I'll Come out Fighting

Chapter 2

Jayne

I woke before Jamie and surprisingly I slept right through the night, no nightmares. Go Me!  I slipped out of bed and had a quick shower and got changed. Just slipping on some leggings and a baggy shirt. I headed to the kitchen to make breakfast, hoping Jamie had been shopping and stocked up the fridge. Luckily he had, bacon and eggs, perfect.

Whipping up a couple omelettes and crispy bacon, Jamie must have smelled the food cooking, as he shuffles through to the kitchen just as I finish plating the food up.

“You sleep ok?” Jamie asks as he makes coffee for us both

“Yip. Perfect, your snoring didn’t even wake me up” I giggle as he glared at me.

“I only snore when I have been drinking on the weekends” he tells me as he shovels food into his mouth.  “This is so good” he mumbles, food spilling out of his mouth.

“Ew. Don’t speak with your mouth full” I slap his arm and throw a napkin at his face

“Yes mum” he chuckles.   After breakfast, Jamie helps clean up the dishes as we chat about stuff.

“Have you had any thoughts about what you are going to do now?” he asks as he dries the last of the dishes up.  “I am in no way rushing you to move out or anything like that, sis. You need to get a plan in place and think about the future.” He must have seen my reaction to his first question.

“I have no idea really. I was only at my job a few weeks before everything happened. I don’t even know if I still have a job to go to” I tell him as we head through and get comfy on the sofa to watch tv.

I was working for a local advertising agency before I was in hospital. It was never really what I wanted to do but it was the only job going after I finished University. I have a degree in business management but wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my career. The advertising agency was just a stop gap until I got my dream job.

I have always wanted to own my own bar or nightclub to be precise. I knew my parents were never thrilled with that idea and neither were my brothers. But now, after what I have been through, I’m not going to let anyone stop me from my dreams.  I have the money there to find a place and get it set up. The sale of my apartment and the money my parents left us, after it was shared between the four of us we all still got a good amount of money.

“I might look into buying a pub or nightclub” I blurt out as we sat and watched TV.

“What? Really? You still want to do that?” Jamie’s asks shocked.

“Yeah, its always been my dream. I have the money there to start something. Might get a business partner and see where it can take me” I tell him as I think about my best friend Jeff. He had the same visage as I did all the way through high school.

“You know I will support you with anything you decide, but Jay and Jackson will be harder to persuade.”

“Yeah, I will look into it first before I share my ideas with them” I tell him.

After watching TV for a while, I can’t get the idea out of my head about the pub. I know this town does not have a decent bar or nightclub for anyone under the age of 30, not saying that 30 is old, but the pubs and bars in this area are never welcoming for the younger groups of people.

I pull out my laptop and start my research. First checking what pubs are in the area and check the reviews and such. I notice that a few have closed recently and are up for lease, potential to change the layout of the interior and renovate slightly.  I make a note to contact the agents in charge of the building.

Jamie is hovering to see what I’m doing, nodding his head at my notes and giving his opinion on some of my ideas.  In between all of this I called Jeff to see if he is up for the adventure. He nearly burst my ear drum when I asked him. He is definitely up for it.

Jeff and I go way back, he is like a fourth brother to me. We lived in the same street and went to primary and high school together. We were inseparable at holidays and at one point everyone thought we would get married and have kids. Now, I am not saying that Jeff is not a nice guy, because he is. He is amazing in every way. We did try the whole dating thing one summer, but it felt weird and disgusting. We snogged once and we both agreed to never do it again.

Just as Jeff comes to the apartment, Jamie heads out as he has some errands to run, basically he has a booty call. He is not bringing anyone home with me staying which is very thoughtful of him and I definitely don’t want to hear or see anything like that, especially with my brother.

While Jeff and I get our heads together, we come up with a decent plan. We called the agent to get a look around one of the pubs available for lease. Jeff called his financial advisor to see what funds he has available to put into this venture. It is all looking good. With my money I will be majority owner and Jeff is willing to be manager with his share of takings, like a seventy thirty split. 

One of the things I love about Jeff, is his ability to make you forget. He obviously knows what happened to me and he did come and visit me several times in the hospital. He never mentions it but knows when something triggers a memory or event. It is almost like he can read my mind and fixes it before it gets too bad if that makes sense.

Heading out to go and see the pub was a bit daunting for me. Jeff sensed it straight away as soon as we got in his car. I have literally only been out of the hospital for a day and this is the first time going out. I have no reason to be scared but my anxiety is through the roof. In the back of my mind, I just know that people are going to stand and talk about me as soon as I walk past. I have done nothing wrong. I was the victim who suffered. Jeff pulls me to his side as we get out of the car, he knows when to support me, mentally and physically.

“Jayne” someone calls my name just as we are heading towards the pub.

“Mia” I say as she hugs me,  we stand and chat a little. Mia went to school with me and Jeff, she works beside Jamie and Jay. We weren’t best of friends, but we hung out at weekends and went on double dates and stuff.  She doesn’t mention what happened, which I am thankful for but in a way its weird. We tell her our plans and she is super excited to find out if we are successful.

“I won’t tell your brothers that I saw you here then. I will keep quiet” she giggles as we say goodbye.

We head inside to see the agent, he gives us a tour around of the place, showing us the cellar and the function rooms upstairs. Once we are done with the tour, we sit down inside and talk money and changes.

