[Ada didn't care how she would
sell the bass that she had ridiculously
bought a few weeks before; she just
wanted to get rid of it and forget about
the situation.
...
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Making her way through the crowd gathered in front of the doors, she scanned the place with a desperate look. The day had been long and the icy rain had truly made things worse. She tried to wipe the smudged mascara off her eyes and hoped she didn't look like a lost animal. Locks were escaping from her low bun, so she fixed it with a quick shake of her head and let the short length fall back to her shoulders.
She finally found Julian sitting in a corner, his chocolate hair moving with each wave of his hand. As soon as she plopped down on the seat in front of her long-time friend, she felt that familiar sense of relief. The poor lighting above them hid his expression, but she already knew he was amused by her moodiness.
"Long day?" Julian asked before any greeting.
"Yeah," she sighed, resting her left cheek in her palm. "I forgot to tell you I'd be late."
"It's alright. I got time to meet people," he raised his eyebrows playfully and shot a glance above her shoulder, and she had to turn back to see who he was referring to.
A small brunette was waving back, a wide smile on her face.
"Nice," she replied, although it sounded more serious than she had planned.
Julian only grinned, ignoring the sarcasm in her voice. "She is."
"Yeah. I think I need a drink. You need something else?"
She nearly shot out of her chair and draped her coat over the back of the chair, leaving her in a white blouse she had gifted herself a few weeks before. Her brown trousers made her look like a literary student—or at worst, a teacher—but she secretly loved this academic style. It made her feel smart. Respected, even.
Her friend asked for another pint while taking a sip of his current drink. Most evenings, he would drink and she would watch, not being a heavy drinker herself. Occasionally, she used to say.
A small 'okay' slipped past her lips, surely inaudible behind the loud voices and the music of the small band playing on stage. But despite the loud chorus of voices and tipsy chants, the dim lights cast an intimate and cosy glow over the room.
Clumsily, she tried to draw the man's attention behind the bar any way she could, but he was too deep in a conversation with three men perched on the opposite stools. Pepping herself up, she stood on her tiptoes and extended her arm to grab two bottles of beer herself behind the counter. It wasn't what she wanted, but it would do.
With a glance up, she clenched the drinks against her chest and prayed that the barman hadn't caught her. He was still blathering to those other blokes, emphasising his gestures for whatever story he was telling.
Right there, next to a forgotten wallet, a bottle of whisky sat on the wooden surface, practically calling for her. Would she get kicked out if anyone saw her taking it? Temptation greeted her more and more as she eyed the bottle and bit down on her lip, deep in thought. She could ignore it and simply tell Julian the truth, admit she still had some remnants of moral values. But she took in her surroundings and thought that the empty stools before her were an invitation for a secret theft. No one would see her, and everybody would be too drunk to remember in a few minutes anyway.
Her hesitant gaze fell on that man again, and the three others laughing with him. The two on the right seemed oblivious to her own struggles, except for the one on the left. She felt her face growing hot, knowing he was watching her with an amused smile.
The man's eyebrows arched, challenging her about the bottle waiting to be savoured. In return, she mirrored his expression, silently telling the stranger she could do it. She could definitely take it, if only the doors were still open to let her slip away.
He slipped his elbows on the counter in front of him and watched her intently, as if he could get closer to her. The soft curls framing his face accompanied his gestures. He had avoided any conversation with the man serving them since they had gotten there, but it seemed like his friends found his ramblings interesting. He knew enough about him and how uninteresting and exaggerated his stories were, hoping that deep down his friends secretly hated him too.
In this boredom, she was the distraction he hadn't known he needed, which felt odd to say as he sat next to the people who usually distracted him the most. He hadn't even wanted to come here in the first place.
On the other side of the bar, almost miles away, the young woman felt a rush of confidence as if she had to prove something to both herself and this stranger.
Well, she wouldn't be sent to prison just for stealing a bottle anyway.
She stepped forward and extended her long fingers, reaching for the condensed glass. The contact made her smile proudly, and she looked up to see if he was still watching.
Of course, he was.
He pursed his lips and nodded his head, clearly impressed. He could have done it too—everyone could have done that—but there was something about that proud smile that lingered in his mind for weeks afterwards.
— AN: hii! It feels weird to post but here we go. First of all, thank you for reading! I absolutely love writing this story and I hope you'll like it too. What started as a vague scenario with Nick ended with one chapter just to kill time, then two and now around ten. I don't know how many chapters there will be yet, as I'm trying to write something else about Alex besides this one.
English isn't my main language, so I deeply apologise for any mistakes.
