Which lead to him trying new things.
Like, for example, a new bar. He'd seen it around plenty of times before, so it wasn't like it was some strange new joint that had sprouted up overnight, but he still had to drag his feet in. A little bit of after-work socialization probably wouldn't hurt, and truth be told--it wasn't like he was hoping to get lucky.
A quick glance told him there were plenty of pretty women around--and he could appreciate their beauty, even if he wasn't after a good night.
He was quick to make himself comfortable and settled into one of the bar stools. Happy with a generic beer, he ordered one--and, not willing to read through the whole menu, the first thing they had listed.
The place didn't seem bad, but he was still pretty sure he was the odd one out. Especially considering he'd come here for socialization and was suddenly more interested in playing with his phone to make sure he hadn't missed a text from his brother.
It was a busy night, Aubrey had only been back to work for a week and she felt as though she was drowning. All the things that once seemed so simple were harder and harder to pick up. She found it more difficult to care about what her customers were saying when they talked to her but she plastered the grin on her face and tugged her corset a little lower.
She was lucky to get her job back, especially after disappearing so suddenly without giving her two weeks notice. When she explained the situation her boss was happy to take her back. Things were slowly coming back to her, and by now she was back to competent serving.
Aubrey was just going to the bar for a drink for one of her tables when she recognized Jeremy sitting there.
"Hey, I didn't know you come here." She said breezily. Her face was flushed from working and her hair was trying to escape its tight braid. Here eyes were darkened with makeup and her lips touched with red. She was getting older and had to put more effort into her appearance.
Jeremy glanced up a second later, at first not realizing anyone was even talking to him, but a nagging voice in the back of his head told him that he recognize the voice from somewhere. "Oh," he said, suddenly. "Aubrey, hey. I didn't know you…worked...here?" he chanced. He leaned back in his chair and tucked his phone away. "Truth be told, it's my first time here. Usually I'm the responsible adult—you know, go to work, go home, go to bed. But, you know."
He shrugged. "I'm still young, gotta make the most of it. Plus, gotta keep an eye on the area and make sure my brother gets home all right. He's got pretty bad luck, you know. Not that I'm spying, or anything," he insisted. "But I won't sleep 'til he gets home, so I might as well make the best of it, right?"
Aubrey glanced down at her uniform then back up at Jeremy with a slight shrug. "Yeah, I worked here before the... incident, and my boss was gracious enough to give me my job back." she responded with a small grin. "Jury's still out on if its a good thing or not."
She listened to him talk, it seemed like he had a pretty boring life if all he did was work and go home. "Well, what are you drinking? It's on me tonight." she told him with a friendly smile as she half leaned against the bar so she could look out across the dining room so she was sure to not overlook any customers in need.
Jeremy seemed a little surprised at her offer and glanced at the beer in hand. "You sure?" he asked, before taking a sip before setting it back down. "I don't want to take advantage of your kindness, I know you're still fairly new and getting back on your feet. I won't drink you out of house and home though, if that's the case. I need to be sober before I get back in that car," he said, sighing. "I'd never hear the end of it if they caught me drunk behind the wheel."
Jeremy seemed to be amusing himself by tapping on the countertop now, to some tune playing in his head, but he kept eye contact with her.
"You gonna stay at this place or are you looking for something else?"
She grinned at him, "It's a cop special, so you aren't taking advantage of anything." she said with a wink as she wrote something down on her little notebook. "And if you wanted to go a little crazy there is a taxi service." she added, ripping out the piece of paper and placing the phone number in front of him.
"I'm not exactly sure what else I would do. Not a lot of people hiring a bachelors in Mathematics unless it's a teaching job, which I don't want to do." She drummed her finger on the bar briefly before glancing back up at him.
"Have you learned anything about the case?"
"Oh-ho, is that so?" he asked, grin splitting on his face. He seemed to relax a bit. "Well then," he reached over and took the number, thinking about it for a moment. "…Maybe the next time I have a bad day I'll have to take you up on this. Until then," he winked. "I'll be a good, responsible adult."
He tucked the paper away; buying himself a little time as he processed how he wanted to answer her real question.