Turns out that the place is for sale and not lease. The people that own the building want to cut all ties with the industry and want a quick sale so we could potentially buy the building and change what we want without any questions.   Now that changes our plans slightly, as we didn’t budget for the purchase of the place.  We need to think about it and get back to them.

When we get back at Jamie’s, Jeff comes up for coffee just as Jamie is getting out the shower.  We sit and tell him our plans and he is willing to buy the building and lease it to us. Which would be a huge help to me and Jeff but also will give Jamie a decent investment.

Now the only problem is getting Jay and Jackson to support our venture.

After a few ups and downs and several months of waiting. I have my dream now. JJ’s, my baby, my nightclub and bar.  Jeff and I have worked our fingers to the bone to get the club designed and laid out to how we want it.  We had a few issues with building regulations but having two brothers working for a construction firm definitely became an advantage.

Tonight is opening night and to say I’m excited would be an understatement. Over the last few weeks we have managed to get bar staff and security staff hired and trained to how we want.

We aren’t going to be open every day, Monday is the only day and night we aren’t open, it will give us time to recharge our batteries I suppose and catch up with the countless piles of paperwork.

JJ's isn’t a normal nightclub really. From around mid-afternoon we’ll open and hopefully get many office workers coming by to wind down from work, so a normal style bar two nights a week. But as soon as 9pm hits Thursday night, the place is bouncing with clubbers. We have two in house DJ’s that are amazing and will work on a rota system. We’ll be doing theme nights, 80’s and 90’s or disco nights, gives the punters a bit of variety.

The club has a couple smaller halls, upstairs, that can get hired out for parties and events, every hall has a bar and separate bathrooms, which took longer to get renovated but now it’s finished and it’s amazing. 

After doing several checks for stock and making sure all staff know exactly what is expected of them for tonight. Jeff and I head up stairs to the office to chill out before the doors open at 6pm.

We have been advertising to opening of the club for the last week and thankfully the response has been amazing.  The VIP lounge has been booked out by a few popular business men and a couple of local politicians. So publicity should be good, as long as they all behave themselves.

“You ready for tonight?” Jeff asks as we sip our coffees. Yes we may be in a bar, but we can’t really drink whilst working. Not exactly wanting to get wasted on opening night.

“Nervous and excited at the same time. I just hope people actually turn up.” I say as I look out the window that looks over the main bar downstairs.

“It will be fine. Your brothers have been promoting this place all week. Even Jackson has been telling the parents at the school about opening night.”

“True. Well. Its almost time, shall we head down and get this club open?” I ask Jeff as we finish out coffees.

Heading downstairs I start to get butterflies in my stomach. The nerves are definitely kicking in now. As I chant in my head, its going to go great, several times. My brothers walk in all looking very dapper in their suits.

“Baby sis. This place looks great” Jay says as he hands me a bouquet of flowers.

“Thanks Jay, they are beautiful” I tell him as he pulls me in for a hug. 

Jay and Jackson eventually came around to the idea of my owning a nightclub.  After many family meetings, including Jeff, they agreed to support us on this venture. 

“I noticed a few people mingling out front when we came in.  I will take my post at the door for this evening, let you two mingle with the clientele.” Jackson says.  He volunteered to work the guest list just for tonight, we have to watch how many people come in at any one time. For fire and safety reasons.

“Perfect, Thanks Jackson.”  Jeff says as we start to organise the staff to their posts for the doors opening in less than ten minutes.

With Jamie being a kind of business partner he volunteered to see over the VIP area. I’m pretty sure it is because of the bar staff we have working up there tonight, but I will let him off with it just for tonight.

We gather all the staff including security to go over the last few details, making sure everyone happy enough with their tasks.  We are not expecting it to be too busy straight away, it is still early but with it being a Friday night, it is just too unpredictable.

“Right folks. Let’s do this” Jeff says into the earpiece.

The doors open and a group of people walk in and going by the looks on their faces they are impressed with what they see.  On entry, everyone is given a token to get a free drink, just one. Can’t bankrupt us on our first night. Within half an hour the downstairs bar is busier than I expected it to be.

I jump behind the bar to help out making sure everyone is happy and getting the drinks they have ordered.  It soon starts picking up, I can hear the staff communicating through the earpiece making sure no-one is too busy that they can’t cope.  The music soon picks up and the place is jumping with clubbers.

 The bar quietens down a little bit allowing me to go mingle with the punters and check on the other staff.  Jackson comes in from outside saying that the line is smaller than earlier but people still waiting to get in.  Luckily we put signs up telling people about our max capacity so they will just have to wait. Hopefully they won’t have to wait too long.

I see Jamie wondering about the VIP area, he spots me and gives me a thumbs up.  The DJ tonight is doing an amazing job and I can happily say that everyone seems to be enjoying themselves.

The local press arrived earlier and have taken pictures for the article that they want to release. The reporter came by early afternoon to interview us so we should be seeing the article tomorrow or the next day.

Jeff has been running around all night as well, collecting glasses and rubbish lying about. The back room behind the main bar downstairs is where all the glasses are washed and dried. Luckily we have loads of staff on tonight to cope with the amount of glasses needing washed.

After hours and hours of being on my feet it is safe to say that wearing heals whilst working in a nightclub is not a good idea.  I end up running up to the office to grab my trainers. I literally thought I heard my feet sigh when I took my heals off.