daydreamer

alex wrotham. 26. bartender at idlewild brewing co. east coast babe trying to embrace west coast anxiety level.

[wrothamalex]

danny--anderson‌:

Danny was already wandering off the steps from his trailer and toward the other, smiling mainly to himself when he heard her say tacos. “Mamacita’s.” Danny replied with a light chuckle, the place was practically a second home to Danny especially when the munchies hit and he couldn’t be bothered to make anything…which was always. “Yeah you uh, you gotta head back on yourself for starters.” he grinned to the stranger and used his hand to gesture the directions as he reeled them off. “Head straight out the park, go straight on and take a right, keep on pass the market and you’ll see a huge ass lit up sign with tacos on it.” he flopped his hand back to his side and continued smoking his cigarette.  “If you only just heard about Mamacita’s then I’m guessing you ain’t from Calderwood.” Danny’s tone was as light and cheery as it always was, accompanied by the huskiness that was always embedded within his words.

“Ah... That makes sense.” Alex looked back towards the entrance of the trailer park, repeating the directions she had just been given under her breath in an attempt to commit them to memory. Hopefully huge age taco sign would be easy enough to spot. At his words, she turned back, a slight smile on her face. “Good guess. I’ve lived here a few months, but I don’t get out of Idlewild much. Who knew that I could be given away by not knowing my tacos?” she joked. Not to mention that avoiding the outside world had somehow been... easier, immediately after she moved. Somehow that didn’t seem like a decent excuse for missing good tacos. “Is there a specialty I shouldn’t miss out on?” she asked, determined to get the full experience now that she was headed in the right direction.

[wrothamalex]

danny--anderson‌:

“You all good there?” Danny’s friendly and husky voice echoed out from the steps of his trailer while he enjoyed a cigarette in the sun. His eyes had landed on a person that he didn’t instantly recognize. Cautious that trouble sometimes came to the uninvited wanderers in Rosmont’s trailer park, he wanted to make sure everything was okay. “Lookin’ a little lost.”

Alex jumped at the sound of a person calling out to her, turning to make sure that they were talking to her. But of course they were, because most people wouldn’t he wandering around like a lost puppy. She smiled as the man, trying to give off her best only mildly turned around and not completely and totally lost vibes. “I heard there’s a really great taco shop that’s somewhere around here?” When one of her customers at the bar had told her the best place to find tacos in Calderwood was in Rosmont, she’d been intrigued. If only she had known better than to take directions from someone three beers in. “Can you point me in the right direction?” she asked, hoping this trip wouldn’t be a total waste. 

[wrothamalex]

penelopecartwrite‌:

where: calderwood beach ( idlewind ) when: late morning, july 20 who: penelope & OPEN

Penelope adored the beach, it was the half the reason she moved to the coast after the untimely incident after her graduation. The other half was more pressing but that’s neither here nor there. Frankie, the rescue dog she adopted shortly after moving to Calderwood, also seemed to enjoy the beach, as he dragged her out to the beach nearly every day she was off. As he was nearly her size, it wasn’t that difficult. Not that Penelope minded, of course; she liked laying out while the pitbull jumped in the waves. 

Nearly dozing as she laid back on her towel, Penelope was brought back to reality when Frankie came back to her, panting and soaking wet. She opened her eyes to see his head looming over her own, giving the appearance of a slobbery smile as he stared at her. “Can I help you?” She asked, pushing her sunglasses back as she sat up to scratch behind his ears. She glanced behind him, looking for a trail of paws and water droplets. As the trail winded from her ocean to another beach goer before ending up in front of her, Penelope arched a brow, glancing over at said beach goer. “Hey! Sorry about him,” she called, pushing herself up and walking over to the person in question. “Did he bother you?” She asked, gesturing to the large dog next to her.

Alex knew she could run anywhere, and more to the point, she could actually exercise somewhere with air conditioning. But there was something about running on the beach that was more calming than anywhere else, even if the feel was completely different from the northeastern beaches she had known all her life. As she neared the parking lot where she had left her car, she considered dropping her things in the car and then jumping in the ocean to cool off. Before she could decide, a familiar and very wet dog came bounding up to her, circling her legs happily. “Hi there!” she greeted, reaching a hand out to pet him. Before she could pet him, he stopped beside her, shaking water all over her before running off again. Alex made a sputter of surprise, wiping the worst of the water off her face before looking to where Frankie ran back to Penelope. 

As the pair approached, she smiled slightly. “That big dope? Nah, I think he just helped make my mind up for me about whether I was going to head home or just jump in the water first.” She wiped the water off her stomach, laughing as she shook her head. 

[wrothamalex]

brewingwes‌:

“We have an IPA on tap.”

