Sign On The Dotted Line

Chapter 8

Beth

I wiped down the bar with a huff. This has by far been the worst shift I've worked at the bar. In the 5 hours, I was here, I've had multiple people ask about my relationship with Claire. I wasn't annoyed that they were curious, but they would ask questions about our sex life. In what relationship would people think it's ok to ask these questions?!

If they weren't asking about my sex life, men were trying to convince me that I just haven't met the right guy. It was at that moment that I realized that Joe wasn't there to protect me but to protect the douchbags that decided to congregate at the bar tonight. 

He put his hands on my shoulders and steered me away from their predatory eyes and whispered in my ear, "they're not worth it." I looked up at him with anger still in my eyes, "did you see the way they were mocking my relationship?" I leaned in closer, "even if it isn't real."

Joe nodded, "I saw and that's why I came to get you before you punched their faces in. As much as I hate to say it, kid, but your actions aren't just going to reflect on you now. It affects Claire too."

My anger went away almost immediately. Joe was right, everything I did was going to be linked to Claire and I didn't want any bad publicity for her. I let out a sigh, "you're right. Thanks for reminding me." He gave me a smile, "I talked to Dave and he said that you can cut early."

I turned towards Dave's office and found him already looking at me with a compassionate expression. He nodded towards the front door and then disappeared into his office.

"Just give me a minute and I'll meet you outside," I turned to Joe. He gave me a hesitant look that made me roll my eyes, "I won't punch anyone on the way out, I promise."

He chuckled before he left. I turned to grab my things when I walked by another guy, "Hey, nice ass."

I gave him a disgusted look before I brushed him off, "my girlfriend seems to think so too, asswipe."

He opened his mouth but I held a hand up, "if the next words aren't an apology, you can kindly fuck off." I walked away before he could reply and my bad mood was back.

Just as I was about to walk out the door, Eric grabbed my elbow, "Beth, can you look over our set list for next weekend?"

I closed my eyes in frustration, this was the last place I wanted to be and every minute I was here was just adding to my anger.

I let out a sigh and extended my palm for the paper. After doing a quick skim of the set list, "Eric, these songs are way too low for Amy to sing comfortably. Even if she was an Alto singer, which I'm pretty sure she's not because her voice is annoyingly high, there are songs here that are meant to be sung by men." I handed the paper back to him, "you either have to change your set list or transpose all the songs."

He scrunched up his face, "can you transpose them for me? I'm not really good at it."

I blew out a breath, "yeah, can it wait though? I want to get out of here now."

He nodded his head, "yeah sure thing. Busy tonight?" he asked as he walked with me to the car.

"Yeah, I'm supposed to go to a party with Claire tonight." 

He held the door open for me with a sly smile as I climbed in, "someone sounds super popular."

I rolled my eyes and closed my door, I rolled my window down while Eric leaned on the car, "call me if it gets busy tonight, I'm sure Claire won't mind if I leave early."

He shook his head, "don't worry about us here, have fun tonight Ms. Hollywood," he laughed when I rolled the windows up before he finished his sentence.