Chapter 2
TRIS POV
Saturday come a lot faster than I expected. Christina took half of Friday off to help me go clothes shopping for my interview. It was difficult, as always. I keep having to remind her that I'm going to a job interview, not going to the actual bar for a drink. She finally concedes and we settle on a tight fitting purple blouse with a sleek black blazer, tight black dress pants, and black flats.
"And you should definitely wear your hair down for the interview instead of in that god awful bun you always have it in!" A clear look of disgust crosses her face.
"Hey! I like the bun. It keeps my hair out of my eyes." I tell her.
"Promise me Tris. You stand out more when your hair is down". Sometimes, I find it just easier to give in with her.
"Alright, alright. But we're going to talk about how you don't think I stand out later! Some friend you are!" I laugh anyway knowing she is probably right.
As I walk up to Dauntless, I'm instantly overcome with an anxiety I didn't originally have. The building doesn't seem to quite fit in with the rest of the city. It has a classic feel to it, with a real wooden structure painted a dark black with a golden trim that stands out in a unique way from the cold steel buildings that surround it. Dauntless is written above the door in shiny gold, but antique looking letters. I slowly push the door open to find a mostly empty bar, save a few lunch regulars. It's pretty standard for a Saturday afternoon. Most of the lunch crowd has already left and they won't be expecting a dinner rush for a few more hours.
Behind the bar is a girl with short black hair and a small nose ring.
"Hello, my name is Tris. I have a meeting with Max today." I inform her. She simply nods her head and turns to walk into the back room. I'm only slightly bothered by her cold exterior. I turn around and look at the rest of the bar while I wait for Max to come out. It has a rustic feel to it. The interior is mostly wood with sections of exposed brick on the walls. Pictures hang on the walls and, by closer examination; I see that they are signed by famous people who must have visited at one time or another. There is a certain classic feel to the place that is only disrupted by the clean, sleek black bar with blue and purple lighting on the array of bottles that line the wall.
"You must be Tris." I turn around to see a man dressed in an all black suit with a skinny white tie. "I'm Max, the general manager here at Dauntless. This is Eric." He gestures to an incredibly unfriendly looking individual with an eyebrow ring next to him wearing jeans and a dark grey button up. It's now evident that piercings are acceptable here, not that it really makes a difference to me. I don't even have my ears pierced. I immediately feel uncomfortable by his presence. "He is the service and bar manager here. If hired, he'll technically be your first boss. I'm more of his boss. He is going to be sitting in on your interview today, but I'll be asking a majority of the questions. Let's get started."
We sit at a small table in a corner of the bar. A few minutes later, the bar tender brings a few glasses of water for Max, Eric, and myself. I take a large gulp and realize just how thirsty I am. Why am I so nervous all of a sudden?
"Well Tris," Max starts, "tell us a little about yourself."
"Okay. My full name is Beatrice Prior. I'm twenty-two years old and I have been serving for about two years now. My first job is listed on my resume here," I say while pointing to the paper. "I've slowly worked my way up to a main closer and my managers there generally give me more duties that would be characteristic of a head server." I start to get nervous as both Max and Eric seem uninterested in what I have to say. "Ummm…" I continue. "I think I'm a generally hard worker and am always on time-"
"Tell us about a time when you had to do something incredibly dangerous at work." Eric interrupts.
"Excuse me?" The question immediately catches me off guard. Why would they want to know something like this? What does this have to do with my experience?
"You heard me. Tell me about a time when you had to do something incredibly dangerous at work"
I take a few moments and decide to tell them about the time we had to chase a man down outside the store after he had taken a servers change purse right out of her hands. Depending on how much she had in cash sales that night, it could have been around $200.
"Did you catch him yourself?" This time it's Max who asks about the story.
"Well, yeah I did." I reply. Still confused by the original question to begin with. "But if you don't mind me asking. What does this have to do with my serving experience?"
"Tris, I don't know if you can tell, but here at Dauntless we kind of have a certain image we're looking to maintain. We want to create a staff that can help portray this image. Wanna be night clubs are popping up all over the place with their trash electronic dance music and flashy lights. The only way we can maintain a true bar scene while making a profit is to have servers that live, breath, and eat Dauntless. That's why we ask this question."
