mother started him singing." She left out the part he'd also shared, that his mother had joked with him much later, that having a stammer as a sorcerer would not be very helpful!
“I could see that.” She was no expert by any means, but singing took concentration and practice and she could see how that would help someone with a stutter if they started young. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask what someone who could afford to be a semi-permanent resident of an upscale hotel was doing living in a tiny speck of a desert town like Searchlight, but she decided against it. It wasn’t her place to ask and growing up in the community she did one learned sometimes it was better not to know.
“Do you have any other unusual guests or is he the only one?”
Brianna smiled and shook her head. She was about to claim that Gabe wasn't unusual, but stopped herself. And she wasn't about to divulge the type of request that came when his sister stayed with them recently. And the regular visits from the various immortals who always stayed would also remain private.
"We have a dedicated group of regulars who come and stay at le Breeze when in Vegas, which certainly keeps us on our toes," she offered instead. "It's one of the reasons why I'm looking for an assistant manager, the business has grown to the point where I have almost become a hermit, and a friend recently introduced me to the world outside and made me realise how much I need to 'get a life'!" she laughed, recalling fondly the night Derek had taken her on 'the tour'.
"So where would you recommend I tell Gabe to try if he was feeling like getting up on stage?"
“Well it depends on what night he wants to do it or what sort of vibe he wants.” Izzy responded without hesitation. “But honestly if I’m not going to a local bar here in town I like to go to Dino’s, on the strip. It’s an old dive bar from the rat pack era but they do karaoke Thursday through Saturday starting at 10pm. You can get a crowd to sing along and it’s just a fun vibe for me.”
“Tell you what, why don’t you see if he’d be interested and we can all go next Saturday night if he’ll be in town?”
"That sounds good, I'll check with him," Brianna replied, recognising the initial swelling of reluctance in her and pushing it down. "Let me message him," she said as the waiter arrived with the entrees, placing the various dishes on the table when Brianna indicated that they were sharing. By the time they'd finished laying it out she had sent a text off to Gabe.
"So what are you doing for Thanksgiving?" she asked as she placed her phone back in her purse.
“Unfortunately being the new kid on the engineering team I’m on call, so I can’t go home for Thanksgiving even though it’s only three hours away.” She had known it for months now, so Izzy had long since made her peace with it as the price she’d paid for a good job in the area. “I’ll probably go into the office in the morning for a few hours and get a jump on some work, then do a zoom call with my family at lunchtime. After that I really haven’t thought about it.”
"We're closed for the day, and the staff receive a gift basket of goodies for their family functions." She paused then continued, "a friend, Brian, is the manager of a saloon bar in Searchlight and is having an 'orphans' luncheon-come-afternoon, he said anyone is welcome and is letting me know what the cover charge will be. If you're at a loose end I'm sure you would be most welcome to join in!"
Izzy reached for some fries. “That sounds like as good an idea as any, so thanks.” Searchlight wasn’t that far from Boulder City and she was at loose ends anyway. She could go exercise after doing some work in the morning, and head to Searchlight after the video call with her family.
“I’ve got a family friend who runs a mechanic shop down there, but I’ve never been to the saloon.”
"I only went there just recently, to visit Brian at Lucky's, and that's the first time I've been there," Brianna responded, remembering a few of the things Radek had told her about that had happened in the tiny, trailer town. "It's apparently quite the hub of some interesting goings on," she added thoughtfully.
“So I’ve been hearing.” the blonde nodded thoughtfully, and took a bite of her chicken. Of course she knew the probable reason why it was the hub of interesting things. Now that she had free time she could start experimenting to see if she could find a way to measure magical energy, maybe one day she could predict where the strangeness would pop up next. “I’ve been out that way a few times for work, but never for anything else.”
"What part of your work takes you down to that area?" Brianna asked, a little curious as to what Izzy's job entailed.
“I’m on the water district’s renewable energy team The state has mandated that all utilities reduce their emissions by half by 2030, and be carbon neutral by 2050.” Izzy explained. “We’ve been looking at putting in solar to power the wells and sewer station that serve the town.”
"Wow! That's awesome! I didn't even know that would be possible," Brianna replied. "How does that work, I mean how does the machinery run at night, when there's no sun or wind?"
"That's one of the things we're looking at.” Izzy launched into a layman’s explanation and they continued on with the meal.