The Rock Star Wants A Wife

Part 5

FIVE

Three days later, when the ship pulled into Broome, it was quarantined, to Penny's satisfaction. She hadn't been poisoned, after all. The ship had suffered a norovirus outbreak, the ship's medical officer said. Penny recovered within a day or two, but Pierre and Tess were two of the first to come down with it, followed by pretty much every passenger who'd eaten breakfast that day. Off the plates Pierre had forced her to wash.

There'd been talk of ending the cruise early, so the cruise company could disinfect the ship. That would teach them to employ arseholes like Pierre. It wasn't until Penny disembarked amid a pack of pale-faced passengers that she realised she had a problem. The cruise company had paid for all of them to be put up in the hotels in town, which left precious little accommodation for her. The crew remained aboard, forced to clean the ship from top to bottom. Penny didn't envy them.

She'd tried reasoning with Pierre, when it became apparent that she truly had been sick, but he held stubbornly to his decision. She no longer worked for him, and the only reference she'd get from him would be a bad one.

So she shouldered her bag and boarded one of the courtesy buses provided to transport the passengers into town. She wasn't sure what to do next, but she had enough money to buy a beer, and God knew she needed a drink in this heat.

There was standing room only in the Roey – not something she'd often seen in the town's iconic pub. Nevertheless, she sidled through the crowd to reach the bar, where she waited for ages before the bartender so much as acknowledged her.

"What'll it be?" the woman asked.

Penny waved her hand. "Whatever pint's cheapest." Today she didn't care what sort of beer she got, as long as it was ice cold. Sure enough, it was.

She counted out the last coins in her purse to pay for it, feeling her face grow red with shame.

"I take it you're not one of the cruise passengers?" the bartender asked.

Penny shook her head.

"Backpacker? Looking for work?"

Penny set her beer down on the bar. What did she have to lose? It's not like she had a job any more. "Yeah."

"We could do with an extra waitress today. Have you ever waited tables before? Served in a bar?"

Penny sighed. "Yeah, and worked in the kitchen, too. I'm an apprentice chef, but I thought I'd take a break for a bit."

The bartender extended a hand across the bar. "Freena. I'll pay you fifteen bucks an hour for as long as I need you today, and at the end, we'll talk about tomorrow, maybe."

Fifteen was better than nothing. "Sure. I'm Penny."

Freena nodded. "Grab an apron in the kitchen. Tell Dirk you're the new waitress. He'll give you a rundown on where to put your orders and where to collect them." She eyed Penny's bag. "You can put your things in the office in the back."

Penny emptied her beer and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Take that, Pierre, she thought. Not off the ship for an hour and already she had a new job.