Action (DNF)

Chapter 41: Meeting

George POV

“Thank you again for the ride Clay.” I smiled at the blond as he pulled the car to a stop in front of the bar. “You don’t have to wait around for this meeting to finish, I can just walk home after this.”
“Nonsense.” He replied. “I don’t have any plans today, and since you told me yourself that you aren’t working, we could go and do something fun afterwards.”

“That sounds nice, but this could take ages. My boss, Schlatt, does like to go on rants a lot, and they often have nothing to do with whatever it is we are meant to talk about.”
“I’m fine waiting, George.” He reassured. “You just have your meeting and I’ll be waiting here to give you a ride home afterwards.”

I huffed at him before checking the time on my phone. It was still a few minutes until 11am, but Schlatt always liked it when his employees were early, so he’d likely be in a good mood if I was ready and waiting before I was meant to. Before I headed inside though I took a moment to fix up my clothes in the mirror, with Clay admiring me as I did.

“Plus,” he decided to add on. “I want to be able to see you looking gorgeous in my clothes for as long as possible. You just seem so small and cute in them.” I rolled my eyes before telling the blond that I’d see him soon and heading inside.

The door was unlocked and the lights were all on inside, plus I could hear the faint tapping of a keyboard, all signs that Schlatt was already here and doing work in his office. After taking another moment to fix up my clothes again, I headed behind the bar and into the backroom which had a door which led to his office.

It was slightly ajar and I could see Schlatt from the moment I stepped into the backroom. With a couple quick strides I moved over to the door and knocked to get his attention. My boss spun around in his chair after hearing the knocking and grinned at me the moment he saw me. “Hello George,” he greeted. “You are a few minutes early.”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I didn’t want to keep you waiting.” I replied, still standing in the doorway and waiting for an invitation from the man to come and sit down.
“Well that’s great.” He smiled while standing up after quickly shutting down his computer.

“Now, how about we go and talk in the main room, since nobody’s going to be here for a while we may as well take up some more space than my cramped little office.” I just nodded, since he was the boss and any little thing that I could do to get myself higher up in his good books was a plus.

I headed back into the main room with him tailing after me, and he motioned for me to sit down in front of the bar. “I’ll get us both a drink, on the house.” He explained. “It’s been a while since I’ve actually done that. I own five different bars around London so I’m always too busy doing paperwork to actually make the drinks.”

As I got settled in the central seat I watched the man grabbing two glasses. “Now, what can I get for you George?” I muttered about just having a glass of juice and he nodded going on a rambling tangent as he complied. “That’s what I like about you George, several other guys all want free alcohol any chance they get, but you just want a glass of this five dollar juice.”

I nodded at him as he worked. Schlatt was an American who had moved to the UK for who knows what reason. He set up a chain of bars around London, and has some other bars and pubs around the UK that he still gets some income for, despite not working there or having a hand in running their business.

Because of the fact that he ran so many bars and that they were all surprisingly profitable, he often got himself free drinks, and I raised a brow seeing the size of the glass of alcohol he poured himself. Once he’d finished he passed me over the glass of juice before moving to sit next to me.

“So what was it you wanted to talk to me about?” I asked after having a sip of my juice, all the while watching as he began taking huge mouthfuls of his alcohol.
“Well…” He paused for a moment, seemingly considering what he should say to me. “I wanted to talk to you about your work, and about how you’ve been in the past few weeks.”

“Did I do something wrong?” I asked, noting his tone. He spoke in a way that made me feel like he was about to tell me off for something, and I feared the worst.
He hesitated for a couple of seconds, taking the time to have another sip of his beer. Then he nonchalantly gave the answer of ‘somewhat’.

My eyes widened as he said that, immediately beginning to feel nauseous. I set my juice down and could feel tears threatening to appear on my face but I took a few deep breaths to keep myself composed. “What do you mean by somewhat?” I dared to ask.

“I’ve been noticing your behaviour for the past few weeks. A few times now you’d change shifts or leave work early without letting me know. Take the other day for example. You left Wilbur alone to close up so you could accompany a drunken customer home.” Schlatt stated.
“Oh, you mean Clay?” I asked, trying to calm myself as I spoke. “He’s-uh my boyfriend.”

“And that’s another thing.” Schlatt noted. “You know that it’s against the rules to have your friends or family members from your personal life hanging around the bar.”
“But he was a paying customer.” I tried to defend myself. “It’s not like I had him sitting in the corner so I could talk to my boyfriend during my shift instead of working.”

“I understand that. But that still doesn’t change the fact that you both arrived with him, and left with him, and the fact that you left early.” He explained. “There was also yesterday. You caused a huge group of people to come to the bar and it both annoyed and worried our regulars.”
“That wasn’t my fault.” I protested. “I was approached by a reporter. He told them about me.”

“And you are the first person to have a reporter coming in to search for them at work.” Schlatt noted. “Plus, this one might not be solely on you, but most of the other employees seem to have issues with you. Only three of your coworkers have not made some form of complaint towards you.” I felt somewhat nauseous again as he said that but continued to keep quiet.

“So, because of these issues I have decided to let you go.” His voice spoke more softly this time, talking to me like I was a child. “You are a great employee but it is what I believe is best for the company. I hope you understand.” He moved to shake my hand after saying that, almost as if he was just doing basic business instead of talking about my job, and my future.

I didn’t respond, taking a few shallow breaths as I nodded while tears pricked at my eyes. Still though, I gave no verbal responses, instead simply standing up and beginning to walk out of the bar. Schlatt called out to me as I walked off, saying that he’d give me a good reference for whatever my next job is but I ignored him.

Clay’s car was still waiting for me in front of the bar, and without saying anything to him, I simply climbed into the passenger seat and began crying.
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1344 words