Although Wes would be the first to say he didn’t typically work behind the bar at his own brewery, more often than not he found himself doing just that. It wasn’t as though he had to control every aspect of the business; after all, he hired smart employees for a reason, for them to use their brains and clear up bandwidth for him. Rather, he liked being hands-on and present, for both the brewery’s sake and the customers. 

He faced the patron sitting in a bar stool and gestured to the taps. “It has hints of grapefruit. Pretty damn summery, if you ask me.”

Alex ducked back around the bar at the end of her break just in time to hear the tail end of Wes’ pitch for the IPA. Raising her eyebrow, she waited until Wes walked away from the patron at the bar and towards her. “Is that how I should be selling that beer? It makes a good tag line.” She waved her hands in front of her as if framing a sign.”Grapefruity Tooty IPA: pretty damn summery.” 

[wrothamalex]

alexisattwater‌:

“Obviously,” Alexis deadpanned. She let silence lapse between them before she spoke again.

“Don’t you have a law degree or something? What are you working here for?”

The answer was complicated, but the last thing Alex wanted to do was explain the route she took to end up working at a brewery on the opposite side of the country. “I failed the bar,” she said simply, the short answer that also happened to be the truth. “Do you want anything to drink, since you’re here and all?” 

[wrothamalex]

laceyxharris‌:

“What’s so special about drinking a beer on the beach anyway?” Lacey questioned. She was more talking to herself than asking an actual question. There had never been a time when she felt like it was something worth talking about when she had a drink or two by the beach. Perhaps it was only her neutral way of seeing things but why some people thought it was an experience worth sharing with the whole world was beyond her.

As soon as Alex placed the beer in front of her, Lacey took a sip from it. It was good but she missed the burning sensation of the stronger alcohol. Regardless, she knew was going to drink more than only one bottle. At Alex’s question, the redhead shrugged her shoulders. “Just one of those kinds of nights… or, you know, that kind of life if we want to be dramatic about it.”

“Who knows. I guess this is why neither of us are Instagram influencers,” Alex said with a shrug. The idea of documenting every moment of her life just to prove how happy and successful she was sounded mildly horrifying, but admittedly, there wasn’t much that she had been up to recently that felt like it would be evidence of a happy and successful life. 

Dramatic or not, Alex could certainly appreciate feeling as if her life was just a series of rough nights that she wanted to drink away. Not exactly the kind of thing that a bartender would volunteer, so she kept her thoughts to herself. “Well, part of the job description is listening if you need to vent. I’ve gotten fairly good at that over the past few months. I don’t even offer solutions unless I’m asked these days, so I’m good at listening to rants.” 

[wrothamalex]

hardingjana‌:

“Store the cobbler in the fridge, then, you know, toss that bitch into a blender. Add a scoop or two of vanilla. It has to be vanilla. And, uh, obvious you blend it and, hey there, a cobbler milkshake. Cold fruit always wins, Alex.”

“Jana.” 

[wrothamalex]

laceyxharris‌:

Nodding her head, Lacey hummed an affirmative sound. She knew exactly what the hipster tourists were like, especially the ones that came by The Elephant’s Trunk and couldn’t really handle what they were selling them at all. But, hey, at least they got a good story out of it and some wild pictures for their Instagram account. “They don’t love beer, they love flexing their lifestyle on the internet. Think it makes them look cool and everybody’s gonna end up jealous or something. It’s ridiculous.”

“Fuck”, Lacey breathed out at the information that they didn’t have any vodka. She could’ve thought so, of course, considering that this was actually a brewery, not a normal bar. She rubbed her forehead, then nodded her head at her suggestion. “Yeah, yeah, that cider aged in a whiskey barrel sounds good. A couple normal beers would probably get the job done, too, but the quicker the better.”

“Tell me about it. As if there aren’t plenty of places where you can drink a beer on the beach,” Alex said with the confidence of someone who had never lived more than two hours from the coast in her life. She couldn’t totally blame them, she supposed, as one of things that had sold her on living in Idlewild was the views. 

Alex nodded, reaching into the cooler to pull out the correct bottle. “We have plenty of good beer that will get it done too, but you probably know that if you’re a local.” It seemed like every local Alex ran into had a favorite beer at Idlewild Brewing, but that might have been more a reflection on the fact that Alex needed to get out more rather than the general thoughts of the people in town. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the bar as she took a moment to stretch her back. “Have you had a long day, or is it just one of those kinds of nights?” 

[wrothamalex]

alexisattwater‌:

Alexis was too tired to be angry anymore—a rare feat for someone who was typically fueled by their own illogical, self-imposed rage. With a huff, she sat the full weight of her body on the bar stool and rested her forehead in her hands. Finally, she looked up, the only shred of anger left in her visible in the corners of her bitter grin.