Although it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me at first, I realize that I need to show them that I am Dauntless to get this job. The interview goes on in a similar fashion with me talking about past work experiences and them asking questions that seem to have nothing to do with really anything. After what seems like hours, Max and Eric go into a back room to discuss the interview. I'm left at the table alone to wait. I consider pulling out my phone to text Christina and tell her how the interview is going so far, but I don't want to risk them coming back to see me texting. Talk about unprofessional.
So I chose instead to lose myself in my thoughts, but even that turns out to be unsuccessful when he walks in.
He carries himself with a certain confidence you don't see in most people. He's wearing the same style outfit that the other bartender had on. A plain black t-shirt with dark wash denim jeans, but he's wearing a leather jacket and dark aviators that I assume aren't part of his work uniform. He takes off his jacket and sunglasses to reveal the most blue eyes I've ever seen. They aren't blue in a normal way, they seem deeper a deeper blue than most, and I'm instantly lost. When he takes off the leather jacket, I can tell that he has a muscular build. The t-shirt he's wearing clings tightly to his biceps and hangs somewhat loosely around his stomach area.
As he walks pass the table I'm currently occupying, our eyes meet for a split second.
"You okay there Stiff?" He asks in a deep voice.
"Four. You're late." Four? Is that really his name? "Molly was supposed to be off my clock fifteen minutes ago." I turn to see that Eric has returned from the back, hopefully with good news.
"My shift is scheduled to start at 330." He says very matter-of-factly. "It's 315 now, which makes me early. If you can't remember your own schedule, you probably shouldn't be writing it."
I'm actually shocked when he talks to Eric like that. It's like he has a death wish, but his speech never falters.
"Whatever, just get to work and help Molly finish opening the bar. I'm still your manager, remember." Eric retorts. It seems like an odd thing to say, especially to someone who just proved you wrong. But I shrug it off, and turn to look at my glass of water again. I probably shouldn't have witnessed the scene in the first place, I mean I'm technically not even the new girl yet. They stare each other down for a few minutes more before Four turns and continues his walk to the bar. Eric wears a smug grin, obviously thinking he is the victor in the battle, but I'm not convinced.
"Well Tris, it seems Max saw something in you, but I'm not sure what." I'm starting to dislike him more and more. "So you've got the job. You start training on Monday. You'll spend most of your training with Lauren, but you'll have to spend at least one day with the head bartender to make sure you understand what's going on with the alcohol. This is a bar after all." It seems like a pretty standard training schedule. "As you hopefully noticed, the uniform is a black t-shirt with denim jeans. The exact style of the shirt doesn't really matter as long as it's black with no writing or pictures. Like all servers, you'll make $3.10 an hour and your tips will be given to you in cash at the end of the night. Claim all your tips. Or don't. But we won't protect you if the IRS comes kicking your door down. Got it?" It takes me a few moments to realize that this is when I'm supposed to speak.
"Of course! Thank you so much! I'll be here on Monday in uniform and all." I can't believe I actually got the job. We finish up by filling out some paper work and Eric gives me a menu and a training manual.
Eric leaves to go yell at some unsuspecting line cook in the kitchen and I walk back to the restroom before leaving. As I walk in, I pull out my phone and send a quick text to Christina to call me when she gets a free moment. Before walking out, I look in the mirror.
"YES. I DID IT." I shout, somewhat surprising myself. I had known I really wanted to get this job, but I hadn't realized it that much! It will be nice to get out of my apartment and move in with Christina and start making new friends. I exit the bathroom and start to walk out the front door.
"See you later Stiff". I hear from behind me. I turn to see Four wiping down the bar rail with a rag. "Goodbye Four. See you Monday". He's not looking at me anymore, so I'm not entirely sure he hears me. I find myself wishing he would look up again so I can see his blue eyes one more time. But after a few seconds, I can see my wish isn't going to be granted.
The minute I step outside, my phone rings and the caller ID shows Christina's picture.
"Hey Christina! I'm going to need some help packing. I start on Monday, which means I only have one day to get everything moved in! Wanna help out your new roomie?"
I take her excited squeal as a yes before diving into the details of the interview and my new job at Dauntless.
A.N. I guess I could ask for reviews again, but right now my plan is to not start publishing until I at least have five chapters written. I know I have a tendency to not read fics if they have only a chapter or two. So this entire AN is kinda redundant. OKAY BYE. PS, this is not how my interview at my current job went at all. Although, my GM did ask me to tell him about my favorite TV show….which is Doctor Who…but that's about it.