The Start Line • •

[sammy evan williamson]

 

Bar work was never what Sammy's parents had envisioned for him, of that he was completely certain. They had seen Ivy League schools, doctorates, and probably an extremely well decorated career for their only son. That hadn't been what the academically gifted boy had wanted though, no matter how much praise or promise had been heaped on him since before he could remember. The truth was the matter was that as much as he liked learning and studying, he didn't want to be the prodigal son. He knew he wasn't going to be a lawyer, or a doctor, even if he had the brains for it. Sammy just didn't feel the passion for anything like that. He felt at home behind a bar, with the buzz and the banter that came from a place like O'Malley's. He might have had the capability to go far, but he didn’t want to. His parents might have called it wasted potential, but Sammy just thought that his dreams ran in a different direction to theirs. He was young, still tasting the different flavours of life, and currently his plans involved opening a bar of his own once he had enough experience and knowledge of the trade to pull it off successfully.

Late afternoon had the regular faces in O’Malley’s, along with those who had come from awful days at the office. They stuck out from the rest, nursing their glasses and wearing their ties loose around their necks. It was a sight to see, but he never judged those when he hadn’t lived their lives. His parents wanted him to live that life, even encouraged him now, but Sammy was the guy behind the bar who knew the answer to Tom Reilly’s crossword puzzle when he got stuck, and who could explain some of the news articles when the other customers were arguing over the nonsense some reporter had typed up today. Setting the glass wash now that it was full, he leaned across the mahogany top to peek at Tom’s puzzle, giving him the answer to six across before moving down the bar to grab one of the bitter office workers another Bud. He was on his third and showed no signs of stopping, and while Sammy thought the guy could use an ear, he also knew that sort of thing was better left to the likes of Perri; he had yet to see her fail at cheering anyone up.

Sammy wasn’t all that great when it came to people’s personal problems. He was a friendly enough guy, but he often found that with the average Joe he could run out of things to say fairly quickly when topics took a personal turn. He didn’t have many anecdotes from his own life since he was such an academic before New York, and since arriving there he hadn’t lived all that much outside of O’Malley’s and the crew there. He also wasn’t great with the comforting words, so again he left all of that to the likes of Perri who seemed to know what to say all of the time. He was rather thankful when someone else came up to the bar in the moments that quickly passed by. It gave him something to do, and someone else to focus on without feeling all that guilty about ignoring the guy brooding over the cold bottle of Budweiser. “And what can I do for you?” He asked with a boyish smile, leaning upon the bar with both hands.

• • •

TAGGED! Novalee Henley Marie Townsend
WORDS! 586!
OUTFIT! Brilliant Bartender!
LYRICS! Jump The Gun - - - Halestorm
NOTES! <3

[Novalee Henley Marie Townsend]

Henley loved her job; she really did. She probably shouldn’t have thought it was as much fun as she did, after all, she spent most of her work related hours following people and taking pictures of them doing naughty things. And when she wasn’t doing that, she was sitting behind a desk, going through all the invoices and paperwork that should have been settled the week before. Her bosses were keeping her away from the office more and more though and Henley was not about to complain about that when it was exactly what she had wanted. And the week’s worth of paperwork she could blitz through in an afternoon with her headphones in. Henley suspected that was why she was allowed out on assignment more and more; because she was math prodigy and those invoices and things were too easy for her to do, she could have done them in her sleep.

And if her genius meant they kept her around, well Henley would allow them to use her superior skills when they needed her. Otherwise, she kept that bit of knowledge to herself and pretended like she was the dumb blonde most people thought she was. For an office with three private investigators in, it had been too easy to hide her maths skills. It hadn’t been until recently that her math skills came to light. And all because Tony had been rhetorically asking Randy some silly math question that was to him, unanswerable. But there Henley was, barely paying attention to the conversation, too busy filing away the paperwork she’d just finished and blurted the answer out without even thinking about it; not really. And naturally that led to all sorts of ridiculous maths questions they demanded she answer which led to more out of office assignments because they realised that she’d been fooling around on the internet for hours on end because she’d had all the work done within the first couple hours of stepping through the office door.

But again, she wasn’t going to complain because the South African got to do something she loved; even if her parents were still wishing she would change her mind and became something lame like an accountant or tame like a mathematician. Both were dull and boring and Henley wasn’t neither of those things. So she refused to be either of those things permanently. And that was how she found herself sitting at the bar of O’Malley’s pub with her phone camera up and ready should she get her evidence at the bar. She’d been tailing the allegedly cheating husband for over two hours now through his daily routine and she had to admit, she was bored to tears from it all. For the most part, she’d been able to stay in her car with her camera at the ready but when she watched him pull into the bar’s parking lot, she figured, what the hell? She wanted something more than the water and the peanut butter sandwiches she’d packed for the day. “Hey.” She said, smiling at the bartender. “Can I get a Coke and some nachos with extra cheese and salsa?” She asked, not even having to think about her order. She was famished and pub food was an excellent choice. So if, like the rest of her day, she got nothing, at least he was kind enough to stop somewhere with good food to eat.

