Excerpt: Three to the Game

Three to the Game

By: Natalie Dawn LeBlanc
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Chapter 1

“I lost The Game.”

Dakota O’Neil groaned as she heard the words, and turned towards her newest co-worker, “Demitri, you’re a jerk.”

Chell, her other new co-worker, raised an eyebrow in question, “What are you talking about?”

“No!” Dakota waved her hands in front of her, “Don’t ask! You’re better off not knowing.”

“Too late,” Demitri winked at Dakota, then turned to Chell, “The Game is simple. The goal of The Game is forget you’re playing. So, as soon as you think of the game, you loose.”

“That sounds stupid,” Chell rolled her eyes, “What if I don’t want to play?”

“Well, you have no choice,” He countered, “As soon as you know about The Game, you’re automatically playing.”

Chell narrowed her eyes, “That doesn’t make any sense. Obviously it’s up to me if I’m playing or not, isn’t it?”

Dakota sighed and shook her head, “You can fight it for a little bit, but you’ll eventually find yourself playing anyway.”

“Whatever, can we get back to what we were doing?”

“Right,” Dakota clapped her hands, “Where was I before Demitri so graciously interrupted us?”

She put her hands on her hips and took a look at the two of them. She’d been working at O’Brian’s pub for over 4 years. She’d recently been put in charge while the owner was visiting his family in Ireland. Unfortunately, his visit lasted well past Saint Patrick’s day, which meant that she had to organise it this year.

She’d originally taken the news with a grain of panic, but at this point, she was fairly calm. So maybe hiring new staff two months in advance was a bit paranoid. But if she wanted them to be in top shape by the time Saint Paddy’s day rolled around, they needed time to get used to the daily grind.

And so, she had hired Demitri Hyde and Chell Pearson. While Demitri showed a lot of potential as a bartender, she was a bit worried about Chell. The woman was very reserved, and seemed to have some confidence issues regarding her weight. True, she was a bit chubby and big boned, but still quite pretty, with a round face, dark brown eyes, and short blonde hair in a bob cut. Unfortunately, if she looked like she wasn’t confident, then the customers wouldn’t take her seriously.

Relax, Dakota, She reminded herself, She’ll probably be fine. She just needs to open up a little.

Demitri, on the other hand, radiated confidence. It didn’t hurt that he was a looker. He had dark brown hair that was almost black, green eyes, and tanned skin. Plus, he had a killer body, and Dakota was not ashamed to admit that she had snuck a peek at his butt more than once that day. To top it off, he was a shameless flirt, which she was sure the female customers would love.

Definite potential.

“So, since neither of you have worked bartending before,” She started, “It’s pretty different from any other job. Kind of like waitressing, only everyone’s drunk.”

She started pacing, playing with the ends of her hair nervously, “It’s really something you have to experience to understand. Ugh, I’m sorry, I’m not explaining this well at all…”

Why was she having such a hard time with this? She had no trouble dealing with large drunken men hitting on her, even though she was rather petite, but for some reason she couldn’t figure out how to train these two properly.

“Hey, you’re doing fine,” Demitri shrugged, “If you want, you can blame me for throwing you off track, earlier.”

She shook her head, “I’m just nervous. I’ve never trained people before. Okay, why don’t we take a break or something so I can get my head together?”

“That sounds fine,” Chell grabbed a nearby chair and sat down, “If you don’t mind my asking, though, you said you were hiring for Saint Patrick’s day, right? But it’s still January. It can’t take that long to train us, even if you’re having a hard time with it.”

“I want Saint Patrick’s day to be perfect this year,” Dakota smiled sheepishly, taking a seat herself, “It might seem a bit silly, but… It’s the first time I’m in charge of it.”

“Oh, it’ll be fine,” Demitri reassured her, “We just need to keep the drunk people happy, right?”

Dakota massages her temple, “Er… In the simplest sense…”

“By the way,” Chell moved her chair closer to Dakota’s, “Did you change the colour of the streaks in your hair? I could have sworn they were pink during the interview…”

Dakota let out a laugh and reached up to the now blue strands that sat among her normally dirty blonde hair, “They’re clip on extensions, actually. I’ve got tons of them at home.”

“Oh, that’s neat,” She smiled, “I wish I could pull off colours like that in my hair… But my husband thinks it’s weird, so he wouldn’t let me hear the end of it.”

“One of the advantages of being single, I guess,” Dakota shrugged, “Though the disadvantages are many…”

Demitri laughed, “Well, I’d help you out with that, but alas, I swing the other way.”

“Thanks for the thought,” She flashed him a smile, though in her heart, she let out a disappointed sigh. Damn it, why were the good looking ones always gay?
“Anyway,” She shook her head, then stood back up, “How about we just go over different drink mixes? Most people will get either beers or coolers, but you’ll still get the occasional people who want mixed drinks. We have a list behind the bar of the most common ones, but it’s doesn’t hurt to have them memorised. The internet is a pretty good resource, too.”

Urgh, this conversation is going nowhere. Damn it, it’s too early to be writing these transitional notes already! T_T. Oh, well, onto random other scenes…

As Dakota locked the door for the nights, Demitri leaned on the wall next to her, “By the way, do you have any relatives or anything that works for Paragon Networks?”

“Yeah, actually,” Dakota gave him a weird look, “My mom does. Maureen O’Neil. She’s a programmer.”

“I thought you looked familiar! You look a lot like her.”

“Did you used to work there or something?” She asked.

“Yeah, I worked in recruiting. It wasn’t very glorious, though. It was pretty boring work.”

“Are you serious?! You worked for Paragon Networks?!” Chell exclaimed, looking slightly angry.

Demitri frowned, “Yes… Why, is there something wrong with that?”

Chell didn’t answer, instead just glared daggers at him for a moment before turning and shaking her head, “Nevermind. It’s nothing. I’ll see you two tomorrow.”

“Um… Did I miss something?” Dakota raised an eyebrow as Chell walked off, “What’s wrong with Paragon Networks? I’ve heard nothing but good things about the company from mom.”

“Who knows?” He laughed, though Dakota had a feeling that there was something more he wasn’t telling her. Still, she decided to let it go.

“Well, anyway, I need to go catch the subway. I’ll see you tomorrow, alright?”

“I’m the other way… Did you want me to walk you there? It’s pretty late…”

“Oh, please,” Dakota laughed, “I’ve been walking this route at three in the morning since I first started working here. It’s a well lit street, and I have pepper spray. I’ll be fine.”

“If you say so,” He waved at her and took off down the street.

“Later!” She called out, then turned the other way towards the nearest subway entrance.

She had to admit, she’d been fairly nervous about being outdoors this late when she’d first started working at O’Brian’s. The streets of New York City weren’t known to be friendly, after all. But she quickly learned what routes to take that were safe. She occasionally got approached by creeps, but she knew how to defend herself in a crisis.

As she’d told Demitri, she had pepper spray.

End of Chapter 1