“River’s my brother. And truth be told, I’m kinda pissed you didn’t look me up when you moved into my town and disrupted my escape plan.”

Alex couldn’t have stopped the look of horror from crossing her face even if she had wanted to. “Your-- your brother.” Hearing River’s name was like a slap in the face, one that she had crossed the country to escape. It was the surprise of seeing Alexis here, in Calderwood, that had made her so difficult to place, because it wasn’t as if she hadn’t looked up River’s sister. It was natural to look up the family of the person that had tried to get you wrapped up in a murder case and mob activities. It was just that she didn’t expect to see Alexis at her job. 

“I didn’t...” Her protest that she hadn’t known that Alexis was here trailed off. In the flurry of packing up her life, she couldn’t remember why she had chosen Calderwood of all places. Maybe Jana had mentioned it and Alex had assumed it was just a nice vacation town, or maybe she had seen it on Facebook and subconsciously filed it. Either way, it didn’t seem fair that just as she was finding her rhythm here, she should have to deal with this. “I’m sorry,” she said, even though she knew that words didn’t mean much. “I’d be pissed too. I didn’t know you were here.” 

[wrothamalex]

adam-carpenter‌:

Adam knew almost every bartender in the place, so while he knew of Alex, he’d never had the chance to really speak with her before. Usually, it was too busy for conversation, and on the nights it wasn’t, he was hanging with Wes. But tonight seemed relatively slow, and talking to Alex was easier than attempting real sociability. 

“Don’t take it personally,” he joked, laughing lightly as Alex said Wes was still most likely on call. He knew how important this business was to the man, and his passion was nothing if not admirable. “I was just curious. My daughter’s at a sleepover for the night, and I’m a bit clueless as to what normal people do on a night off. Normally I just glom onto Wes, but I guess tonight I’m on my own…” 

“Oh, right, you’re one of his dad friends. I keep threatening to plan a Dad’s Night Out, but he keeps brushing it off. Something about how Idlewild isn’t a gimmick event brewery. Even though, if you’re anything like Wes, it would be good for all of you to get out more.” Alex mostly stifled her smile as she rolled her eyes over dramatically, as if the few times she had brought it up hadn’t been more to annoy Wes than it had been to actually suggest a successful event.

A couple approached the bar and paused their own conversation only long enough to place an order for a couple of beers. Alex nodded at them and poured the drinks before returning to her conversation with Adam. If nothing else, being a bartender had certainly developed her multitasking skills. “How old is your daughter? Are sleepovers a new thing?”

[wrothamalex]

hardingjana‌:

“But who wants warm fruit?”

“Plenty of people! Most cobblers are delicious, especially with ice cream. I don’t know about apricots though. Maybe you can just eat them plain?” 

[wrothamalex]

dianaxpalmer‌:

“I’m a little out of practice,” Diana explained, promptly plopping down onto the sand. She knew she was technically supposed to cool down by walking or stretching or something, but the woman was right, sitting down felt good now even if it would hurt later. “Is it that obvious?”

“It was more the announcement that you didn’t think you could make it back than anything. It was either that or the weather. I didn’t think moving to California would mean wilting every time I stepped outside for months.” 

[wrothamalex]

laceyxharris‌:

Another night, another drink at Idlewild Brewing Company, except that this time, Lacey was on her own and not in the company of any friends or people who thought they were friends. No, tonight was a night she needed to get a little drunk on her own—not that she minded sitting in a bar by herself. Somehow, she always managed to strike up a conversation with someone—or, someone started talking to her and didn’t let her get out of it, no matter how many times she told them that she wasn’t interested in whatever they had to say to her. She didn’t wish to hear about other people’s problems and when certain people thought they had to keep chatting to her about them, Lacey had no problem just getting up and sitting down at the other side of the room.

Finally having made her way through the crowded space, Lacey sat down by the bar with a huff. Once she had the bartender’s attention, she waved off her polite smile and voice. “Don’t bother with that shit with me. You don’t have to put on that smile when you actually feel stressed out. And judging by the amount of people, I can only imagine how stressed out you really are,” she told her, her voice more sympathetic than it usually was. “Can I get two shots of vodka, please?”

Alex couldn’t help a sigh, letting her shoulders droop a bit. Running into someone that clearly understood working in customer service was always a relief, as they were much less likely to yell for her to run and get their beer as quickly as possible. “It’s definitely been busy. You know how the hipster tourists love their beer,” she said, shrugging. 

“We don’t have vodka. Sorry about that. The strongest we have is a cider that’s been aged in a whiskey barrel that has a 12% ABV. It’s not bad though. We have some stronger wines too, if that’s more your thing.” 

[wrothamalex]

alexisattwater‌:

This was not where Alexis was supposed to be.

