Who: Beau Waites and Demi Rafferty Where: The Bar When: 10/9, early afternoon What: Newcomer Beau stops by The Bar to chat with Demi about the part time bouncer position
Walking through a crowd The village is aglow Kaleidoscope of loud Heartbeats under coats Everybody here Wanted something more Searching for a sound we hadn't Heard before And it said Welcome...
After some considerable cajoling, Beau had finally managed to convince Gabe to watch the girls while he went out to interview about the part time bouncer position at “The Bar” he had heard about. It wasn’t as if babysitting was a new venture for his son; he’d done it often enough and was usually amenable to watching his younger siblings but some days were more of an uphill battle with his oldest than others. Ironing out the details with Gabe had taken longer than anticipated (to say nothing about the slight case of nerves Beau had fended off about leaving Gabe home alone in a new place, even though he knew deep down he had no reason to be) and so he’d set out a bit later for the interview than he had expected. Thankfully, the manager of the aptly named tavern had been both exceedingly nice and very accommodating in arranging an open meeting time; especially considering both her and the owner had only just gotten out of quarantine the day before.
Beau took to the place immediately; the decor spoke of understated class, familiarity and easy comfort. Everything about the design was thoughtful; Beau could see the pride and confidence the owner had in the place in every fixture, bottle and booth. The puzzles were a nice touch, he thought with amusement. After giving himself a small tour, Beau approached a young, capable looking lady behind one of the counters, hoping she was the woman he was here to see.
“Hi there, you wouldn’t happen to be Demi, would you?” Beau asked politely. For a tall man of muscular stature, Beau made a point to be as approachable and affable as possible, especially at a first encounter. People are sometimes thrown off by his size, or the depth of his voice, but Beau usually only needed to spend a few moments with someone to be able to establish a friendly rapport.
“My name is Beau...Beauregard Waites? I’m here about the part time position?”
Demi could admit in all honesty she wasn't quite yet back in the swing of things concerning The Bar. A month was a long time to be away, and over half a month was an even longer time to have a place closed like this. While she would have loved to have locked herself up in the apartment with Isaac and refused to leave until they had adequately made up for lost time -- being a business owner just wouldn't allow for that, at least not yet. So reluctantly she had opened the bar, though she had told her staff that they could feel free to take another day off and come in for the Halloween party that was already very much in the works.
Another thing about being gone for a month is lord knows what the inventory would look like. Which was why Demi had a legal pad of paper and pen in her hand as she sorted through what they still had in stock -- which was thankfully exactly what they had had the day they had closed the doors over a month ago. Still, you just never knew. Even though scavenging was illegal, it was still better to be safe than to be sorry.
Even while she had been deep in her project, she had noticed the man come in earlier and was not at all surprised when he approached her. Nor was she intimidated by him. Demi had grown up around men like him, burly looking men who most anyone else would give a wide berth too. She wouldn't though, which was why she flashed him a smile as she replied. "I would be, actually,"
Her smile grew as he gave his name and explained he was here about the part time position. "The bouncer job?" Demi asked for clarification, even though she now knew that Beau was the man she had already spoken to over the freenet.
“I mean, I know how to open up a beer bottle, pour a glass of wine, and bus a table but anything beyond that is pretty much out of my wheelhouse,” Beau replied with a smile. “So yeah, definitely the bouncer position.”
“You can never have too many people around here who know how to do that,” Demi remarked with a upturn of her mouth. "But I have to admit you sure fit the bouncer type," she added with a small laugh. "Or at least you'll make my patrons think twice before pulling shit in here."
“That’s the idea,” Beau said with a deep chuckle. He liked Demi already. She shot from the hip and said exactly what she meant, which he both admired and appreciated. “Usually it only takes a side eye or a stern talking to from me when people start getting riled up but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thrown someone out before. Hopefully it won’t have to come to that but I’m not shy about escorting people out and putting them in cabs when they’re out of line. They’ll think twice about acting a fool in your place if I’m on board.”
Demi had to admit she liked Beau already. In all honesty she had liked him since their conversation on the freenet. The fact that he wasn’t afraid to talk himself up and point out how much of an assets he would be to The Bar. “I don’t doubt that we would be the better for having you on board,” she began. “It sounds as if you’ve had experience as a bouncer before?” Demi really wasn’t hinging her decision on that, but it wouldn’t hurt if he actually already knew what the job entailed and she wouldn’t have to walk him through it.
Even while she spoke she was still busy with the inventory list, glancing up and then back to it so that Beau wouldn’t feel as if she wasn’t putting importance on this interview.
Beau looked down at the pad of paper on the counter.
“I could help you with that, you know. While we talk.”
“Oh,” Demi decided then and there that he was in fact the nice guy she had pegged him as. “If you’re offering god knows I’m not going to say no, darling,” she continued, glancing at her list and then back up to him. “Could you tell me watch exactly we have left on the top shelf?” yes, she had been putting that off because it required a stool -- but for Beau it would be easy.
