Game Theory × NH

040 | zirconium

"What about the chemistry between you two?" Lily pressed. "There has to be more-"

"Lynn!" someone shouted and I saw my boss glaring at me from a few feet away. The little amount of customers looked up to see who he was yelling at and I felt my cheeks grow warm with embarrassment. "You're late!"

"Gotta go!" I said to Lily, thankful for the interruption.

I wasn't sure where her next question was going, but there was no way I was going to answer anymore that involved Niall.

"Thank you so much, Lynn," Lily said. I could see that she was sad that she couldn't dig deeper, but she was still smiling nevertheless. "You saved my arse on this one. Maybe next time we could have a proper chat, yeah?"

"Maybe," I smiled before entering the bar and leaving Lily outside.

Dragging my feet across the wooden flooring of the bar, I slowly made my way over to the front and to the backroom to hang up my coat and put my messenger bag in a locker. I grabbed my name tag that I always stuck on the cork board that had the weekly schedule and other news and pinned it on my black V-neck shirt with the bar's logo on the small breast pocket. I then grabbed one of the many white aprons that were hanging up on the wall and started tying it around my waist.

"Do you have an excuse for being late?" my boss, Finn, asked as I exited the backroom. "This is the third time this month that you came in after your shift started."

"Ay," Jillian said as she walked by us to grab an order on the shelf. "Lay off her a little, Finny. She has to juggle football and training and all the school work. She's bustin' her arse off."

Finn looked at Jillian like if she said another word, she would get canned. But the curvy girl just stared him down right back, daring for a challenge. Finn might swear like Macey, have a face piercing like Emily, and a fiery attitude like Jamie, but right then nothing could make Jillian stand down.

"Alright, fine," he finally gave in, putting his hands up in the air. "It would just be nice if you could call saying you're going to be a little late next time. You can take the front of the bar tonight."

I nodded. "Yes, of course. Thank you."

As expected, the night didn't seem to pass by very fast. People came and went and I was getting bored. If there was any other job on campus, I would have applied for it. I was hostess during my high school days at a local Denny's and I thought that was boring. Waiting on people was so much worse. It was the same things every day, the same bad attitudes and lousy tips. I wished that Lily would come back and ask me some more questions for her article just to pass the time.

"My boyfriend's coming to see me this weekend," Jillian said enthusiastically once I was behind the counter and putting an empty glass on the counter. "I'm so excited. I haven't seen him since I got here."

"Really? How come?"

"We go to different schools." Jillian leaned against the counter and grabbed the empty glass and started cleaning it with a wet rag. "He goes to the university in Wolverhampton, which is, like, two hours away. He's planning to stay until Halloween so you'll get to meet him."

The smile on her face told me everything I needed to know about their relationship, and I was only slightly envious.

"I'm sure he's a great guy."

Jillian nodded. "The best."

"Lynn!" I heard someone shout and saw that one of my coworkers, Annie, was walking over to me. "Booth two is asking for you."

I grabbed my notepad and glanced over at Jillian who had a smug look on her face. "Here we go," I said monotonously and made my way to the booth.

As soon as I saw who was sitting, I stopped in my tracks and stared.