Chagrin Confessions

Chapter Five: The English Flu.

Making our way through the crowd, my palms start to feel moist and sweaty. On the inside, my nerves are wrecked and my anxiety levels are at a high. On the outside, I radiate a fair amount of confidence in my step and posture, and remain calm and collected. Two of the men already spot our approach as we come closer. One nudges the other and makes an obvious tilt of the head towards our direction.

Now is not the time to roll your eyes, Cassie.

Hold it.
Hold it.
Yes! Mental pat on the back.

Once Nova and I reach their booth, I put on my most charming smile and greet the fine male specimens. “Hey. I'm Cassie -” I say, moving my eyes to a composed-looking Nova, “and my gorgeous friend here is Nova. Don't be fooled, she's not shy. She's just quietly contemplating my murder for approaching you gentlemen. I told her that you all seem like the friendly, good-natured and well-intentioned type of men though.” The level of bullshit in that sentence is too damn high.

I wonder of there's an award for that.

A sudden roar of laughter breaks the silence, Golden boy gives Henry Cavill a spirited clap on the back. Buzz-cut turned into a lovely shade of red from guffawing, while Tom Hardy is laughing heartily.

Golden boy speaks first.

“Well intentioned,” he barks out another laugh, while wiping a tear from his eyes,  “Aw heck, babe. Both of you, please sit down,” he gestures to the empty side of the booth, while the men shift closer to the other side to make more room. “We've been trying to make Mr. Grinch over here laugh for the past two hours. You come here with that sexy librarian look you've got, throw in two sentences and the man cackles instantly.”

“Well, I'm glad to be of service,” I say smiling, and make hand gesture around the table, “We're hoping for a round of introductions here though.”

“Right. Of course. Well, I'll start from my right-“ he points to Buzz cut, “this fine, married fella here is Scott.”

Scott rolls his eyes at Golden boy, he looks at us and says “And this clown over here is Jaxon.”

Jaxon laughs while lightly shoving Scott. He looks at us again and smiles, then pointing to the Latin Henry Cavill, he smirks.

“This guy here is Ivan. He's a Mexican with a Russian name. And he's a fireman. So if you all need a stripper show, call me and I'll borrow his suit.”

Ivan knocks him on the back of his head, he then waves hello to me, and turns to look at Nova. Smirking, with his dimple visible from his five-o’clock shadow, he looks at her and he says, “You should know that contemplating a murder in front of law enforcement might not be a smart thing to do. You might want to watch that pretty little mouth of yours.”

Nova smirks back at him, “Aww.. well, if you're the law enforcement involved, I might just run my pretty little mouth some more, and see how much of that you can handle.”

Jaxon chortles on his beer, while Scott snickers. The Grinch smiles.

Poor Ivan, his cheeks turned into a light shade of pink, and he barely coughs out a reply, “Damn, it's always the quiet ones that strike.”

Nova throws her head back laughing, “Quiet ones? Oh please, don't be so quick to judge me, sexy. I really was contemplating her murder. I'm not usually quiet. Infact, I'd need to have my mouth filled in order to keep quiet.”

Poor Ivan turns a bright shade of red. The others are full on laughing now, some in tears, and some take a huge gulp of their beers.

A Tuscany-coloured drink is placed in front of me, startling the others and myself.