Claudette Hynes

Taran rarely had a day off either, usually the first one in and the last one out at the office. Janette made fun of him constantly for it, but it was the only way he knew at this point. Crossing his arms over his chest, he shrugged his shoulders slightly. “I find that on a nice day like this, I always end up spending it inside,” he laughed, ducking his head for a moment before looking back up at her with a smile. 

Claudette gave the other a puzzled look before nodding her head. “We could go get lunch?” she tilted her head to the side thinking about there options. “Or we could go get drunk, which is the complete opposite of what i wanted to do today.” she shook her head at the bore of her lack of suggestions. “Maybe you could carry my shopping around for hours on end, who knows.”

“This might be surprising, but I’ve gotten that before,” Darcy chuckled. “But I’m definitely glad to be of service. Some of my friends are totally over me and my constant makeover offers,” she admitted, “So having a new ‘victim’ as they’d call it, is much appreciated.”

Claudette rolled her eyes lightly at the other. “You can’t be a victim if you’re openly asking for it.” she joked lightly as she nodded at the other. “It sound’s like you need some new friends darling.” she chuckled lightly to herself as she bit down on her bottom lip for a moment. “Honestly if they’re not accepting your advice they’ve probably already fallen victim to a fashion crime.”

“So you think you can beat it?” She asked the person standing in front of her booth. “I’d to let you know that this isn’t the usual punching machine you see, but let’s see how well you do. You might even win a prize.” She offered to bring out her special machine as a game at the barbeque, knowing it would be a good chance to get word out about her business. 

Claudette raised an eyebrow at the other as she politely declined the offer. “Gosh no, i’m only standing by this bloody machine to check out the boys.” she joked lightly, but really was it a joke? She shook her head a smile appearing on her lips. “It’s a hobby watching the boys try and beat one another honestly.” 

“I’m a fashion clerk down at the mall so I can also get us a discount,” she added, nudging the blonde happily. “So consider your invitation accepted.”

Claudette wiggled her eyebrows at the red head the smile on her face growing. “I might have to hire you as a new best friend with those offers.” she teased the other lightly before flicking some of her hair over her shoulder. “You’re like finding a needle in a haystack.” she winked at the other the smirk on her face only growing.

Gage smirked, crossed his arms over his chest as he shifted on his feet. “I can think of plenty of things that we could do,” he told her, teasingly, his smile as charming as ever. “But really it would all depend on the amount of clothing you’d like to keep on, if any.” 

Claudette raised an eyebrow at the other as she thought of the possibilities they could get up to, each situation more heated than the last. She twirled a piece of hair between her fingers as she tried to decide. “Let's start with something including clothes and see where we end up?” she smirked at the other for a moment. “That's if you can wait out that long.”

“Shopping! You can never go wrong with some retail therapy,” Darcy insisted with a grin.

“I did see there was a new jumper on sale that came in red!” she grinned widely at the red head as she nodded her head. “Would you be a real gal pal and accompany me on such therapy.”

“You could go to a concert or something? Pick up an instrument? Try knitting?” she shrugged with a smile.

Claudette nodded at the other as she considered the options. “Any chance you’re good at any of those things.” she offered the other a small smile. “I’m willing to do anything but i may possibly need assistance.”

“A lot of people,” she admitted. “We recently went transatlantic which we’re pretty excited about.” Ophelia chuckled softly at the other’s joke. People often poked fun at her in bars, parties or anywhere alcohol was served really. It didn’t really bother her all that much. “Yeah I guess so,” she added with a soft smile. When Claudette turned and asked her if she wanted to try her hand at serving drinks, she was admittedly surprised. She hadn’t been expecting that. “Wow um– are you serious? Not afraid I’m going to poison your customers or something?”

“I mean if they get poisoned it's probably their own faults.” she joked lightly as she invited the blonde behind the bar. “Most of these guys are local anyways, they know how to handle their alcohol.” she chuckled softly to herself before continuing. “They’d probably love to see a new blonde rather than there regular.” she grinned at the other as she nodded towards the bottles. “It’s pretty simple, besides i’d be surprised you’d create anything to lethal.” 

“Oh, I have so many,” Laura chuckled and linked her arm through her sister’s. “Come on, we need to have fun again. How about a shopping trip? Everything always looks so good on us, it’s a great confidence booster,” she smirked. “I should write my next fashion history paper on the effects of clothes on self-esteem,” she added in a lower voice so people around couldn’t overhear. 

