As an up-and-coming social media influencer, Sadie Dwyer has had enough of the expectations thrust upon her and is finally ready to start living life on her own terms. Goodbye cushy corporate finance job, goodbye Los Angeles, and hello fresh start...
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"Looks like hiring Sadie was a good idea, eh?" Finn walked up next to me as I leaned over the bar, nudging my arm and causing the pen in my hand to streak across the stock order I was crafting. I shot him an irritated look. "Oops, sorry."
I sighed exasperatedly. "It's fine." Double-checking the page in front of me, I made sure nothing had become unreadable before finishing up the remainder of the order. "And when have you last heard me say it was a bad idea?"
"Come on, man. You know you had major reservations about it, but she's proved herself to be a great asset for us."
"I'm not disagreeing with you," I said, signing off on the order before waving them between us. "After all, the numbers speak for themselves."
It'd been three weeks since she'd signed the contract in my office, and while a lot of her work was still veiled from the public—including the new website she was building and hoped to have done in the next few weeks—she'd been using her social media skills to give the pub an online presence. She had created profiles for our pub on all major platforms and had gotten into the habit of posting nearly daily to bring engagement up across the board. It was something that seemed so incredibly simple, but I knew she put a lot of thought into it.
What she was doing appeared to be drawing in more and more customers. After all, this was the second week in a row we'd upped our liquor and beer order numbers, our overall sales were inching upwards, and for the first time since we'd opened our doors, we'd had to form a small lineup on Friday and Saturday night. It'd been shocking when our night manager had stopped me on my way out to tell me that, and after seeing the line with my own two eyes on Friday, I felt a small thrill knowing people were keen to support us.
"I just hope things don't completely crash and burn once her contract is up," Finn said.
"I mean, obviously things might slow down and level out in terms of customers, but everything will be up and running by then—the website, the ads, the social accounts. We'll either just ask her to keep the social accounts active and pay her for each new post, or we can hire someone else to do it periodically. Either way, I don't see things falling back to where they used to be."
Agreeing with a nod, he replied optimistically. "You're right. You're right."
"Well, I'll leave you to prep for opening," I said, clapping him on the shoulder as I scooted around him. "I just need to go through stock in the kitchen before submitting this order, and then I'll be heading out for the day." This wasn't an uncommon occurrence—me coming in early once a week to go over our stock before taking the rest of the day off. It was a midweek refresh for me, and since I was rarely needed in the front of the pub, Finn had never minded. "Let me know if you need anything."
"Will do."
Just before I stepped into the back, however, the front door of the pub opened and a man around our age stepped inside. Not one of our employees showing up early, but a stranger. He was tall, with short blond hair, and he wore a pair of khaki pants with a short sleeved floral button down, all accompanied by a look of confusion as he cast his gaze around the empty pub.
