Free Web NovelChapter 77: Chapter 77: Don’t Treat Me Like an Idiot
### Chapter 77: Don’t Take Me for a Fool
Leo Larkin slammed his glass onto the bar. His eyes were ice-cold, and his voice was laced with displeasure. "Whether we’re short-staffed or not, what’s it to you?"
After he spoke, he took out his phone and called another girl.
While the call connected, he said coldly, "You can go home. Come in for the evening shift."
The girl put down her glass and pouted, saying unhappily, "I’ll teach her, okay? You don’t need to call Lily."
"Since you’re so reluctant, I won’t force you. It’s not like this is a required part of the job anyway," Leo Larkin said flatly. "You can clock out. Don’t make me repeat myself."
The girl scoffed, then turned and walked away.
Her resentment toward Nina Wainwright grew.
Leo Larkin frowned, watching her leave. When the call connected, he said in a low voice, "Lily, come in for the day shift for two days. Teach the newcomer, Nina Wainwright, how to mix drinks. Do a good job, and I’ll give you a raise."
"Sure!" Lily agreed instantly.
Leo Larkin hung up and set his phone aside, his fingers tapping lightly on the bar.
’He was worried that Lucy Stratton would bully Nina Wainwright after he left tomorrow. But then again,’ he thought, ’this sort of thing happens all the time in the workplace. I’m the boss; do I really have time to meddle in this stuff? Don’t I have better things to do?’
’Survival of the fittest. I’ve already given Nina Wainwright an opportunity. The rest is up to her.’
「The next morning.」
Nina Wainwright didn’t see Leo Larkin at the bar and figured he was busy with other things.
Both Lucy Stratton and Lily were there.
As Nina Wainwright went to put her bag away, Lucy Stratton whispered, "The boss told me off because of her. In all these years, he’s never spoken to me so harshly. Lily, you have to get back at her for me."
"But you helped her, right? How could she turn around and get you in trouble with the boss?" Lily muttered.
"She’s just being melodramatic. At my uncle’s club, in the fanciest private room, she offended a client on her very first day. She really thinks she’s all that," Lucy Stratton said with a sneer. "In the service industry, how many women don’t have to deal with unwanted advances? It’s like she’s the only one who has any dignity."
The two of them immediately stopped talking when Nina Wainwright emerged.
Lily put on an enthusiastic smile. "The boss is on a business trip for the next two days, and he asked me to teach you bartending. But there’s no rush to start mixing. First, you need to learn all the different kinds of liquor. Come with me to the storeroom."
Lucy Stratton didn’t know what Lily had in mind, but she gave her an appreciative glance anyway.
Nina Wainwright didn’t think much of it and followed her to the liquor storeroom on the third floor.
The temperature inside the storeroom was low, and the walls looked like they had been specially treated. There were a number of very large barrels inside.
"Your job for today is to reorganize all of this liquor," Lucy Stratton said to Nina Wainwright.
Nina Wainwright looked at the barrels, some of which were bigger than her. "These barrels need to be reorganized too?" she couldn’t help but ask. "You mean I have to move them to new positions, or...?"
"Mhm. The point is, if you want to familiarize yourself with the inventory, you need to move everything at least once," Lucy Stratton said with an air of great importance.
’Memorizing the locations of the different liquors would certainly be helpful for work, but moving every single barrel seemed pointless and excessive.’
After a moment of contemplation, Nina Wainwright said calmly, "I understand."
Lucy Stratton turned to leave, pulling the door shut behind her.
Nina Wainwright didn’t move anything. She was pregnant and wasn’t supposed to lift heavy objects. She walked over to the barrels and saw that they were covered in dust, a clear sign they hadn’t been moved in a very long time.
She had a feeling Lily was probably tricking her. Instead of moving anything, she simply focused on memorizing the locations and types of liquor. She had already studied and memorized many of them the night before and had a clear memory of the inventory.
Around noon, Lily walked into the storeroom. Seeing that everything was still in its original place, she demanded, "What’s your problem? I told you to move the liquor, and you haven’t touched a thing? The boss asked me to train you, but if you won’t even listen to me, how am I supposed to do that?"
"These barrels look like they’ve been here for months, right?" Nina Wainwright asked Lily calmly. "Why do they need to be moved? And even if they did, wouldn’t you hire professionals for that?"
Lily immediately exploded. "Are you suggesting I’m lying to you?! Fine! If you think I’m lying, then I don’t have to teach you anything!"
As she spoke, she whipped out her phone and dialed Leo Larkin.
The call connected quickly, and she started shouting into the phone, "Boss, it’s not that I don’t want to teach her, it’s that she won’t listen to me at all! I told her to move the liquor in the storeroom so she could get familiar with the inventory, but she’s spent the whole morning just messing around! How is she ever going to learn to bartend like this?!" frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
"She can’t even identify all the different types," Lily added in a snide tone, glaring at Nina Wainwright. freewebnoveℓ.com
In her notebook, Nina Wainwright had recorded every type of liquor in the storeroom, including the vintage and cabinet number for each.
She stepped to the side and sent the photos of her notes to Leo Larkin.
After sending the message, Nina Wainwright watched Lily continue her tirade. "She doesn’t want to do any work; she obviously doesn’t want to learn. She’s afraid of a little hardship... How can you learn to bartend if you don’t even know the liquor... Oh, so I don’t have to teach her anymore? I can go back?"
"I mean, I’m willing to teach her, but—"
"Okay, fine. I’ll go back then."
Lily hung up the phone and glared menacingly at Nina Wainwright. "What did you send the boss?"
"A record of my work this morning," Nina Wainwright replied calmly.
Lily saw the notebook sitting to one side, snatched it, and flipped through it. When she saw the detailed, handwritten notes, her face grew beet red with embarrassment.
"If you didn’t want to teach me, you could have just said so. You don’t have to play these games to try and run me off," Nina Wainwright said calmly, taking her notebook back. "I work the day shift. I’m not in your way."
"What games? Isn’t it my credit that you recorded all this? My instructions might have been a bit misleading, but at least you learned something, right?" Lily said, masking her embarrassment with a self-righteous tone.
"You’re right. I misspoke. I’m sorry," Nina Wainwright immediately apologized.
Lily snorted coldly and stormed off.
Lucy Stratton and Lily left together. That afternoon, Nina Wainwright sat in the bar by herself, using the bartending guide Leo Larkin had sent her to start learning how to mix simple drinks.
She was pregnant, so she couldn’t drink alcohol. But without tasting them, she had no way of knowing if the drinks were any good.
She dialed Catherine Grant’s number and waited patiently.
A moment later, Catherine Grant answered. "Hey, what’s up?"
"Could you come to the bar? I’ve mixed some drinks and need you to taste them for me," Nina Wainwright asked, a bit sheepishly.
"No problem at all! I love drinking! Nina, you’re amazing! You’re already mixing your own drinks!" Catherine Grant’s voice was filled with excitement.
"I’m just starting out, so don’t laugh if they taste terrible," Nina Wainwright said, a smile tugging at her lips.
Here, she felt a sense of ease she hadn’t experienced in a long time.
As soon as Catherine Grant arrived, Nina Wainwright placed three glasses in front of her. "Help me taste them."
"Okay," Catherine Grant replied in a singsong voice and started with the first glass.
After taking a sip, she smacked her lips, savoring the taste for a moment before shaking her head. "Hmm, how do I put this... This one is a Long Island Iced Tea, and the liquor base is way too strong. You have to remember, this drink is incredibly popular with women, so it’s a huge mistake for the alcohol flavor to overpower the taste of the lime."
