two friends in a bar

He strode into the bar and did an about-face, quickly closing the door behind him in an attempt to contain a majority of the sticky, summer heat outside. He lowered his baseball cap further down on his head to conceal as much of his face as possible. After a quick look around, his eyes focused on the only woman in the bar, easily spotting her among the small weekday-evening crowd. She sat at the bar with a tumbler of whiskey and ice in her hand and a nearly empty bottle beside her, earnestly chatting with the man behind the bar.

“Hey! You found me!” she said, interrupting herself mid-sentence, when he sat in the chair beside her.

“A little too late, it looks,” he replied looking down at her bottle of liquor.

“How did you know I’d be here?”

“Lucky guess.” She scrunched her face into a puzzled look. “Oh come on, Kat. I have known you forever. You don’t think I know where you go to get a drink when you’re in town? Besides, I am pretty sure I have some fuzzy memories us getting thrown out of here a few times.”

“You mean you’ve been thrown out,” she corrected, poking his shoulder with her index finger for emphasis, “I just left with you to be a good friend.”

He frowned down where she had poked him, then looked back up at her face, lifting his right eyebrow.

“Did… Did you drink all of that?” he asked, motioning to her bottle of whiskey.

“No, of course not. I don't think I would still be sitting here now if I had. It wasn’t quite full when I started.”

“Well that is a re-“

“But lucky for me those nice guys over there bought me a shot when I walked in,” she interrupted, nodding her head towards two men.

He followed her gaze across the bar. “Yeah, that was… generous of them,” he said while shooting the men a glare. He looked back over at her, “Alright, I think it is time to go.”

“But I am not ready to yet,” she said, her voice increasing in volume.

“I figured as much, but I am. It is getting late and I have a lot of work to do tomorrow morning,” he said as he put his hand on her arm.

“What is it with the men in my life that make them think they can just tell me what to do all the time? Do you all truly think that I am incapable of taking care of myself?” she shouted.

The small crowd in the bar had quieted now. He took his hand off her arm and raised both his hands in the air in a sign of surrender, his eyes wide in surprise.

“First Aaron, then my brother, and now you want to tell me what to do? I do not need to be taken care of like some sort of child, especially by you three.”

He closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, and took a deep breath.

“That face isn’t going to work on me anymore, David. I am not fourteen-years-old anymore and I am not too drunk to smack you around this bar, but just drunk enough to actually do it.”

“Apparently you are drunker than you think if you actually believe you can 'smack me around',” he countered with a smirk.

“Are you kidding me? Am I going to have to embarrass you in front of all these people?”

“I think we are way past that, Kat,” he said as he pulled a pen out of his pocket. He grabbed a napkin from the napkin-holder in front of him and began to write on it. She smiled wide as she watched him.

“Look,” he began when he finished writing, “ I don’t know why Aaron left, and I have no clue what your brother did, but knowing him, I am sure it was stupid. All I do know is that you are my best friend, you want to get wasted, and I cannot just let you get drunk alone.” He pulled a five-dollar bill out of his wallet and folded the napkin around it.

“Hey Jack!” he addressed the bartender, who responded by handing him a tumbler of ice. He handed the bartender the folded up napkin. “When we are both too hammered to walk out of here, just call the number on here.” The bartender nodded and pinned the napkin by the phone.

“What about that work you have to do?” she asked as she filled both their glasses up with whiskey.

“It will just have to wait," he answered, talking a sip.

***

The pair sat in a silence awhile, sipping from their tumblers. He furrowed his brow and stared into his amber-colored drink, swirling the liquid around, the ice clanking against the rounded panels of glass. His trance was finally interrupted by the sound of his companion's giggling. When he looked up at her, she was looking back at him, grinning, her brilliant, white teeth particularly striking against the natural redness of her lips.

He sighed. "What?"

"Oh nothing," she said, with a roll of her eyes.

He eyed her suspiciously and raised his eyebrow. Then he closed his eyes and shook his head, sighing. He opened his eyes again, refilled his glass, and continued drinking.

She smirked at him and scrunched her nose. "Wow. You gave up really easily. I thought you were supposed to be an "expert in intimidation'," she said, waving her arms around.

"Intimidation is all about knowing who your mark is, Katherine," he said still looking down at his drink, his voice low.

She appeared to think on this for a minute, biting her lower lip. She began to take a drink, but slammed her glass down before it touched her lips and opened her eyes wide. "How would you get to me?"

A corner of his mouth turned up into a smirk. "Easy. I would just walk out the door."

"You mean you would just leave me?" she asked, her mouth forming into a pout.