“Absolutely,” Beau acquiesced with an easy grin, stepping back to look up at the shelf. He listed the bottles slowly, waiting for Demi to note the label and the amount on the pad before moving on to the next item. He peppered in questions as they worked through the inventory.
“So, have you always been in the bar business or is this a fairly new venture?” Beau knew from living through Chicago’s reclaiming that things like bars, restaurants and the like were slow getting back on their feet after the geeks took over. It wasn’t easy making something in the service industry work when the government is in shambles, the monetary system is all out of whack and the economy is in the toilet but from what he knew about Chicago, when it a place found its clientele it could be exceedingly lucrative. But Austin wasn’t Chicago and Beau knew the city still had a long ways to go before it got back on it’s feet.
With a shake of her head, Demi glanced up from the pad of paper. “No, I mean, not really. My dad and his buddy’s had their clubhouse, but it wasn’t technically a bar.” She wasn’t ashamed of her dad’s motorcycle club background, so if Beau asked for further clarification she would give it. While Beau didn’t know Demi well enough to ask it, the term “clubhouse” did sort of spark his interest; it conjured up images of secret societies, underground lodges or, at the very least, someone’s off the books brewery in dirty basement somewhere. He filed away the information for another time. Perhaps he could tease out a few more details if he ended up working under Demi.
“So I guess you could say it’s a newer venture, my boyfriend found the place abandoned earlier this year and we claimed it as ours.” Demi felt like that had almost been a eon ago now, when in reality it had been just over six months. “He’s the commissioner for the department of Justice, actually, and before the world went to hell I was a ballet dancer.” She had a notion to start teaching again, maybe -- but first she wanted to get settled again after the month from hell they had had.
“The ballet dancer and a commissioner?” Beau asked, after relaying another set of stats from the second shelf. “Sounds like a fairy tale of sorts. So it was one of those ‘opposites’ attract type deals? My wife -” Beau froze. Why had he said that? He cleared his throat, avoiding Demi’s gaze. “I mean, I know how that works. I’d be pleased to meet him, your guy. Hang out with the commish in the flesh.” He quickly rattled off another set of inventory numbers, hoping Demi didn’t notice his blunder.
“I don’t know if you could call it a fairy tale necessarily, I was considered a criminal when we met and he was the poor soul saddled with keeping me in custody,” Much like her history with motorcycle clubs, she wasn’t about to hide the fact she had been in La Quinta and considered a criminal, even if she had been mostly innocent of any real crime. “We’re definitely opposites though, which you’ll pick up on when you meet him, which I’m sure will happen,” she took another pause. Demi had noticed the slip about Beau’s wife, wasn’t about to directly comment on it -- not when he had been so quick to move past it. “So what was it you did before coming to Austin?” Demi fired back as she went back to scribbling down the inventory as Beau listed things off. “And did you come here alone?”
So Demi had noticed his slip up. It wasn’t as if he didn’t want to talk about Rae; it’s just that he thought that if he started he wasn’t sure if he could stop. It was probably healthy to talk about her, part of the mourning process or whatever, and something told him Demi probably wouldn’t mind, but when it came down to it this was a job interview and this woman could potentially be his boss. They might be friends one day but right now he didn’t want to appear to be as broken as he felt. Still, she had been decent enough to honest with him about her past; Beau felt he owed her to be at least as truthful about his own.
“I was, and still am, a preschool teacher,” Beau replied. Perhaps if he mentioned being alone quickly, it would be like ripping off a band-aid. It would be out there then and the pain would pass quickly.
“The city offered me a really tempting incentive package, complete with this frankly amazing reclaimed living space, but the actual salary isn’t all that great. Hence, me being here about the part time job. It’s just me and my three kids now. My wife, she...she passed away eight months ago.” There, that wasn’t so hard. He moved passed it like it didn’t kill him to mention Rae; he’d always been a pretty good actor when he wanted to be. “My middle kid, Bree, she’s acclimating pretty well to the move and the little one, Lucinda, is young enough to bounce back from just about anything. It’s my oldest, Gabe, that’s taking the relocation the hardest. But, I mean, teenagers.” Beau said teenagers in a tone like it explained everything.
Demi’s eyes went a little wide in surprise when Beau explained he was preschool teacher. She remembered his freenet post, but she had kind of assumed it was a new gig he was picking up -- not something he had been doing before. “You must have the patience of a saint,” Demi began with a laugh. “I used to teach ballet before Austin fell into chaos, I loved it, but children can be like trying to herd cats.” That wasn’t to say she hadn’t thought about having her own, especially now that she felt more confident in looking towards a future with Isaac. Whatever surprise had been on her face quickly turned to sympathy as Beau mentioned his wife’s passing.
