Chosen (The Rap Superstar Series #1) by Val Love Page B

making sure that she still looked good before her
approach. When she got inside, she was taken aback by how many
people were there. It was loud inside as well. She didn’t think she
would be able to speak, yelling would be necessary.
    As she
approached the bar, she grew jealous of their job. It looked much
cleaner, and much more organized than what she was used
to.
    Managing to get
the bartender’s attention, he leaned in, asking, “What do you
want?”
    “ Sorry, I don’t want a drink.” His eyes raised. “I was
wondering if you had a job opening for a bar tender. If not a bar
tender, a waitress. I’d really love to work here.”
    He smirked. As
he did, he grabbed a beer for another customer and placed it down,
never letting his eyes leave hers. “Really? Right now? We’re
slammed.”
    “ I
know, sorry. I really need this job. Sorry to do it to you
now.”
    He nodded,
leaning in closer. His eyes met with hers, and he probably could
see how badly she needed it. Could he tell that she had been
crying? She hoped not.
    “ All
right, I’ll speak to the man tomorrow. Owner isn’t in right
now.”
    Sliding a paper
over to her, he went back to work. “Write your name and number on
that.”
    Cora fetched a
pen from her purse.
    After writing
her name and number down, she hoped it wouldn’t be used for the
bartender to try to pick her up later. That was silly though. Cora
hadn’t been hit on in years. She couldn’t remember the last time
she had sex, and frankly, it was probably terrible, so maybe that
was for the best.
    “ You
want a drink? Thinking about staying?”
    “ Sure,” she said, looking for a seat, but the bar was too
crowded. “I wasn’t thinking of staying long, but I’ll have one
beer.”
    “ What’ll it be? It’s on me.”
    “ If
it’s on you, you go ahead and choose. I’m not picky.”
    He slid the
beer to her with a nod. She took a sip, not sure what to expect. It
was a sweet beer, thankfully, she wasn’t too much into hoppy. She
liked the girlie beers, although it pained her to say
it.
    She stood
there, sipping her beer, stewing over her future. The instant
gratification of the alcohol felt too good, and she desired more,
until one beer turned into two. Then three. At three, she could
feel herself getting tipsy. It helped that she could hide in the
crowd. She would need to drive back that night, so she took it
easy, heading towards the back.
    This
place has never been this packed.
    Even after most
of them filed out in the beginning, she could barely find room to
stand. They huddled close together, talking too loud for her to
even hear herself think. Cora liked hiding in the crowd. It was
peaceful there, in a strange sort of way. She could hide from her
problems. Even though there were so many people around her, they
were all strangers, and they were all too concerned with who they
came with to care about her.
    For once, she
could be alone.
    It was an odd
sort of peace that came over her. The couple beers didn’t hurt
either.
    Pushing back to
see what else waited for her, Cora discovered the jukebox, which
she had been searching for the whole night. They upgraded to one of
the new systems which she didn’t like as much, it was a
computerized screen, rather than the old style jukebox, but it did
have more songs.
    She picked a
Kelly Clarkson song, one that she knew by heart, one that she knew
she could belt at the top of her lungs and hit every note
perfectly. Cora desperately wanted to sing loud, but that would
direct all the attention on her, and right now, she was just trying
to blend in.
    Cora had loved
singing ever since she could remember. In her teens, she studied,
no, trained, that was the correct term, every day. She went through
vocal boot camp. She trained to be a professional singer.
Unfortunately, after a bout with depression near her twenties, she
dropped out of college, ended up as a waitress, and she didn’t have
enough time to sing.
    Now, fittingly,
she sang.
    Clarkson