Looking up at her from across the table she smiles sweetly at me.
Clutched between my hands is her quite literally paper-thin one sheet CV. Not much of a resume as the details listed are mainly educational qualifications which frankly none of which, spare for a Grade B Food technology GCSE is applicable for the vacant position of Bar Steward, she's the second girl I've seen this afternoon and as I glance to my watch, I know that in a little shy of twenty minutes I have got an Eric Peters to see.
I take a sip of my coffee, blowing steam from the surface of the black liquid. She smiles sweetly once again. She certainly has a cute little smile.
There's a natural beauty to her, her short cut straight auburn red hair frames a lightly made-up pale face. She wears light make up and is dressed in a white shoulders less top and pale blue jeans, both of which cling to her slender frame. I check her name once more, Shauna O'Neal.
"So, Shauna..." I set down my coffee and fix her gaze. "...academically you appear very well qualified, highly educated ...so why are you looking for bar work?"
"Can I be honest?" Her soft Irish accent wraps around her words as she speaks.
"They say it's the best policy," I offer back to her with a grin.
"I'd rather not be ... but it's what I know and with the rent and bills to pay I need the money," she takes a long sip from the glass of iced water sat on the table before her. "I mean have you seen the state of the employment market at the moment ...qualifications or no?"
She has a point, I'm no avid follower of the news but the fact we'd had near twenty applicants for the full-time position in the first twenty-four hours of advertising speaks volumes. I'd only agreed to see Shauna and the other two candidates given their previous experience behind a bar. I don't need to look again to recall that Shauna had worked previously, briefly, as a waitress in a local Chinese Restaurant but more intriguingly as 'Bar Staff' at The Dark Star a local nightclub of high esteem, and very low morals given its sordid reputation.
"No chance of getting your old job back then?" I offer inquisitively.
"The Management weren't too happy when I decided I was leaving," Shauna offers with a little grimace.
"Oh, what prompted your departure?"
"It was simply that I couldn't afford the distraction to my study's" she responds sincerely enough.
"So, nothing to do with the extracurricular activities that staff are involved with there?"
Shauna chuckles a rueful smirk on her face "I was never a Dark Star Girl... I never needed the money that badly... the reputation and the stigma precede the place as ever I see."
"Are you surprised?" I raise a brow.
"Not really..." she sets her glass down from a longer swig this time, "I mean I saw some crazy enough shit in my time there ...and heard some far worse rumours".
"I won't ask," I grin a little sardonically as her eyes meet mine "I tell you what Shauna... how would you feel about a trial shift?"
"I'd say yes," I watch the smile creep across her lips.
"Great," I nod "Let's see you around half seven this evening ...see what you're really made of."
**********
"New Girls coping well," Steve offers a snap appraisal as he passes me carry a wire rack of slightly steaming glasses fresh from the dishwasher.
"What do you think of her?" I ask as I lean forward from the customer side of the bar and watch her.
"Like I said..." Steve offers, "...She's coping."
"But how'd you think she'd really cope?" my intention deliberately unambiguous.
"That I'd like to find out too," Steve responds second guessing my sentiment. "Pert little ass on her."
Steve wanders off as I cast my eyes up Shauna O'Neal's slender form as with her back to me, she efficiently measured out several shots of Whiskey to mix into cocktail glasses lined up to her right.
She taken my loose instruction of wearing 'something black' and really made an effort, two-tone dark and light stocking tights cling to slender legs beneath a short black skirt, a black tight-fitting t-shirt is knotted in the small of her back and sits just an inch or so above the waistband of her skirt. Little heeled ankle boots complete her look. As she turns to set the drinks before the customers her makeup is heavier than when she'd sat before me earlier in the day. A little more vampy to meet her overall appearance, a dark red lipstick paints her smile, and her eyes are highlighted by dark eyeshadow for a start.
She catches my eye as she takes a twenty note from the male to whom she's just presented the drinks to, a brief flicker of a smile as she briefly returns my gaze fixed upon her, but she doesn't pause. Turning on her heels she stabs a finger against the electronic till point and rings up the sale, she's already taking the next drinks order as she's handing over the change to the punter she's just served.
I watch her briefly for just a moment longer, my mind is already set.
**********
I lock the doors, the blinds pulled down across the windows that face out onto the street. Double checking the doors for good measure, I step away and walk back into the bar. The usual detritus of a Friday night litters tables, shelves and bars all around the venue.
Shauna sits at the bar leant over a tumbler of whisky and cola in which she idly stirs the fast-melting crushed ice. Steve busies himself the other side of the bar, barely paying her any attention whatsoever. It's just the three of us left at the end of what's been a hectic Friday night. I take the high-backed stool next to hers and cast an eye up her slender, two-tone nylon clad right thigh as her leg crosses her left leg. Shauna leans forward either oblivious to my attention or certainly not perturbed if she does notice me.
"So... Dark Star Girl how'd you think you got on?" I ask reaching for a bottle of lager that Steve has opened and left on the bar for me.
Shauna turns and I catch the eye roll as she shakes her head "How many times do I have to tell you I was never a Dark Star Girl?"
"Stevie..." I ignore her protest, "...what were the scores on the doors?"
"She served nearly twice as many as Mark and thirty more than Elaine" Steve looks up from his phone having memorised the report I'd asked him to look up from the cash register data. "In short she served the most punters and took the most ka-ching."
"Well done Dark Star," I offer nodding my head, genuinely impressed. I'd noted her work ethic and the pace which she'd maintained across the shift alongside of her natural charm and charismatic approach to punters and colleagues alike.
She laughs gently but I sense her continued annoyance, "Look I'm not..."
"Maybe it's a case of how many times you have to tell yourself you weren't before you believe" I offer light-heartedly but in all honesty as I cut across her protestation once again.
Shauna is either oblivious to the details I'm aware of or is genuinely naive enough to not know that the information I'd looked up on available hostesses still hosted on the Club's website isn't public knowledge. I only had to register an account to see the details, admittedly the photo of her is a little younger than she is now, her hair is a longer, naturally curly in appearance and maybe looks a little lighter but the profile picture of 'Orla' as she's listed on the Clubs web site is definitely of her.
"You've a twin Sister then?" I offer teasing her.
"A twin," she raises her eyebrows.
"Orla," I open the web browser on my phone to the bookmarked page and slide it across the bar to her.
She doesn't look, she faces ahead across the empty bar. I watch her mouth fix on a partial grimace, before she takes a heavy swig from the tumbler rested between the slender fingers of her right hand.
"Is this going to be a problem?" She offers hesitantly, still not looking towards me.
"No problem... no problem whatsoever" I look from her along the bar to Steve. "Steve... you any issue with employing a Dark Star Girl?"
"Sounds fucking perfect" Steve offers without looking up from the message he's now engrossed in hurriedly typing out on his phone.
"Well, that's a common consensus from the Management Team... no need to verify your references any further," I offer as I turn back to Shauna. "Shall we have a drink to celebrate?"
"Thank you" Shauna states on her soft Irish accent which is followed up with by a sincere smile as she raises the tumbler to her lips and finishes up the drink sat front of her. "Why not?"