Tag || sammy evan williamson
Words || 604
Clothes || Sleuthing Sweetie
Music || The Kind of Heart That Breaks --Chris Cummings
Notes || <3

[sammy evan williamson]

 

His end goal was to someday own a bar of his own. Sammy had a few ideas in mind already for the place, but he knew he was a long way from actually owning it. He needed money, an actual space to call his own and a few more years of experience under his belt first. Just because he worked in O’Malley’s it didn’t make him an expert yet. As much as he loved the Irish pub, he still wanted to one day have his own place to run and manage, but that dream still wasn’t what his parents had expected from him. They told him he could go and be anything he wanted, and he just explained time and time again that he wanted the life he had right now. He wanted to meet people from all walks of life, hear their stories and learn their names. He didn’t care about fame, or money, he just wanted to find his own brand of happiness and right now he felt like he was on the right path towards it.

At least here he was just good old Sammy, and there were no high expectations placed upon him. It might have sounded strange, but after the life he had had he welcomed the break from it all. For as long as he could remember everyone had expected him to be something amazing, to do great things and to go on and change the world, but all he ever wanted was the chance to see it. Now, he wasn’t much of a traveller, but working here he heard enough tales to make him feel like one. Tourists came in and shared their stories from back home, locals and regulars brought back photographs from their trips and vacations, and the staff themselves were from all around the globe so they added a bit of culture to the place, too. Sammy was happy here, the happiest he had ever felt in fact, and he was in no rush to change up his life for anything else. He could happily spend the next couple of years behind the bar at O’Malley’s meeting people and making more friends out of the drinkers here.

His smile when he was working was rarely ever fake. He was naturally a happy guy and working behind the bar came easily to him when he didn’t have to lend a sympathetic ear and focus on saying the right thing to those people. So, he smiled and reached down below the counter top to grab a clean glass. “Coming right up.” He moved to get the Coke she ordered, and shouted through to the kitchen at the same time, taking advantage of how Ripper kept the door slightly ajar for ease when he was flying back and forth with orders and didn’t want to be frustrated by anything more than he already was. “Hey, Ripper, get me some nachos with extra cheese and salsa, will you?” He heard the affirmative ‘aye’ coming from the Scottish chef and then returned to the blonde girl with her coke. “Your nachos will just be a minute.”

• • •

TAGGED! Novalee Henley Marie Townsend
WORDS! 527!
OUTFIT! Brilliant Bartender!
LYRICS! Jump The Gun - - - Halestorm
NOTES! <3

[Novalee Henley Marie Townsend]

Henley’s parents were disappointed that their daughter had run off to America to pursue a career as a private investigator. They’d had hopes of her becoming a mathematician or an accountant or something equally boring and desk job-y. Henley didn’t want a desk job, she wanted to get out there, she wanted to sit in the car for long hours, watching closed windows and waiting for the money shot that got her clients what they wanted. She wanted to do all the dirty work because it was exciting, it was something different every time. Even sitting in on stakeouts were different every time; not just the places or the people she was following. The jobs were all different and though she sat in the same car, it was never really the same. Sometimes she had Sherlock and Watson with her but sometimes she went it alone.

Her aunt hadn’t been too pleased with the dogs when Henley had first brought them home. But Mags didn’t have a security system, she hadn’t felt she needed one in a building like hers that had it’s own security and doorman and all that fancy business, but the pair of dogs had grown on Mags and now she spent more money on treats for them then Henley did! She was the one that took them to the vets when they needed to go. And Henley was starting to believe the animals were brought into their home for Mags and not because Henley didn’t like being alone in the huge space when Mags was away on one of her numerous business trips.

Henley knew she should have been watching the guy she was following but it was difficult to do when there was someone else that had stolen her attention right out from under her. She wanted to get to know the bartender that was serving her. He was cute, looked her in the eye when he was talking to her when most men’s eyes would have wandered south the second she sat down. “Thanks.” she said with a genuine smile. “I have a question and for the first time since I’ve moved here, I wish it was personal but what do you know about that guy? Anything at all? Or is he a new face for you?” She asked, nodding her chin in the direction of her mark. She wasn’t quiet or shy by nature. In fact she was quite the opposite. Henley was quite loud and blunt and rarely did she apologise for what came out of her mouth.

Tag || sammy evan williamson
Words || 452
Clothes || Sleuthing Sweetie
Music || The Kind of Heart That Breaks --Chris Cummings
Notes || <3