Just Business

Chapter Four: David

 The interview invite arrived unceremoniously in his email inbox, but David was still ecstatic when he saw it. It still seemed unreal, the whole application. He had expected to hear nothing, but here he was, resting his whole future on a small blue line in an email. The link to his zoom call, scheduled for the day after tomorrow.

"You can't be messing up like that once the camera's are here," Amanda commented when David almost served a man a Strongbow in place of an Aspalls. She was David's deputy manager, and had saved his ass on more than one occasion with her mountains of hospitality experience.

"The cameras will love me. I've got a pretty face and a cute accent," David replied, pouring the correct pint.

"Keep telling yourself that," Amanda told him. "Maybe someday all your dreams will come true."

"What, you don't find me irresistibly and effortlessly charming?"

"Hey now," Amanda said, wagging her finger at him. "You can't give me a pay cut if I'm honest."

"You're so mean to me."

"If it makes you feel any better, it's not just you. I'd never find any man 'irresistibly and effortlessly charming'."

"Good," David replied. "Men ain't worth it."

He handed the correct drink to the patron, taking payment with a smile.

"Hey, I need the toilet," Amanda said suddenly. "Can you handle this all?"

Before David could confirm, probably sarcastically seeing as this was his place so of course he could handle it, Amanda rushed off. It didn't take long for him to see why, and reconsider how capable he was.

Marcia was standing at the bar, her adorable nose flushed red. David's heart skipped a beat and he cursed his drunken self for ever admitting his crush to Amanda.

"Hey there, what can I get for you?" he asked, his voice an octave too low to be natural. God, he hoped she didn't notice. His voice always got low when he was anxious or nervous, a layover from having much older brothers who teased him mercilessly when his voice had first broken.

"Three pints of Aspalls please," she replied.

For a moment they smiled at each other. Then the moment became too long, and David didn't know how to break it.

"Is that all?" he asked dumbly, finally going to start pouring the first pint.

"Yup, just those three."

Another several painfully awkward beats passed in silence. Things had never been easy between them (much to his annoyance), but knowing she was trying to steal everything he had worked so hard for was not helping. He wished he could outright hate her for it, but something told him he could never hate Marcia Turner.

"How's the book shop going?" he asked, hoping he sounded casual. Clearly not casual enough, though, as Marcia stood up straighter, something hardening in her eyes.

"Very well," she responded curtly. "Obviously, we're not a very big location, but we make things work."

David's blood temperature rose as he started pouring the second pint. Was she trying to say she needed to take over the Raven on Tap, that she needed or deserved the space more than he did?

"A lot of independent businesses could do with more space," he said pointedly, "We certainly wouldn't turn it down if it was offered."

Marcia's face turned thunderous as David placed the second pint down, moving to begin the third and final.