"Of course not." I shake my head and grab a beer for the customer in front of me. I pop the cap off the bottle and hand it to him. He lays down a twenty, and I make a note to put the change in the tip jar. "In case you haven't noticed, we haven't had a lull since we opened, and I'm not trying to call her from behind the bar." I make the change while there isn't anyone directly in front of me. "Number one, she wouldn't be able to hear anything. And number two, it's rude as hell for our customers to see me on the phone."
"No shit," he pats me on the shoulder. "I didn't mean when you're behind the bar. You're allowed to take breaks. Number one, employees have a recommended break time that they're supposed to take. And number two, you're one of the bosses. If you wanted to leave right now, you could."
He's not wrong, but there's no way I would leave these new employees back here with no guidance. Well, they're not brand new. They've been here a couple of months, but they're still new enough that I'm not comfortable leaving them there. Maybe under Eric's supervision, but he still has a bit to go to earn that trust.
"Don't worry, I'll call her when I leave."
"What if she's asleep?" Apparently, I'm not the only one who considers that possibility.
"Then I will leave a message and she can call me back. It's not that hard."
"Or you can text her first and ask her if she's awake." He grabs a glass, a shaker and the liquor needed to make a margarita. "Like normal people do."
"And this is why your generation doesn't have any sort of etiquette. You don't know how to talk to people."
"No," he shakes his head. "We do. We just don't want to."
"I think you may have picked the wrong line of work then."
"When I saywe,I mean the overallwenot me. I love talking to people. Thank you."
That I definitely know. Case in point, there is a young lady who's eager to talk his ears off.
Angie walks through the front door and stops at my side of the bar. "Hey, Dylan had a last-minute poker game with the guys. So, I'm coming into work."
"Why?" Eric asks.
She rolls her eyes, "I don't have any hobbies and instead of being bored at home, binge watching Netflix and not leaving the couch for four hours, I would much rather be here."
Makes sense? I wouldn't want to be home and bored either. But I have hobbies.
"Eric and Carlos, you two are free to go/"
"Both of us?" Eric scratches his head.
"I can easily do the same amount of work as you two put together. And you've been here since before the bar opened. You need a break, and I need something to do."
Pfft. I don't know about that. Though she did a great job of running this place on her own with a quarter of the employees we have now before I came along.
"Fine," Eric relents. "But just because you told me to leave from this side of the bar doesn't mean I won't go on the other side of the bar and see if my friends are still around."
"I don't care what you do off the clock, buddy." She must be bored out of her mind if she's willingly coming up here to work.
As much as I was using work as an excuse not to dial up Caroline, being off work means I can actually call her at a decent time. And not when she's likely to be sleeping. I don't want her thinking she gave me her number after I suggested being her fake date, only for me to ghost her. That's not how I do things. And my sisters would kill me.
"Okay, let me finish making this drink, and I guess I'll see you tomorrow."
"Before you go, meet me in the office. Eric, can you cover for just a second longer while I talk to our good friend Carlos? Then you're free to go."
"Sure thing. I can use a few extra tips. It'll help cover whatever I'm drinking when I'm done."
I roll my eyes and make my way to the end of the bar. "Hey, boss," he yells above the crowd. "You better call her."
Good grief. Did he have to announce it to the entire bar like that? I mean, it takes a lot to embarrass me. But this is one of those moments where it definitely does. The entire bar witnessed my little exchange with Caroline last night. Plus, the conversation we had this morning. How could it not embarrass me to have them know what's going on in my personal life?
Instead of answering, I wave my hand behind over my head so he at least knows I'm acknowledging him. That's all he's getting from me.
Angie's leaning against the desk when I walk in and close the door behind me. I assume she wants this conversation private, or she would have told me out there. "So, you got her number?"