2019-06-24 - Job Interview

The club doesn't open for a couple hours yet, so the parking lot out front is relatively empty, just a scattering of employee cars, mostly beaters but a couple of them are better-than-decent. It's warm out with the sun not quite down yet, just slanting its way toward setting, keeping it a bit sticky with that lovely Pacific Northwest humidity. Graham's holding down the fort right now, leaning against the wall next to the door - which is propped open, letting what passes for a breeze worm its way into the dark interior - and smoking busily while he dicks around with his phone, like people do.

Dahlia arrived at the Firefly club about 10-15 minutes later. Hopping out of the back of a blue Camry and leaning back in briefly to say goodbye to the driver and thank them. She'd settled on a pair of faded blue jeans and a dark green halter top, hair left down. Emerald eyes quickly scanning the front of the club before heading over towards Graham as the Camry pulled away. "Glad to see ya survived the storm. Haven't seen anything like that in years." She shook her head. "How's your day going?"

Chuckling one last time, Graham tucks his phone into his back pocket so as not to be That Guy that's all texting in the middle of a real conversation. There's another drag taken from the cigarette while his eyes track that blue car into the parking lot, a minute shift in his posture - a little tense, maybe? - though it eases out quickly since this is, in fact, someone he invited and not just a random drive-by. "'Survived' is pretty much exactly the right term for it. I got fucking stuck on Elm Street and - " That's all the more of that story he shares. "Anyway, it's cool, I'm doing a'ight. Thanks for coming down. You been in the club since you got back to town?" All this so he can at least smoke to the good part.

Dahlia quirked a brow. "On Elm? That's-" She paused, snickered, and then shook her head. Clearly choosing a different line of wordage, "unfortunate. I kinda remember that particular area being hellish when a lot of rain came." She shrugged, looking past him briefly to peek inside the interior, though didn't seem in a complete rush to go inside. Happy to let him set the pace. "Nah, not yet." To if she'd been to the club. "Mostly just been focused on mom and trying to get settled. Re familiarize myself with a few places. Thanks again for hooking me up."

"It was shitty." Graham just made an awesome pun; Dahlia wouldn't know that, but it's the reason that he wears a self-satisfied smirk around the drag he takes, blowing it out the side of his mouth. Inside, it's not like DEAD dark; it's just not well-lit, so, compared to the sunlight out here, it's hard to make out much beside the general sense of shadow. "Don't mention it," of hooking her up. "Come in. Felix is around. I'll introduce you. Just be cool, don't ask a lotta questions, and pretend you served drinks at a club in L.A. for a minute, all right? 'Cause I told him you did." 'Cause Graham's stupid and lies to everyone, including his no-issues-with-homicide boss.

Dahlia snickered again and nodded. Her attention flickered back to Graham when he said Felix was inside and they'd be introduced. She seemed to spend a second or two trying to recall the name but gave up . "I know how to mix a drink or two. Don't worry." Dahlia mused and motioned for him to lead the way. "I'll make sure to market myself as a competent but not too tier bartender."

Dropping the cigarette butt, Graham crushes it out under his heel, explaining before they go inside, "A'ight, good. Felix is pretty hard, just so you know. So don't take it personally if he doesn't seem to like you. The motherfucker doesn't seem to like anybody." He pitches his voice low while dropping this tidbit, so there's no chance it will spill beyond him into the dark interior of the club. That said, he tilts his head questioningly thataway; the gesture asks if she's ready to head inside?

Dahlia listened closely as Graham spoke softer, nodded. She was used to working with assholes, literal and figurative. So she was sure she'd make it through just fine. Hopefully. "That's for the heads up." Murmured back and then nodded. "Let's go and meet the big boss." She said and would follow Graham into the club!

Un-propping the door, Graham gestures a hand ahead of him for Dahlia to precede him into the club. The darkness is mitigated somewhat by overhead lights that are off when the place is actually open, but it's considerably dimmer than the sunlit parking lot. There's a little work going on: someone is stocking the bar, someone is sweeping the floor, a couple of bouncers are talking by the entrance to the back room, but it's pretty quiet. Graham bypasses all this with a wave of his fingers; "You'll get the grand tour later. Let's go meet the man first." Toward that back room, where one of the two bouncers - the giant black guy that's got one of those noisemakers from a kid's birthday party in his mouth - offers a friendly greeting, so here's the introduction: "Andre, Dahlia. She's gonna be our fill-in bartender."

Dahlia blinked a bit as she entered the bar, trying to adjust to the stark contrast in lighting. Curiously looking over towards the bar and around the club itself - well what she could see of it at least. A bright, easy smile is offered to Andre - and though there's a clear question about why he has a moise maker it goes unasked. "Nice to meet you Andre." Is what's said instead before she'd follow Graham along.

Why would anyone have a noisemaker? To MAKE NOISE. Andre blows into the thing, the paper unfurls, and it goes buzzzhonk at Dahlia, leaving him grinning like this is just the most awesome thing ever when he waves them through into the back room.

