June

“And your favorite,” Cannon said as he removed his hat to drop it on a stool. “You get a look at the city-slickers yet?” He was curious to see who his counterparts would be, and impressed by all the mystery that surrounded the production thus far. Secrets had a short lifespan in St. Cloud, what with gossip being the town’s hottest commodity (after him, of course). But if anyone had an early scoop on the newcomers, it would be June and Tommie.

“Well I’ll be damned, if it ain’t our own local celebrity. You’re on the city-slickers side of this show, right? I mean, you’re not from a city, but you are famous.” June grinned, grabbing a shaker and doing an extremely practiced but well executed flip of it in the air. 

“Not yet unfortunately, I think they’ve been keeping them cooped up at Sunnyside for now. I do hope they let ‘em loose soon though, I could use some of that sweet cash.” she answered, feeling pretty good about the deal she’d cut with the show-runners for a daily payment that covered anything the contestants wanted from the bar during the filming.

Jack shrugged, reaching for the drink that she’d made. “Is that so bad? Best case scenario, you might actually like that rich fucker.” He couldn’t imagine anyone having any possible higher expectation of this debacle, feeling that only people who had nothing to lose would sign up for this. Then again, the same could be said of his own career maybe.

“I guess that’s true. Do you have a game plan you’d suggest?” she asked curiously, moving to unload glasses from the nearby drying rack. She glanced back over at Jack, wondering what his story was. 

“You wouldn’t go to a chess tournament without a game plan. Just because it’s unscripted doesn’t negate that it’s a competition.” Jack responded with a straight face, his gaze fixed on her every move as he searched for anything usable. 

“You don’t want to work here forever, right? This show could give you access to real opportunities, June.”

June tried not to spit out her shot as Jack compared the show to a chess tournament. He was so intense about the whole thing but she didn’t actually want to offend him so she tried to keep a straight face. 

“What kind of opportunities? It’s not like I’m learning a skill. From where I sit the best I can is probably bag some rich fucker and take him for all he’s worth.” she shrugged.

Jack stalled for a moment, unable to remember the last time that he’d even had a drink. It wasn’t really in line with his ideals, but Bailey was already pushing him towards some kind of edge. 

“Yeah, just a whiskey on the rocks. I needed to talk to you anyway.” He moved to take a seat on one of the barstools. “You got a game plan yet?” He asked, giving her a chance before he just told her what to do.

June nodded, leaning over to scoop some ice out of the nearby bin and into a glass.

“I thought this was supposed to be a candid show, ya know, with real connections and shit.” she said as she poured the brown liquor into the glass, glancing up at Jack with a playful grin. “Really though I’m just planning on having fun and see if any of these city slickers can keep up.” she added, pouring herself a shot before sliding the whiskey towards Jack. 

Jack was caught off guard by how enthusiastic the greeting was, standing in the doorway for a moment before venturing further inside. “You’re chipper.” He commented idly as he walked up to the bar and leaned against it. 

“I take it that means you haven’t seen a fat drunk who’s not from around here yet?” He asked with resigned annoyance.

June was slightly excited to see Jack again, as they had met briefly when she’d met with the show-runners and signed her paperwork. She wondered if this meant she’d be getting a contestant in the bar soon as well. 

“Nope we just switched over. You want something to drink?” she asked, thinking he seemed like he might need something to take the edge off of what sounded like a bad day already. 

June waved as the barista left the building, immediately turning around to adjust the lighting and turn up the music. She pulled her hair back and danced to the sink to wash her hands, looking up as she heard the front door shut again. 

“Heyoo, first customer of the evening.” she said cheerfully, placing her hands on the bar in front of her.