Rock Star Returns: Carlie's Story (Access All Areas 2)

Finally, he finished up. I lingered around waiting for him.

"Come upstairs so we can talk in private," he said.

I followed him and we sat down. I crossed my legs and leaned on the table but it was a bit wonky so I sat back, laughing nervously.

The situation became strange. Suddenly, I was nervous around Alex. Had I given him too much shit before he bought the place? If I'd known he was going to be my boss, I'd have been less cranky with him. I'd not actually called him a wanker to his face, had I? I had told him a few times that his band totally rocked. That was a good thing.

"Stop bouncing your leg," Alex said. "It makes the table rock."

&nbs

p; I hadn't even realized I was doing that. I planted my feet firmly on the ground and tried to smile.

"So, how do you feel about it?" he asked. "The bar manager job?"

My heart jumped. He was offering me the job. Shit, I'd never gotten a promotion before. Working in bars had been my only job and I'd pretty much started on shit pay and stayed there, even when my workload increased.

"Well, since Chuck pretty much had me running the bar anyway, I don't feel like it'd be much more responsibility. I'm happy to do it."

Alex nodded. "Oh, there will be more responsibility. There's the paperwork involved, stock ordering, all that kind of thing. The hardest part, you'll be in charge of staffing. I know the staff are your friends but you will need to make sure they are in line. It might make things a little tense with them, but I'm sure you can do it."

I nodded. I didn't think that would be a problem. I could be a bitch when I needed to be. Didn't Alex know that?

"Let's cut to the most important bit," I said, trying to sound confident but gulping loudly. "How much does it pay?"

I waited for him to say that the pay would be pretty much the same. I'd just get the hard yards without any extra compensation. That's what life had taught me about bosses. I didn't mind about the staffing thing. Violet was my only real friend on staff and I wouldn’t have any authority over her. The others, I had to pull them into line half the time anyway or they'd be slacking off like jerks.

"I want you on as a permanent staff member. The salary won't be that much higher but you'll get all the perks like holidays."

Holy shit, holidays. I had no idea what I'd even do with them. Come into the club and hang out? But a permanent job, that would be sweet. I'd have rights and important shit like that.

"I'm happy with that."

Then he named the salary. When I worked out the annual rate compared to what I made per hour, it was awesome. I wanted to whoop. He'd said it wouldn't be much more. Obviously, he didn't know what I'd been earning, because he was offering me untold riches. A permanent job and more money. Today was a sweet day indeed.

"Alex, you might just be the best boss ever."

He shot me a half-grin. "Don't speak too soon. I'll let the other staff know. We can make this effective immediately."

He got out some papers for me to sign. Once it was all official, I shook his hand.

"You won't regret this." My grin split my face. "I'll be the best bar manager in the universe."

"I wouldn't expect anything less.".

I walked back downstairs. Someone had put that bloody song on. “Rock Princess”.

"Turn that song off. I'm your overlord now and the first rule I'm making is that Holden King is officially banned in this bar."

Chapter 6

INTERNET STALKING WAS a bad thing. I knew that in theory but, since Holden King had come into the bar, I needed to find out what his plans were. It wasn't really stalking so much as self-protection. If I knew his schedule, I'd have an idea if he was going to stick around.

Only, once I got on those sites and read some of the stuff fans said about him, it made me sick to my stomach. I mean, some of it had to be lies. No man had enough jizz in him to sleep with all those chicks. Then there were all the other rumors. Stuff about his childhood that I knew were blatant lies and a whole thread of debates about what car he drove. Even that was conflicting information.

Wow, the world was full of people who had nothing better to do than write stuff about Holden King on the internet. This story was about how his family were a troupe of traveling circus performers only his mother had had a tragic accident so they'd quit performing. Holden would love it if that were true. Well, obviously he wouldn't want his fictional mother to have a tragic accident but he'd love the rest of it, for sure. It was so much better than the truth.

There was nothing about him being married or even having a girlfriend. Sure, there were rumors about him dating Taylor Swift for a while but there weren't even photos to back that up. Not that I looked for that kind of information but if he had someone then he’d be out of my hair.