Graham says over his shoulder, "You get used to it." There's a narrow set of stairs leading to the office, and it's up those stairs that he takes them, knocking on the door at the top of it. Quietly, after opening it just enough to permit his head to peek through, he can be heard explaining that he brought Dahlia Evergreen, boss, followed by something that can't be heard. Then he steps through the door, beckoning for Dahlia to follow him.

Inside, the office is swanky. The big window overlooks the empty club with one-way glass, and Felix is sitting behind his desk, doing something on the phone that he sets down to give Dahlia a once-over. There's no suggestion what Dahlia should do once she's in the room; Graham stays by the door, and Felix just looks at her. There's an empty chair across the desk from him, but no one is like 'have a seat,' so how does she play this?

Dahlia perhaps is a little startled by the noisemaker, but it causes a chuckle to escape her as they pass by. The wheels in her mind start turning as they near Felix's office. She does a quick scan of the office once she's stepped inside, a thoughtful little noise - barely audible. The man had taste. If she's learned anything from being in California and trying to make it big - you have to be confident. So even though nothing is said, Dahlia walks towards the desk like she's meant to be here. And she is, isn't she? They had a meeting after all. Technically.

Sliding in the space between the desk and the empty chair, an easy smile is offered to Felix along with a hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you sir, " Because you shouldn't address superiors by a first name unless they tell you to and she had no idea what Felix's last name was. "Thank you for giving me a chance."

Felix looks her up and down for a moment even after she speaks, his eyes leaving only once when they flick to Graham - who stands out of Dahlia's peripheral vision, doing his whole 'busy holding up this piece of the wall' gig next to the door behind them - and then return to Dahlia a moment later. He leans back in his cushy chair, folding his hands in front of him, and he waits a solid count of five in silence after her greeting. Then, "I haven't yet." Has she gotten the impression yet that Felix is boring a hole into her SOUL with the focus of that gaze of his? 'Cause he's looking for any and every little tell; if she lies, he'll know. "Graham says you tend bar. Do you have another job?"

Dahlia does her best to keep a neutral sort of expression on her features after the initial greeting she gave. However she isn't quite sure if she's succeeding. The hand she'd had out slowly gets lowered back to her side. She almost feels..naked, and not in a good way. She finally lowers herself into the empty chair, relaxing and pulling herself together. Trying to maintain eye contact for the most part. "Not here in Gray Harbor, no." Is the answer she gives. "And I don't think they're keeping my bed warm at the job I left in LA anyhow." Dahlia had the distinct feeling that she was either going to leave with a job or with the urge to just leave town.

A brow hitches when she sits down, but it's hard to tell what exactly Felix makes of the forwardness. Behind her, Graham shifts a little, the sound of him refolding his arms filling what might otherwise be an awkward silence - or maybe it's that it makes the silence even more awkward? Anyway.

"What does that mean?" Felix asks succinctly after her talk of a job in Los Angeles. This time, he does not look away from Dahlia at all, even when - again - there's a little noise from Graham. It's the sound of someone drawing in a breath before speaking. Except that Graham doesn't speak. Maybe he thought the wiser of it (for once in his stupid fucking life).

There's a wry smile on Dahlia's lips. A combination of Felix's question mixed with the sound from Graham. "It means that I've been getting fucked for a living." Well, she was blunt at least. She really needed to get out of that trailer park. A beat of pause before elaborating. "I was a pornography actress," Not a prostitute. "because the bar tending wasn't quite paying the bills." Watching for Felix's reaction to that information. "While it's a lucrative industry, there's a lot of turn over. People leave for various reasons and get replaced. I left to come back here, " And she hated it here, "So I likely don't have a job with the company I was a part of if I go back."

"I see." Felix absorbs this information without a visible reaction. So at least he's not all judgmental about it, that's nice, right? There is another of those looked passed over Dahlia's shoulder to Graham, but no sound from the wall-holder this time. Back to Dahlia, Felix assumes a tone that's not unpleasant, but it's not really small-talkish, either. The guy doesn't just chit-chat for no reason. "Your family," because he already knows that much about her, she can make of that what she will, "can spare your presence often enough to make it worth my while to hire you?"

Dahlia nodded, not seeming too surprised. Figuring Graham maybe mentioned to him why she was back in town. "It won't be an issue." She assured him. That's what the non-asshole neighbors were for. They could always peek in on her mother or something while she was working. And she could surely work things around when she wasn't working.

Felix asks simply, "And the other job won't be a problem?" It kinda sounds like maybe this is going to be fine? Like, there's almost a lilt of something like resolution in Felix's tone, but it's hard to be sure, with a guy like him.

"It won't. I don't foresee myself leaving anytime soon and I'm certainly not going to be plane hopping from here to LA every other week." Because if she had that sort of money to throw around she certainly wouldn't be here hoping to get this bartending gig. That light smile remaining on her features.