"Not too much," he confessed. "But you came by the station and picked up the files you asked for, right? I got stuck in the middle of something so couldn't call you myself, but James got you the message, right? Said you came by and he signed them out to you. Have you gotten a chance to look over them yet?"
"Being a responsible adult is no fun, I know from personal experience." Aubrey responded flippantly as she tucked a stray hair behind her ear.
"I did get the papers, and my lawyer thinks it should help a little bit, though he did ask if you would be willing to testify." She sighed and shook her head. "I'm sorry to bring it up, you are here to get away from work and here I am dragging it back up."
Aubrey sighed and crossed to the other side of the bar and fished out another beer for Jeremy. "Here, Unless you were wanting something stronger, or some food maybe?" she questioned, looking at him with one hand on her hip.
"No fun," Jeremy agreed, sighed heavily and drew his beer to his lips to take another swig. He wasn't one to turn down a free beer though and nodded gratefully. "I'm good with just this. I've got some food coming. Not uh, sure what I ordered. Whatever was at the top of the menu," he confessed.
He wasn't going to leave her hanging, though; he might have come here to escape work, but he understood that she was in a unique position and this was something that was eating her up. "I'll do it," he said after a moment. He didn't seem to bat an eye or seem to have to put too much thought towards it. His beer was still in his hand and he seemed to be doing a fine job of nursing it. "Testify, I mean."
"I'll check on it for you." Aubrey assured as she pulled a rag out from under the counter and began wiping down the bar as they talked. Might as well Seem productive.
When he spoke again Aubrey looked up at him and her eyes lit up. "Really? You will? That's great!" She exclaimed as she leaned across the bar to take his free hands in both of hers. The angle gave him an excellent vantage of all her corset top had to offer. "You don't know what this means to me, thank you so much!" she added giving his hand a little squeeze before she let go.
"I'll go get your food right now!" she added happily as she bounced back to the kitchen. She returned a few moments later, heavily laden with trays, the first plate she dropped off at Jeremy and then went throughout the room distributing food and then made another pass through filling drinks. Finally she returned to Jeremy.
"How's the food?"
Jeremy's eyes drifted to the vantage point the corset offered before he had the ability to process, and his eyes snapped up almost instantly. He was on his second drink when she returned, and his eyes were far more focused on the important things. Like her face.
He thanked her when she dropped his food, and he ate twice as quickly as he drank. By the time she returned, he was three quarters of the way done—a side effect of learning to eat quickly and not knowing how to take his time with a good meal. And trying to focus on something other than worrying about what Myles was doing.
"Mm, good," he said, mouth still full of food. He chewed quickly, swallowed, and then wiped his mouth. "Very good. Better'n I thought, for a little bar place. I might have to come back and try the rest of your menu, too."
Aubrey smiled at him and nodded, "You should do that, If you like melt your face off hot you should try the buffalo hot wings, our hamburgers are delicious too, I recommend the rodeo burger or the classic bacon cheese.... Really most of our food is good, just stay away from the cauliflowers and you'll be set." She told him with a small laugh.
It was nice to see a friendly face around, she had been feeling out of sorts coming back to a place she used to work at but with completely different staff aside from the owner. It was nice to make just one connection, not to mention he was cute, and was going to help her with her custody battle problems.
"Yeah?" Jeremy prompted, and seemed to be considering the food. "Well, I've never been much for vegetables anyway, so that sounds like a plan to me. Though, it sounds like you're trying to rope me into making this a regular stop. You must be a good saleswoman," he said, crooked grin forming on his face.
He was teasing, in a good mood still. "I'll bet you're a favorite waitress around here, aren't you? You seem like you're good with people. Hell, you've got me sold on half the menu and I'm already half full."
"I wouldn't mind seeing you around more, in a casual setting." She agreed with a small grin as she picked up the rag and began cleaning the counters again, then restocked the bar with straws and cherries and the like as she talked with Jeremy.
"I'd like to say I used to be a favorite, but I've only been back for a couple of days and its a little rough fitting back in, I wasn't working for those three years I was away, my grandmother paid for me to go to college and get my bachelors so there wasn't a need for a job at the time. " she shrugged as she filled up the lids. "But I'll get there again, I'm nothing if not driven." Aubrey added leaning towards him again as she was filling up the ice bin on the bar.
