The bar door swung open and clattered shut again as someone entered. Roni didn't bother to look up to see who it was. She was too busy wiping down the sides, as for the second time this week, Shelly had failed to turn up. She mentally made a note to give the girl her notice this time, she was a luxury and expense she couldn't really afford anyway.
"Veronica?" a shrill voice called, tone clipped matching the clicking heels that carried the person across the room towards her.
"It's Roni" she snapped back without looking up.
"Rude. Veronica." The voice commented.
With a huff, Roni released the cloth she was wiping with and looked up. Her dark eyes wide and piercing those of the rather dull looking business woman standing the other side of her bar.
The woman reeked of forced class, not natural and elegant but put on for show. Her grey dress was a dull as her personality. Roni glared at her, silently daring her to call her Veronica again. She wouldn't stand for it. Roni cocked her eyebrow, waiting for the woman to address her further.
"Allow me to introduce myself," the woman began, glancing around the empty bar as she extended her hand to Roni. "Victoria Belfrey"
Roni just dropped her gaze to the outstretched hand, and then grabbed her cloth and continued to wipe the counter. She hadn't a moment for this woman. Roni heard her clear her throat, and then was vaguely aware of the movement as she pulled back her unwelcomed hand.
"What do you want?"
Roni's voice was low and clipped, as she moved a step or two down behind the bar so that she could clean a small area she had already wiped, just to be away from Victoria. Unfortunately, the pushy woman didn't seem to take the hint, moving up the bar so that she could stand directly before Roni once more, and continue.
"I came to see you about your establishment." She declared in a posh tone.
It made Roni wonder if the bitch had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth, or if she had just developed an annoying posh lilt during her years developing into an arsehole.
"My establishment?" Roni questioned, stopping again to look up, her brows knitting in a frown.
"Yes. I wish to," Victoria stopped again, taking another moment to look around with a grimacing look. "Well, purchase it." She boldly concluded.
For a moment Roni couldn't believe her ears. Roger's had warned her Belfrey was up to tricks, but for her to walk in as if she owned the place already and demand she wished to purchase it knocked Roni for six. It was barely an offer. More of a barked order or demand and Roni didn't like it. When she did find her words, breaking through the silence formed, she was scowling at the conservative woman before her.
"Excuse me?" she quizzed.
"I said, I wish to purchase your establishment." Victoria repeated.
Roni scoffed, wanting to laugh but not able to force it out of herself. The woman stood in front of her bar had to be joking. She wasn't going to sell her bar to her. Victoria Belfrey was known as a developer throughout the city, and that wasn't of businesses; it was of property.
"No way. Absolutely no way." Roni replied, her dark eyes piercing as she stared into Victoria's glistening and blue. "I am not selling my bar to you, for you to transform it into some swanky post apartments. This, my bar, it's a hub of the community." She scoffed again.
Victoria's eyes narrowed slightly, her chin raising to mark her air of aristocracy as she pinned her gaze firmly on Roni. She was silent for a long while, as if contemplating her next move very carefully and thinking about what she would say in retaliation.
"Veronica, you either sell to me, or I will sink you" the woman stated in a threatening tone.
Roni could feel her anger building. At her side she curled and uncurled her fist, as her other hand crushed the damp cloth under her palm. The woman couldn't be serious.
"Are you threatening me?" Roni asked, her voice low as she hissed through gritted teeth.
"Oh no darling, on the contrary. You will sell to me though, of that I can assure you."
Veronica's thin lips twisted in a most villainous smile, as her eyes sparkled daringly at Roni.
"What?" the bar owner snapped.
She couldn't stand the smugness of Victoria Belfrey, and her attitude. If she didn't know better, she swore the woman knew something she didn't, and if she was trying to push Roni's buttons, then it was working.
Veronica's smile changed, falling a little as the corners of her mouth twitched and it reformed wryly. She was enjoying watching Roni grow ever agitated just a little too much.
"You will see Veronica. I will have my way."
Roni scowled.
"Call me Veronica one more time and I'll,"
"You'll what?" Victoria snapped, interrupting Roni before she could even spit the words out.
Roni's courage disappeared somewhat, but not because she was scared of Victoria. It was because she was smart. She wasn't about to let Victoria walk all over her with her Jimmy Choo's, nor would she give her what she knew she so desperately wanted.
To fend her off, she simply smirked. Pretending to return to cleaning she turned her back on Victoria and started wiping down the shelves at the back. She didn't need to glance in the mirrored wall in front of her to know that Victoria was seething behind her.
