Lesson 32- Don't talk to strangers, but it's okay to smile.

The bar is fairly rowdy tonight, and I suspect that at least half the reason for that is that about three minutes ago, Elijah the incubus walked into the building and I swear the volume in this place doubled. There aren’t even that many women IN here right now, but the few that are around have zeroed in on him and I’m pretty sure it will only be another minute or so until someone approaches him. I could pretend to be all special and mature, say that I don’t understand the appeal of him, that these women are stupid and that he’s only going to use them and leave. But they know how it all works, and to be honest, I remember how his magic felt. I can definitely see the appeal. Not to mention, he makes movie stars look ugly. That’s not to say I’d let him pick me up. I won’t… Probably won’t. I’m not really a one night stand kind of person, not that I have a problem with those who are, it’s just not my thing. Plus I’m working. Still, the slightest bit of temptation is still there. I suspect that as long as he’s around it always will be. I don’t know a lot about his type of magic, but with some things it’s impossible to not see the point and this is one of them. I’m deep in thought when I’m interrupted by Elijah’s voice which immediately sends a pleasant shiver down my spine.
“Hello again, gorgeous.” He greets me and I can’t help but smile at him, although I’m careful to keep my hands out of his reach. Mentally I tell myself ‘please keep your hands and arms inside the bar and do not say yes to a good time.’ The stupid thought makes me smile even brighter and Elijah winks at me.
“Miss me?” He says sweetly and I laugh.
“You can’t miss something unless you’re aiming for it.” I sass him and he holds his hand over his heart as if I’ve hurt him and pretends to be offended, just like he did last time. I suspect that Elijah isn’t one to show genuine emotion all that often.
“So cruel to me.” He jokes and I roll my eyes.
“Yes, I’m sure that you’re very hurt, truly devastated. I doubt that your ego will ever recover. Now, I know you don’t buy your own drinks, so are you talking to me for a reason or are you just here to call me pretty?” I say sarcastically.
“Isn’t that reason enough?” He asks. When I continue to stare at him unimpressed, he sighs.
“Spoil sport. Fine. What are my options tonight?” He asks, turning and leaning against the bar as he looks around the room.
“Dude… I’m not some pimp.” I say flatly and he rolls his eyes.
“Good, because I’m not paying you. I just want you to tell me who I should steer clear of. Which are the women with jealous boyfriends and who has already drunk too much to be an acceptable target for wooing.” He explains. I continue to stare at him and he shrugs.
“Hey this is win-win. You make sure I don’t get my lights knocked out by some jealous guy because his girlfriend isn’t as loyal as expected, and you get to protect all the poor drunk girls here by warning me off of them.” He says it like it’s obvious. I sigh.
“Ugh, fine. Whatever. In that case, avoid the redhead down the back, she came in with someone, and keep your hands off the blonde sitting over there. She’s been downing shots like water.” I warn.
“You’re the best Rina.” He says warmly and I scoff.
“It’s true, you are beautiful, caring, sweet, sexy and-” he cuts off mid sentence and lets out a nervous sounding laugh.
“You know what, never mind. Thanks for your help, lovely. I’ll let you get back to work.” His words are normal but his tone is pitched just the tiniest bit higher than it was a minute ago. He rushes off as if he’s in a hurry. Well that was weird.

I spend a few minutes arguing with the ever present vampires as they whine about their drinks. I wander over to Torin afterwards to complain about them a little.
“Seriously these guys are here basically every night, all night. Laura told me they sleep during the day, so they must spend practically all their time here. Don’t they have jobs, or lives? Hey look at me, I’ve been threatened and technically kidnapped and I’m still managing to hold down a full time job.” I joke. Torin blinks a few times and stares at me.
“Okay, to be fair that was a lot funnier in my head.” I mutter.
“I suppose it was kind of funny.” Torin reluctantly answers, but he doesn’t so much as crack a smile.
“It’s alright, it wasn’t really that funny. Are you just going to sit here all night?” I ask. Torin shrugs.
“Maybe.” He grumbles.
“Don’t you have any actual work to do? I’ve seen your office.” I say pointedly.
“Maybe.” He answers again and I laugh.
“Okay, okay. I’ll stop hassling you. You’ve been running this place just fine without my nagging, you don’t need me to start now.” I pat his hand and get back to serving drinks. Although to be honest the thought of his messy office is bothering me a little. It’s the only disorganised room in this place and I’m itching to fix it up. Sigh.

Torin stays in the bar all night, it’s not until it’s time to lock up that he actually gets up from his seat. He offers to help me clean up but I refuse and send him on his way. It’s time for operation ‘dust spite’ and step one is to make sure that this room is SPOTLESS. But before that, I move the mats from behind the bar and pull the trap door open.
“Uh… Hello down there?” I say awkwardly. Now that I know the creature isn’t really a threat I’m not scared anymore. But it’s still weird. I accepted all this magic and monsters stuff because I had to. But this is the first creature I’ve met that has no chance of passing for a human. I wait for a moment and the creature starts purring again. Good, it is happy to see me.
“Well… There are some empties on the bar if you want them, and I can go check for leftovers if you’re interested.” I offer. Immediately a shadowy limb reaches out and takes one of the empties.
“I’ll get the leftovers when you’re done with those I guess.” I mutter and get back to cleaning. As I work, I explain my plan to the creature.
“So first I’m going to set the bait by making sure this place is as clean as possible, then I’m going to lay out these fly traps. Not the most complicated plan, but hopefully it’ll work.” I explain. The creature purrs.
“Thanks, I’m glad you approve.. Uh, do you have a name? Well… I guess you can’t tell me. Can I give you one? It feels weird calling you ‘creature.’” I decide. The purring gets louder.
“Awesome. How about…. Jerry?” I suggest. The creature stops purring and makes a clicking noise followed by a soft ‘tsk’ that I interpret to mean it doesn’t like the name.
“Okay, what about… Alfred?” I offer. More clicking.
“Not Alfred, huh? Patrick?” I try again and the ‘tsk’ sound is much louder this time. A thought occurs to me.
“Oh hold on, these are all boys' names. Are you a girl?” I question and the purring starts again.
“Right, sorry. My bad. Okay…. What about… Jane?” The purring gets loud again and the crunching of glass continues as the creature returns to it’s snack.
“Great. Jane it is then.” I decide. I finish cleaning and give Jane the leftovers from the kitchen. I also lay out those paper fly trap things over as much of the bar and as many of the perfectly clean tables as possible. I figure they’re clean and white so the dust sprites have GOT to be tempted by them, right? I say goodnight to Jane, close her door, replace the mats and then go snuggle into my nice comfy bed.