CHAPTER THREE
Background music: Voices and chachings of glass and muffled classical music
It was definitely the worst evening George had in a long time. After planning the ball to perfection, so many thigns had not gone the way he expected. He expected 10 well trained and experienced waiters, but his boss had thrown at him 10 unexperienced youngsters who used to work at a library. Like that was not enough, one of them had arrived 30 minutes late! And a bartender, an EXPERIENCED one who had worked at the hotel for a couple of years, had just dropped 2 bottles of the hotel's best 1981 red wine!
Buisy making an orange-tequilla cocktail, Fittany was furious. How could she have been so careless! As she had gone to the wine room to get wine, she had slipped on spilled Bed Head hair gel that had been spilled on th floor! The wine bottles had flewn accross the room and crashed on th floor. Her boss had yelled at her for at least fifteen minutes, wich means she got a lot less tips. And the incident would ternish her reputation of one of the best bartenders the hotel employed! Goodbye employee of the month trophee... Where did the stupid Bed Head come from anyway? And why hadn't the janitor cleaned it off?
Fighting her emotions, Fittany put on her best smile and went to give the orange-tequilla cocktail to the tall dark-haired man in a tuxedo who had ordered it. She could not help but to notice he was very good-looking. But after handing out the cocktail with a polite " Here is your drink, sir.", she went to take care of other clients. Grand Hotel employees did not flirt with custommers, even less with special guests. And this ball was filled with special guests.
As she prepared colourful drinks of all sorts, Fittany observed the dance floor. There now was a stage performer entertaining the crowd with her delightefull voice and cachy songs. Fittany thought she heard the voice somewhere... probably on the radio or on one of the 647 songs she had on her iPod. Anyway, the crowd, composed mainly of high-ranked and very important people dressed in tuxedos and hundred dollar dresses, were dancing. Not to wildly, of couse but they seemed to have fun. On the dance floor sides,there were round tables and chairs where people could drink, eat and chill. it was definitely one of the bigest balls the hotel ever hosted, and Fittany still wondered what was the occasion. Surely at somepoint into the evening an important governor or embassador would give a speech, but it was already past eleven.
Fittany pushed her thoughts away and went to serve an akward looking couple. They seemed to try to keep a fairly big distance between each-other and barely talked. Could have been a maried couple having a fight, but they were way too young. Probably one of those mached couples. Rich people had the bad habit of trying to mix and mach their sons and daughters with other rich and influential singles. Fittany forced a smile and asked what they wanted to order. A daiquiri for the curly-haired brunette and a sunrise for the blue-eyed gentleman.
The evening seemed to go well, but by midnight nobody had made any speech of somesort. Some guests were even starting to leave. The signer had left, leaving her place to a small group of violins who played dumb elevator music. Fittany wished she hadn't left her earplugs at home.
As she was serving one of the rare clients at the bar, she noticed something suspicious. At a round table in the corner of the room, there were two very important looking women talking in a low voice. Maybe that was what The Boss had told her about. Anyhow, she had to find out what they were whispering about. Fittany took a look at the bar. There were only two clients, and both had their drink. No one else seemed to come, and there was another bartender there anyway. So Fittany walked towards the mysterious women. They stoped talking as they saw her approach. She politely offered to bring them a drink. They exchanged a wierd look and finally ordered two glasses of 1981 red wine. Dissapointed because she didn't learn anything, but still wearing her smile, Fittany went to get the wine.
Since there was no more of the specific wine in her bar, she went to the wine room to take a new bottle. Just entering it, she bumped into a very strange waitress wearing a black wig. "I'm sorry" the girl said " But would you know where we can find 1981 red wine? There is no more." Fittany laughed. Those unexperienced waiters! She knew the hotel kept tons of reserves of it's particular signature wine. If there wasn't some in the wine room, there were most likely some in the wine storage room. So Fittany and the waitress wnet there.
The winw storage room was a huge room with lots of shelves and very poor lightening. You could easily get lost in there. Fortunately, Fittany had come many times to fetch the particular wine and knew exactly where to go. She went directly to th right spot. At first, she thought the light was playing a trick on her eyes, but she soon realised what she saw and gasped. The hundreds of 1981 wine bottles were gone. They had bee stolen.
To be continued...
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