"This isn't over Veronica." She stated, her voice clipped and full of irritation as her gaze bore into the back of lasers.
Roni smirked to herself. Silence would annoy Victoria more than any retaliation or retort, and she actually couldn't be bothered. However, when Victoria failed to immediately storm out of her bar, she knew she was going to have to acknowledge her in some way.
Reaching for a bottle, she turned back to the bar and facing Victoria once more she poured herself a shot. Roni had to hide her smirk as she glanced up at the woman, who suddenly had a look on her face that matched that of someone who was chewing on bees. It was most amusing to watch her face contort from one angry look, to another, and another, then back to the first. If she was waiting for Roni to give in, she would have a long wait.
"Goodbye, Victoria" she stated calmly.
The business woman huffed dramatically, flicking her thin, lifeless short bob hairstyle as she swiftly turned on her heels. Roni rose the shot glass to her lips and grinned, watching Victoria Belfrey exit her 'establishment' in a gust of fury, that she would no doubt take out on her next unsuspecting victim. The second the door slammed shut, Roni took her shot.
"You're never getting my bar Victoria."
Jacinda came rushing in to Roni's and straight up to the bar, where she was more than happy to see Roni's familiar face serving.
"A double whiskey, rocks" the small woman ordered, her voice laced with desperation.
"You ok there, Jacinda?" Roni enquired as she poured out her drink, and served her with her order.
Jacinda only sighed as she pulled her butt up on to a stool. She had had the day from hell and she just wanted to vent. Her local bartender seemed to be the obvious choice for such a task.
Roni watched and waited as Jacinda downed her drink in one, and slammed the glass back down nodding to Roni that she would take another. She obliged with a look of concern as she eyed Jacinda wearily. She hadn't seemed like the hard liquor type the night before, although she had consumed quite a bit of it come the end of the night.
"Aghhh, I just hate her so much!"
Jacinda grit her teeth and spoke in a voice so strangled and agitated that it left Roni wondering who the 'her' could possibly be. Was it her friend Sabine? Her mother perhaps? Daughter? Who knew? Roni certainly didn't. She was just about to question it when Jacinda voluntarily continued.
"I mean, who does she think she is right?" Jacinda asked rhetorically as she knocked back a mouthful of her second drink. "She's not my mother, well not technically anyway. I mean ok, she is, but she is a step mother, and I am a grown woman. She can't keep telling me what to do?"
Roni opened her mouth to answer, when Jacinda quickly sounded off again.
"Can she?"
The young woman held her glass in one hand, the other flailing around beside her as she quizzed and questioned Roni, who frankly was stuck for how to answer because she didn't really know the woman's situation; nor her mother. Still whatever was going on, Jacinda had a point. She was a grown up and really no one had the right to tell her what to do, she would and should be able to make her own decisions.
"What am I gonna do about her Roni? She's threatening to take my daughter off of me again and for no good reason. Not only that, but she's gone and bought Louie's! I have to work there, and now she's like my boss, or my boss' boss or something like that."
Roni sucked in a deep breath. That was a lot to deal with and she felt for Jacinda she really did. That had to suck, working for a company where your mother or step-mother for that was in control. She knew she certainly wouldn't like it, and she didn't even have memories of her mother.
"I'm sorry, but can I ask is your step-mother,"
Again Roni found herself interrupted that day. She supposed she was used to it though. The life of a bartender often resulted in drunk people speaking over her, or interjecting, but never once had she had the issue from sober visitors, or customers.
"Victoria Belfrey. Yes. Everyone asks me that." Jacinda drawled as she looked down into her glass, losing herself in the amber liquor as she sighed.
Roni nodded and scowled a little. She'd only guessed at the mention of the purchase of a business, after associating it with the similarity of the situation she had found herself in not a few hours before.
"I guess I have to go figure this all out." Jacinda sighed once more as she polished off the last of her drink.
Handing the glass back to Roni, she shook her head declining the offer of another and routed around in her pocket for some change to pay. She hadn't much, but before she could make an offer of the last few dollars she had, Roni was shaking her head.
"On the house. You needed that, and I sympathise. Victoria Belfrey is a bitch."
Jacinda offered an appreciative smile as she thanked her profusely. Her kindness was more than she deserved, and she felt terrible about her inability to be able to properly afford a drink; but she wasn't paid all that handsomely. She guessed that would be even less so now with Victoria in charge.
"Thanks again Roni. I'll see you soon?" Jacinda stated, a little unsure as she gave half a wave and exited the bar.
"Anytime" Roni called out after her.