There's another of those moments of silence when Felix just looks across the desk at Dahlia. At length, he nods faintly and flicks a look away from her toward the door. "Graham will show you around." Sounds an awful lot like 'dismissed,' though he tacks on momentarily, "I need to see you afterward," to Graham, who takes that pretty well, all things considered. Just, "You got it, boss," and a smile that looks credibly like he's not completely and totally freaked out.

Not even gonna roll that versus Felix, 'cause there's no point; Graham never wins against Felix.

"Thank you, sir." Dahlia says as she rises to her feet . A very brief darting of eyes between the two men before she would follow Graham out of the room. She doesn't even realize she's been holding in a breath until after they're a few steps away from Felix's office. "Holy shit." She murmured. "Is he always that scary?" Voice still kind of hushed as she looked to Graham. Scary wasn't quite the right word for it. But she couldn't grasp for any other one. Just glad to be out of that office for a while.

It's Graham's job to make sure Dahlia gets out the door first, and then to close the door behind him. He does this quietly, barely so much as a click when the handle touches the striker-plate, a muffled sound when it draws closed against the frame. Chin-tipping, he suggests they maybe descend these stairs before saying anything further about the scariness of Felix. One glance casts back up toward the closed door and, once they're entirely out of the stairwell, Graham finally answers, "That's Felix on about a two, honestly. He took the porn thing surprisingly well." Clearing his throat, he drums up another of those convincingly not terrified smiles to flash at Dahlia, like that'll take the edge off for her. "Just a suggestion? Wait to be invited to sit down next time."

"On a two?" Maybe taking this job wasn't the best idea in the world. Dahlia didn't even want to think about what a four or five was like. "He did...I figured I might as well be honest about it. Didn't know what to expect." She rubbed the back of her neck and nodded. "Right. I'll do that. So, just keep my head down and learn this bar tending thing and don't cause him trouble." She was hoping there may not even have to be a 'next time' of standing in that office. Just fly on under the radar.

Easing into a nod, one that's a little stubborn in manifesting entirely, Graham eventually manages to agree, "Yeah, honesty was probably the best answer there. If you get caught telling lies, it goes worse." He shoots a look up the stairs, releases a sigh, digs up the smile that he's been using on-and-off since stepping into the stairwell. "You did fine." His head tips, this time to indicate the door back to the club proper instead of this little back-room.

"The grand tour. That's Felix's office. Don't go up there unless you've been explicitly invited in, and - if you've been explicitly invited in - don't sit down unless he tells you to." With a quick-wink. "That door leads to the basement." He takes a breath. "Just don't go in there at all." Are the dimples reassuring, Dahlia? He pastes them on deeply after that grave warning.

If anything, Dahlia was a little suspicious. There was likely more going on around there than she wanted to know. However, she listened quietly, looking to where he directed and making mental notes. "No basement, no office unless invited. No sitting unless invited." That wry smile again. "I think I can manage it..." She studied Graham a brief moment longer. "So when do you want me to start? And is there any kind of like...uniform? Specific colors or anything?" More than happy to try and shift the subject back to just the job at hand.

The things going on around here that Dahlia doesn't want to know about are legion. Graham's easy-peasy smile just manages to make light of them, flashed right down the barrel of her studying of him. He brushes them back through the doors and into the main club again, where the re-stocking is still underway. "Nah, just figure - the better you look, the more people are gonna tip. But you're also gonna get hit on, so find the happy medium is my suggestion." With a big shrug. "You wanna start tonight? I fucking hate tending bar." So what is your job, then, G?! "So the sooner you get proficient at it, the better." Beat. "Obviously, you're getting paid in cash." 'Under the table' is implied in the brow-quirk; is she cool with that?

"Cash is king." Dahlia mused. No problems with that at all. "I wonder how you became a bartender when you hate bar tending." She laughed, relaxing a little again. She pulled out her phone to set up for an uber to swing back by and pick her up in a few. Then looked back up at him. "I'll come a little early to practice some." And also do research on the most commonly ordered bar drinks so she would be able to at least know what went in them if they got ordered.

"We all make sacrifices." That's how Graham, who hates tending bar, became a bartender. "Me and the other guy," the bartender doing all the re-stocking, who is now looking glumly at Graham - who should probably be helping with the re-stocking but is instead talking to some chick because of fucking course he is grumble. Anyway. Graham and the other guy, "will get you familiar with the lay of the land tonight, and we'll see how it goes from there? And thanks. At the end of the day, you're doing me a favor." No good deed goes unpunished; Dahlia will learn.

Dahlia's attention flickers to the other man and she offers him a little smile and a nod. Then looking back up to Graham. "Well, happy to help out an old friend." For now. Her player is sure Dahlia will be kicking herself for it later and potentially cursing Graham's name. "I look forward to seeing how tonight goes." Pushing a hand through her hair lightly. "See you tonight Graham."