The Casanovas (2)

08 | The Casanovas

Sam began cleaning out the glasses behind the bar before the evening punters began to crawl in for a night of social drinking. It wasn't his night to work but a short notice call from Joe Collins the pub owner, or Old Collin's as everyone liked to call him, soon changed that. Sam was never one to turn down overtime and he liked the bar work.

'The Jester' was a small but well-loved local. Rectangular in shape the bar sat centre stage, scratched to high heaven and lined with wooden stools, some of which had worn to the shape of the punters who came most nights. A pool table was stationed left next to the door for those who didn't like to drink idly and small, uneven tables littered the floor towards the old tv that hung on the far right wall. Next to the tv was a door that led to two toilets Sam had had to fix too many times to count and behind the bar was a staple kitchen, stairs leading to the cellar where all the kegs were stored and the back entrance where staff hung their belongings. It was simple and almost everything inside the pub had been there since it had opened, including the punters. Sam had become a staple part of that furniture too, having worked the bar for two years.

Amelia sauntered up to the bar and leant over it. Amelia was a much appreciated new addition to the team and as Old Collin's said: "Introduced a women's touch."

She was one of the reasons Sam didn't mind the overtime.

"So are we going to talk about it?" She asked pointedly.

Sam glanced at her briefly before he continued cleaning. "About what?"

Amelia sighed loudly. "About Wilton!"

Sam frowned at her as he exchanged glasses, his lips quirked up at the edges in the smallest of smiles.

"Right, what about him?" He said slowly.

Amelia fiddled with some of the beer mats. "Well, I thought you didn't like anyone at school, and when he turned up you were moaning about him and now all of a sudden you're hanging out at one another's houses-"

"Who told you that?" Sam interrupted.

Amelia waved her left hand about dismissively. "Oh, I heard Tom mention it to Charlie on the way home."

Sam rolled his eyes and shook his head. He disapproved of everyone knowing his business, although it amused him to know just how fixated Charlie was on them both it was kind of pitiful.

"What's going on with you, he's not your type of person" Amelia added.

Sam shrugged one shoulder. "He seems alright to me."

"No" Amelia whined, "he's so arrogant and he's all weird and shady." Her tiny body shuddered dramatically. "He gives me the creeps."

Sam chuckled at her. "Well, you've got to be a bit weird to flip off the whole school. He's got some serious balls not being afraid of Charlie unlike everyone else."

Amelia scowled. "Don't be like that, you make him out to be some kind of monster" she mumbled.

Sam grabbed a new glass and rose a single eyebrow at her.

Amelia placed a hand on her hip. "He's not that bad, he has his issues just like you do."

Sam resented being compared to Charlie. He turned his back on her to start polishing a new shelf of glasses, the ones he kept an eye on so they didn't go missing in the busy hours. He did his best to go above and beyond in the bar, the job was only part-time but the money went far and the whole family relied on it. When he finished school he hoped to apply for bar manager until he figured out what he wanted to do with himself.