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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The rain pelted hard against the windows of the pub as I stacked the chairs atop the tables despite it only being six in the evening. Because while Seattle was known for its rain, and usually, people didn't pay much mind to it, there was always a storm or two a year where it was best to err on the side of caution. And today looked to have brought one of them.
Around three was when the weather warnings had started—the sky quickly clouding over to make it seem as though the city had been tinted with grey. Within an hour, the winds had picked up, the rain became heavier, and the thunder began to roar.
At that time, only about a quarter of the seats in the pub were full, and after a brief chat in my office between Finn and I, we'd made the executive decision to close down early. After all, we didn't need to be open if everyone would be staying indoors for the night, plus the safety of our staff was more important than the small loss in revenue. All the customers had understood and taken it quite well when we—or Finn—announced we were closing for the storm and kindly ushered them out the door, likely because of the fact we'd given them all a 20% discount on their food and drinks while cashing them out.
Once the customers had left and the sign on the door had been flipped to 'Closed', Finn had taken care of closing down the bar and the kitchen alongside our staff, while I finished up the paperwork that had kept me busy most of the day. And when everything had been squared away on my end, I'd come out of my office to see my brother had sent everyone else home. Not wanting him to shoulder all the work, I'd seen only a few tasks left needing to be done and told him that I'd handle the rest if he wanted to head home.
My offer had been received with a raised brow, but Finn had been all too happy to oblige.
That had been around twenty minutes ago, which meant that I was the only one left as the lights above me began to flicker. Once. Then again. And one more time before cutting completely and cloaking me in darkness.
"Just what I need," I grumbled, setting the chair in my hands on the table with a bit more force than necessary before stomping back towards my office.
There'd only been a handful of times when the power had gone out at the pub, but luckily, after the second time it had happened, I'd written down detailed instructions on how to get the back-up generator going on a notepad tucked away in my office. Finding the paper in my desk took a few minutes, but once I had it in my hands, I headed out into the rain, to the back of the building, and got the generator going.
Sprinting back to the pub's side entrance, I shook the water off me once the door had shut behind me, and when I looked up, I noticed I was no longer alone. Sadie had parked herself in one of the bar stools, and spun around to face me.
Before she could talk though, I held up a finger. "Give me a minute to check the power came back on in the kitchen, because if I don't double check and the freezer is still down, Finn will surely kill me."
"Have at it," she said, not minding the rudeness as I left her sitting there and headed to the kitchen.
Luckily, everything seemed to be up and in working order, putting my mind at ease.