"Yep," he lowered his voice to a whisper and leaned in closer to her, "You are not the best secret keeper, Kat." He elbowed her arm.

"That isn't true - I never told anyone about the time at the Thomas wedding when you ditched Shane with Scary Mary so you could fool around with Maggie!"

He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes and she covered her mouth with her hand.

"Oops," she said with an apologetic smile, that slowly turned into fit of laughter. Her laughter slowly melted his icy glare and he found himself chuckling along with her. She uncovered her hands from her face and, wiping a small tear from the corner of her left eye she said, "Well then, if you must know, I was laughing thinking about something you said."

"What did I say?"

"You called me your 'best friend'," she said, her mischievous, wide grin returning.

"Oh no."

She reached up and pinched his chin. "Awww. You do have a heart,"

He rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "What have I done?"

"So, does this mean that you like me more than Shane?"

"Right now, or..."

"Oh, come on, don't ruin it by being a grump," she said, lightly smacking his arm with the back of her hand. Then, as if struck with a newfound sense of urgency, in one smooth motion she downed the rest of her drink and grabbed his arm, shaking it. "You know what we should do, best friend?" Her voice was playful and child-like.

"What?" he replied, his eyes narrowing.

Flashing him that brilliant smile, she darted her eyes from him to the wide, empty, wooden floor of the tavern.

"No."

***

"Please, please, please!" she pleaded, her eyes wide and her lips pouted.

"Absolutely not. I don't even know how."

"It is not that hard - this is the perfect time for me to teach you. Besides, you already have the posture."

He hunched his shoulders at her remark. "No thanks."

"Oh, come on," she said, standing up and spinning his bar stool around to face her, trapping him with her arms by grabbing each arm rest. "It will be fun."

"Maybe for you." He crossed his arms, still holding his whiskey. "I don't find making a fool of myself to be particularly fun."

"Well, suit yourself."

Then she began to skip towards the empty dance floor, arms at her side, and started dancing a jig, moving her feet quickly in time to the fiddle playing softly over the tavern's sound system. Noticing this, the bartender turned the volume up slightly, alerting the rest of the small crowd to the scene. On queue, everyone began to clap in time to the music, watching her as she danced around the dance floor, kicking her legs high, and jumping up and landing softly on her toes, her movements quick and precise. A bead of sweat began to form at her temple as she jumped and kicked across the floor. The song ended and flowed right into the next one. A man danced towards her and followed along in a similar routine. She flashed a delighted smile. They each put one arm around the other's waist and danced in a circle, her long dark hair trailing behind her as she spun. Her fair skin began to flush at her cheeks as the pair continued dancing.

David turned to the bartender, who had moved to stand by him shortly after the dancing began.

"Did you call that number, yet?"

He nodded his head in the affirmative.

"Good, because we have about five minutes until she hurls."

"Eh, I'll give her ten this time," the bartender answered.

The dancing duo shook hands as the song ended, both out of breath, and the small bar crowd applauded and whistled. Kat linked her arm around his as he walked her back to her seat at the bar.

"You missed out, David," she said working her way back into her seat.

"You had more fun without me."

"You will learn one day."

"If you say so."

She turned to her former dance partner and gave him another brilliant smile. "Thanks, Sean! You really tired me out this time," she said.

"Yeah sure, Kat. I am the one always popping pain relievers the next morning. I am getting too old to keep trying to keep up with you."

"You're not too old, you're just too drunk!" she answered, taking David's glass from in front of him and taking a drink.

"Yeah, yeah," Sean said, shaking David's hand. He lowered his voice a little, "So you're keeping an eye on her, then."

"Well, as best I can. Shane is on his way to pick us up."

"Shane?" she shouted. "You had him call Shane?"

"Of course I had him call Shane. Who else would it be?" He took his drink back from her and downed the rest of it.

"Well you two take care. Glad to see you again, Katherine," Sean said, shaking David's hand goodbye and leaving the two bickering friends.

"I am not going anywhere with him. Can't we go back to your apartment?" she said.

"No."

"Why not?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest and narrowed her eyes.

"Well, for one thing, Jack already called him. And more importantly, I didn't drive here."

She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off. "I knew you would be here, so I had Tess drive me. I texted her when you wouldn't go to just leave."

"Oh. Why didn't you drive?" She furrowed her brow in confusion.

"My car is kind of a crime scene - it is a long story - so Tess and Shane have been letting me bum rides with them to work."

"Well, if I had known Tess was waiting -"

"You didn't exactly give me a chance to tell you."

She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by an angry voice behind her.

"You have got to be kidding me."