“Oh sweetheart, I’m sorry to hear that,” Demi began, reaching out and laying a comforting hand on his arm. “Isaac -- my guy --, he lost his wife to this mess too,” She didn’t dwell further on it though, because he had mentioned kids and parents were always keen to talk about their children, right? “Your girls sounds lovely, and also are lucky that they’re at an age where they’re more resilient,” Demi paused. “And having been a teenager with an attitude, I don’t envy you in regards to your son,” she laughed. “I do know someone else with a moody teenager you might be able to commiserate with in the future.”
Beau nodded and patted her hand on his arm, acknowledging Demi’s sympathy even if he couldn’t really bring himself to expand upon his grief. The knowledge that her boyfriend, this man Isaac, had also lost a wife didn’t necessarily surprise him (everyone had lost somebody in the sickness and, in most cases, more than one somebody) but the fact that he’d moved on and met someone as lovely as Demi made Beau pause. When Rae died, he’d resigned himself to a solitary life. If Isaac had loved his wife even half as much as Beau had loved Rae, he’d likely felt the same and yet he wasn’t alone. He met a wonderful girl, had two successful jobs and, for all intents and purposes, had a full and happy life. It didn’t give Beau hope, exactly, but it did make him think. He jumped on Demi’s subject change, indebted that she had the kindness and intuition to steer clear of things he wasn’t ready to go into detail about yet.
“I don’t know about the whole sainthood thing,” he said as she moved her hand from his arm and picked up the notepad again. “But I really do love teaching, even if it isn’t the most lucrative profession. That being said, you should give me some names of these friends of yours with the moody teenagers. Maybe we can form a support group where we try to decipher modern slang words and bitch about our kid’s hemlines being too high and their pants riding too low.”
“You work with children and raise a teenager, I think that qualifies you,” Demi remarked with a soft laugh. “I can give you names, but I have to confess up front that one of them has a bit of a colorful background,” a beat passed in which Beau simply shrugged before she added. “And the other is raising teenage girls, but I think she could still be a help.” Another laugh escaped her in response to the hemlines and pants. “Just don’t let them catch you bitching, I know when my dad made remarks like that it just made me more determined to wear what I wanted.” And to this day her hemlines were likely still much shorter than her father would have ever liked.
Beau listed off the last of the shelves’ contents and watched as Demi jotted them down. It felt so natural to carry on a normal conversation with her that he’d almost forgotten he was here for a job interview.
“Did you have any questions for me? About the job, I mean? You’re so easy to talk to I kinda forgot what we were doing here.”
“Good, in case you hadn’t noticed I’m not a real stickler for professional behaviour, so if I got you to forget this is an interview I’m going to count that as a win,” Demi began with a bright smile. “And honestly I think you learn more about a person when you just get them talking than if you fire a list of questions at them. So in truth I don’t have any. Drunk bar goers aren’t much different than defiant toddlers or moody teenagers and it sounds like you handle those two just fine, so I don’t have any doubts about you doing the bouncer job well.” She set her notepad aside then and look at Beau. “So the job is yours if you want it.”
Beau’s eyes went a bit wide in surprise. He hadn’t expected things to go quite so well quite so quickly but he had to remind himself for what seemed like the upteeth time that things were different here. Like with a lot of the people he had already met in Austin, Demi seemed to follow the same mindset of nothing to lose and no time to waste. Beau’s expression quickly transformed from surprise to pleased contentment.
“I’d like that. I’d like that a hell of a lot.”
Beau also liked that Demi was the sort of person that went with their gut feeling and shot from the hip - especially when doing so ended up working so well in his favor. But even if he hadn’t been offered the job he would have walked out of this place with an excellent impression of the manager and of the establishment but, as it turned out, he had ample time and reason to get to know both. Beau found himself looking forward to it. He stuck out his hand for her to shake.
“Thank you, Demi. Really.” He looked around at the rest of the establishment and, after a moment’s hesitation, offered, “How many more high shelves you got that need a good look over?”
A pleased smile appeared on Demi’s face as Beau confirmed he would take the job. Sure, her hiring tactics weren’t at all normal or all that professional, but she had a sense about him and didn’t think she would regret offering him the job so quickly. So with the smile still in place Demi took Beau’s hand and gave it a shake. “You’re welcome, Beau. Though I feel like I should be thanking you, honestly.” After all he was filling a role they very much needed. Sure, they had guys in each night who were more than happy to step in and play bouncer, but nobody whose actual job it was.
With a laugh and a glance around The Bar, Demi answered his question. “About three, but don’t feel obligated to stay. I can always get Isaac to help me with them later, when he’s done in the Capitol.” She would hate to keep Beau from his children for longer than she already had. “But, if you don’t have anywhere you need to be and your children will be alright, I also wouldn’t mind getting it done now.” While she didn’t want to keep him, she also didn’t want to make it seem as if she were running him out of The Bar.
Whatever he chose, to stay or go. Demi was just pleased to have made another hire at The Bar. One she felt was a great addition, both in role, and as a person -- because so far near as she could tell Beau was one of those rare nice guys that people spoke about.