In fact, she’d had reason enough to avoid Idlewild Brewing Company for a long, long time. For a while, it was that it looked like the sort of place people went to have fun with their friends, and given that Alexis wasn’t keen on letting herself have fun, and especially that she didn’t have any friends in Calderwood to convince her otherwise for quite some time, it had been low on her priority list of places to get acquainted with. But even then, just because it hadn’t been on her list of places to go hadn’t meant it was on the list of places to avoid. It hadn’t been until six months ago, when rumor, paranoia, and rage had copy and pasted the brewery from one list to the other.

That, however, had been Sober Alexis. Now, after a few cocktails and a nightcap in the form of one hell of a shot of tequila, Drunk Alexis had decided that it was time to remove Idlewild Brewing Company from either of those lists for good. A couple of white lies to her friends and one Lyft ride later, she strutted into brewery with surprising grace, at least until she slammed her bag against the bar counter. With a hand on her hip, she had waited for Alex Wrotham to turn and face her.

But when Alex did, Alexis was disappointed. And all disappointment did for Alexis was kindle her rage. She couldn’t tell if Alex was playing nice, or if she just didn’t know who she was. Either was enough to outrage her.

“Cut the bullshit, Alex Wrotham,” Alexis slurred, swiping strands of hair matted by the breeze away from her face. “Do you know who I am?”

Alex’s first, totally inexplicable thought was that she was about to get served some kind of papers. It wasn’t often that someone called her by her full name in that kind of tone, and the way that the last five years had gone, it didn’t seem impossible that somehow River had found a way to come back from whatever situation he was currently in to somehow pin something on her after all. A second look allowed her to calm down somewhat, as it was obvious that the woman wasn’t here in any kind of official capacity. 

“Er...” Alex looked at the obviously drunk woman in front of her, trying to place her. She looked familiar, but after working in a bar for six months, a lot of people in Calderwood looked vaguely familiar. Alex was fairly certain she hadn’t been officially introduced to her, whoever she was. Part of her was tempted to play it off as a case of mistaken identity, but if she knew her name, then that wasn’t going to work. Instead, she shook her head, apologetic look on her face. “I’m sorry, but I don’t. Have we met?” 

[wrothamalex]

adam-carpenter‌:

Maggie was at a sleepover for the night, so Adam had decided to go out, all for the pretense of proving he wasn’t some stereotypical father whose life was over before he even reached the age of 30. His mother was always reminding him that he wasn’t nearly as old as he felt, and kept dropping not-so-subtle hints that Maggie was never going to get a mother (and she was never going to get more grandchildren) if he didn’t get out of the house more. 

He wasn’t sure if going to the Idlewild Brewing Company even counted, as Adam visited fairly regularly to see Wes, but at least he was putting in an effort, and it would be enough to get his mother off his back. 

“I’ll just take whatever pale ale you have on tap,” Adam replied. “I haven’t seen Wes tonight. Did he finally decide to take a night off?” 

“You got it.” Although Alex wasn’t great at memorizing people’s orders unless they came to the brewery multiple times per week, after six months on the job, she could at least recognize the regulars. She felt fairly confident that this man was one of Wes’ friends -- something with an A, she thought -- and his question as she pulled his beer only confirmed her guess. 

“Napping in the back room. Typical Wes,” she joked. It wasn’t often her boss took the night off, but as a Type A person herself, she could appreciate his reasoning. She slid the beer in front of him before giving the honest answer. “I think he had a babysitter situation. It’s been a bit of wild night.” Not, she mentally added as she swiped a hand across her forehead and looked down the bar to make sure no else needed anything, that she couldn’t handle it. She turned back to her customer with a grin. “You could catch him on his cell if you needed him, I’d bet. He’s probably waiting for disaster to strike.” 

[wrothamalex]

hardingjana‌:

There was a first time for everything. That’d been decided the second Jana strolled through the Farmer’s Market, reusable bag strung across her shoulder like a friend had reminded her to do many times before.

“I’ve never seen so many… apecots?”

“Apricots. They’re good in... cobbler I think?” 

[wrothamalex]

Saturdays were always long for Alex, and today had been especially hectic. Vacation season had clearly set in, and even her short experience at Idlewild Brewing Company told her there was no place people would rather be after a day on the beach than in a brewery. She found herself running up the length of the bar, rushing to fill orders and trying to keep up with keeping the bar clean as she went along. Good thing that a busy night meant decent tips.

But finally a gap in customers gave her a few minutes to breathe and take stock of where they were. She checked that all of her kegs still had plenty of beer in them and switched out a rack of dirty glasses for clean ones. Alex was halfway down the bar, gathering dirty glasses and napkins as she went, before a movement in front of her caught her eye. She looked, plastering the best version of a polite customer service smile that she could manage after her long day. “What can I get for you?”