"You'll figure it out," Jeremy assured. He had finished a drink and a half and was still picking at his food, but he didn't mind the company. In fact, Aubrey was the best distraction he could have asked for; he hadn't checked his phone to see if Myles texted him since she'd come back over.
"What were you going to college for?" he asked after a moment. He didn't want to be too invasive but he couldn’t help but be curious.
Aubrey shrugged slightly as she closed the ice and looked up at Jeremy. "I majored in Mathematics." She responded. "I got my bachelors before my grandmother died, some day I'll finish up that degree, but it's not in the cards right now." she added with a sigh.
"Taking care of my sisters is more important." Not to mention she had the dark mirror court to help out.
Jeremy seemed a bit surprised. "Mathematics, huh? That's a good one. "You should look into some of the colleges they've got here. DCU Might have some scholarships available to you. Math is sort of an underrated field, so depending on what type of career you were hoping to develop, they might be able to work with you. I know they're doing some online courses, you might want to look into whatever they've got available. Even just a class or two per semester's better than nothing, right? I mean," he shrugged. "I didn't really do much in college, so don't listen to me. I'm trying to get my brother to go but he's happy, I don't know, making candles. Who am I to tell him how to live his life?"
He snorted and sighed, drumming his fingers on the counter for a second before sighing. "…He just got off to a rough start. A degree'd help him get back on the right track, you know? I want him to have a stable career. Hell, even if he's just going for business—you know. To open his own candle or soap shop, or whatever."
"Yeah I started taking some classes at DCU before I moved, I was thinking of going back and adding an engineering degree, that might serve me a little more in the practical world." She added with a small shrug. She couldn't form a career out of counting cards.
Aubrey smiled at Jeremy when he mentioned his brother. "My sister, Kerrigan, is the same way, I keep trying to get her to apply to college but she just drags her feet, I guess it's the rebellious stage that I have to deal with now."
She saw someone wave at her and excused herself from Jeremy to go take care of her other customers. She closed out a few checks, probably getting less of a tip than she would have if she had been more attentive, but the conversation was good, and Jeremy was nice so it was worth a couple of dollars in the end.
When she made her way back to Jeremy again, Aubrey smiled. "Do you want anything else to drink?"
Jeremy seemed to debate if he should have another drink but finally shook his head and pulled out a few bills. "No," he said, sighing. "I think I've taken up enough of your time for tonight. I'm going to go mull around the theater and make sure Myles is where he says he is. Kids gets into a lot of trouble. Or, at least, used to."
He stood up and shrugged; he had more than enough to cover his bill and leave a sizable tip, and didn't seem at all interested in getting any change back.
"I'll drop by again sometime. You're doing a great job around here, I hope everything else works out. See you around soon, you have a good night, all right?"
Aubrey smiled at him as she slid the money into her serving book and tucked it into her apron. "I would like that, it was nice chatting with you, next time you should come with a plan to get home so you can let loose a little." Aubrey added with a grin.
Jeremy blinked; he seemed a little amused at the thought but shrugged as he stood from his seat. "Oh, we'll have to see about that. Probably wouldn't be very professional of me to let you see me get drunk out here. Especially if you want me as a witness for your case. I'm sure they'd find some great way to try and discredit my account if they could."
He gave her a friendly smile and nodded. "But you have a good night, all right? Stay safe, let me know if there's anything I can do for you." Jeremy paused and looked at her seriously. "I mean it. This town can be rough. I don't want anyone else I know getting into trouble they can't get themselves out of."
Aubrey was a little shocked that he could seem to care so much about a person he barely knew, and it was nice to know that there was someone out there that was on her side. It helped to know that if she was in trouble again she could call Jeremy, and she was 95 percent sure he would come to help her.
"I'll be sure to do that if I ever get into trouble I can't handle." She responded with an easy smile as she brushed her hair away from her face.
"have a good rest of your night and stay safe." Aubrey added in her traditional good bye to cops, there were many that frequented her place of work, and it was a crazy world they lived in, even without the powered individuals running around.
After Jeremy left she spent the rest of her time at work with a small smile on her face as she slowly got back into the groove of her job.
Skysu