“Any that don’t involve sitting in a bar staring at ripped men?” she joked lightly before actually listening to her sisters thoughts. “i could do a shopping trip, i saw online that one of our favourite stores has a new red dress.” she grinned widely at the other as she elbowed her gently. “Maybe we should buy some matching pj’s.” a laugh escaped her lips at the mention of the context of her paper. “I think you’d get full marks for a accurate piece like that.” 

“ Tell me about it, ” Eliana replied, linking her arm to her sister’s. “ The cafe let me leave early because it was so slow, and they didn’t want to keep paying me to be on my phone behind the counter. ” Pausing to inspect her nails and to consider Claudette’s question, Eliana eventually snapped her fingers. “ Ooh ! We could do a spa day at home and then look fab and fresh to the bar tonight to scout out cuties ? ”

Claudette grinned at the other as she glanced down at her own hands. “I think that sounds incredible.” she chuckled softly as she squeezed Eliana’s shoulder. “What colour are you thinking of painting them? don’t tell me, Green?” she teased the other before resting her mop of blonde hair on the others shoulder. “Who do we have our eyes set on this evening? Obviously the classic boys but maybe some fresh meat would be interesting.” 

“Look, I know I said I was a handy man but when I said that, your request wasn’t what I expected to be getting.” Ben spoke with a slightly awkward laugh.

Claudette raised an eyebrow at the other a frown on her face. “Look, i’m not expecting a masterpiece all i need is for someone to fix the stool.” she ran a hand through her hair as she glanced at the piece of furniture. “How hard could it be? a few screws and it’ll be good as new right?” 

“It’s a pleasure, Claudette,” she smiled with a polite nod. “I’m Ophelia,” she added, feeling it was only fair to introduce herself to the other in return. “Ah, work stuff,” the blonde waved her words away. “It’ll be the death of me some day, I swear. But until then I’ve gotta keep marching on.” When asked what she did for a living, Ophelia let out a gentle sigh, “I work for my father’s company. We sell liquor and spirits. But more specifically I’m part of the board of directors. Lots of decisions are constantly being thrown our way. Trying to get along with the other board members is already hard enough, let alone trying to agree on something,” she admitted with a brief chuckle. “I think I’d much rather be serving drinks than selling them,” Ophelia added. “Not that I don’t imagine your job has its stressful days too. I didn’t mean it like that at all.”

Claudette grinned at the other as she placed her chin in the palm over her hand. “So who do you distribute to?” she raised an eyebrow at the other. “Are you here to check on your customers or the competition.” she lightly joked a wide grin plastered on her face. “That doesn’t sound fun though, stressful really.” she poured herself a drink as she glanced at the blonde. “I think our jobs are equally as stressful, we might not have stressful days but stressful nights are a constant thing around here.” she joked light as she took a sip from the glass. “Do you want to?” she paused before glancing over at the arrange of bottles. “Do you want to try serving drinks?”

“That is incredibly generous of you,” Ophelia said softly, inhaling sharply through her nose. She hated making a big deal out of herself and here she was making a bartender have so much pity on her they were offering her a free drink. She hoped she didn’t look as pathetic as she felt. “I really appreciate it…?” she hung onto her words as if waiting for the other to state their name. She liked to thank people personally. It was the same back at the workplace. Some board members looked down upon other staff but she always tried her best to know each and every single one by name.

Claudette shrugged her shoulders as she glanced over at the blonde. “Claudette.” she finished the others sentence before pouring her a drink and sliding it along the bar. “So what's so serious that it’s got you so stressed out at a bar?” she tilted her head to the side as she pondered for a moment. “What do you do for a living? From the sound of that phone call it sounds overwhelmingly stressful.” 

Setting her phone aside, Ophelia tried her best to not think about the phone call that she had just hung up from. Things were already stressful with all the work she had going on, she couldn’t let any distractions cause her any more trouble. When she noticed someone picked up on her frustrated exhale, she looked up at them with a polite but tightly-lipped smile and nod. The kind of smile and nod you did when making eye-contact with a passing stranger. She didn’t expect them to engage in any actual conversation with her but she was mistaken.

Claudette had been drying a cup as she overheard the others phone call with a small smile she waited until the other had finished her call. “Tough day in the office?” she made a light remark as she placed the glass down on the bench. “How about a drink on the house?” she offered the other as she tried to lighten the blondes mood. “What else are bartenders good for apart from having a good listening ear.”