Stay here till the lights all faded

Matthias let out a soft laugh at her comment. “And here I was, thinking you were going to accuse me of all that.” It was pretty clear that she wasn’t all too happy about all this, and he honestly couldn’t care less. In fact, it was pretty good to see her again. She was hard on him, to say the least, but never hurtful. “I guess the common denominator here is Marcellus. Might need to have a stern word with him about all this. Seems like great minds think alike though, I figured this town would make life a whole lot easier. Life seems to have other plans though.” 

“Remind me not to go up to Marcellus and call him a bitch to his face then.” Jacq responded with a straight laced tone but they both knew her well enough to know she was joking. God, she hated the way she could feel her heart sinking to her stomach just by being in Matthias’ presence again. “You know, I was sort of hoping I could take a leaf out of your book. Drown my life out with work or something.” The brunette admitted, her eyes traveling back down to the drinks in front of her. “I feel like someone’s playing tricks on me. You’re a ghost right? I’m going to wake up from this nightmare soon enough, aren’t I?”

“My office is around the corner, I have a printer?” Beth offered. If it could help the other even just a little, printing out a few sheets of paper didn’t seem like too much of a hassle. “Though I have to say that a wine in a bathtub kind of night is not necessarily a bad idea.” 

“You do?” Her face lit up, feeling the relief instantly wash over her features. “I swear, you’re really saving my butt here. I don’t know how much I can thank you. If I have even so much as a drop of coffee on these papers, this lady is going to eat me alive.” He half chuckled, trying not to sound too cynical about things.

“The two fisting seemed like a bit of a hint and in my experience, people aren’t drinking the old faithful Jack because they are having a good time.”

“No? You don’t think it could ever be someone’s drink of choice?”

He let out a soft scuff at her comment. He got more comfortable, sliding over his phone and drink to his other side, so he could fully focus on her. Matthias knew that Jacq was probably not too thrilled, knowing that she once again was stuck with his ass, but he had to admit, seeing her again was a nice surprise. “Fortunately, I’m good.” He noted as he held up his drink before taking a sip. “So, what brings you here?”

“I’m not stalking you if that’s what you’re thinking so don’t even go there.” She was quick to say. They both knew the truth without Jacq having to say anything. She wasn’t at all excited about seeing him again and out of all the people on this giant ass planet, it seemed almost like a joke bringing their paths together again. “I wanted to get away from things.” The answer was simple. It probably didn’t need a whole lot of explaining given the happy ending that had come out of their trip together in Egypt. “Marcellus put me on a project here. After the joys of last time, this town seemed sleepy enough not to bump into any familiar faces.” She chased her words with a swig of one of her drinks.

“Then I’d suggest you’d avoid going on site when your creations are being built,” he teased using a cloth to wipe down the papers. At her comment he looked down at his clothes, jeans and a flannel. A furrowed brow filled his expression as he made eye contact again. “I’m sorry, what exactly is it about my look that isn’t doing it for you?”

“Near impossible in this line of work. I get paid to tear my hair out so someone else doesn’t have to.” Julie pressed her lips together. Although a joke, the way she’d said it made her words seem dead serious. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. I know you’re a builder. I was just.... hoping to impress.” If she was hard, Julie didn’t even want to mention how hard her client could be.

“That’s a rough one.” Beth agreed. “Do you not have the digital files so you can print them again? Or did you actually draw this all by hand?” She couldn’t really tell, with all the stains. “Well, there’s a good reason to go with a white today then.” 

“I can but by the time I go back to my office, print them out and return that is about 40 minutes and I only have... precisely 32.” Julie responded, looking down at her watch as she did all the mental math in her head. “At this rate, it’s probably going to be a wine in a bathtub kind of night as I drown my sorrows.” She tried to joke.

“Oh this is about your dignity? Nah, we are completely shot there then. Although I think that was dead before tonight,” he pretended to give her a look over as if only confirming the thought. While he assumed she was joking anyway, Rowan was a passive person. “Yeah, I’ve seen it with the whole table cloth type deal,” he nodded, his wife preferring to go there while this was more his speed. “I bet you’d have way more fun with these people though. Pig trough eating habits and all over those rich miserable fucks.”

“Oh come on, that is so mean!” Melody pouted at him for a second before a laugh followed. “No, you’re not wrong. I’m just like every other girl. I love an excuse to dress up every now and then but something casual like this? Far more up my pace. Plus, I don’t think I can really eat anywhere that doesn’t have a kid’s menu these days.” She gave a soft smile. “My diet seems to consist of chicken nuggets and pasta these days.”

“You’re only in touch with certain feelings like disgust so let’s not act like you are superior in the way of human emotion compared to the rest of us. I’m sure a therapist could knock around in there finding something Freud would be utterly fascinated by.” James gave a look of displeasure as she moved her hands up to fix her hair from him. “You say all that like being at the grocery store with me wouldn’t be an absolute blast.”

“If people were a little less annoying I’m sure I’d be able to feel some of the other things in the spectrum of the human emotion.” Frazer deadpanned for a moment before he continued to walk through a stalls, a face immediately being made at James’ comment. “James, it’s a grocery store. Who the fuck has fun in a grocery store in the first place? Are you looking for some kind of weird meet cute where you and some dude touch hands while reaching for the same cucumber or something?”

James stopped to give him a glare. “You have never exactly been subtle. I may not be quick but yeah I caught on to that a long time ago, buddy,” she gave his arm a slap. “That guy at least had the manners to try and hide it,” James scrunched her nose at him before looking at him. “I’m not saying that I didn’t want to be here. Gosh, it’s like you never really listen to me.”

“Well unlike him at least I’m honest about things and in touch with my feelings.” Frazer scoffed with a mocking laugh, a hand raising up to ruffle her hair playfully after her scrunched up face. “You’re moping around, complaining about how you feel out of place Miss Lulu Lemon. Would you prefer you hop into your yoga pants and we hang out around the melon section at the grocery store instead?” The sarcasm flooded his tone.

“It was a little more off focused,” he joked as she hardly seemed amused by his gesture. “If you really want me to, but you could take a look first. You might like it,” Ford offered.

“Trust me, I don’t want to. I know for a fact that I’m probably going to hate it.” Jacq shook her head. She hated being the center of attention, especially as of late but how else was she meant to tell a stranger that. “Look, I don’t care. You can keep it so long as I don’t have to see my face sprawled across the internet as some dopey stock photo or the next viral meme.”

The blushing caused him to smile from amusement. He really didn’t want to embarrass her but the reaction was cute. “We were having a good conversation. Didn’t seem worth derailing for a little red sauce.” He shrugged, a little smirk on his lips as he took a sip of his beer. “And besides you know from experience that guy has seen way worse things on his shift.”

“He may have seen way worse but what about me? What about my dignity?” Melody carried on, a little dramatically. Truthfully, she wasn’t actually embarrassed and he probably wasn’t buying it even if she were trying to wind him up a little and make him feel guilty. “You know, most people are usually pretty neat and tidy when they eat where I work. This place is an exception. Definitely an exception.” She nodded over to the guy behind Rowan with sauce all over his face from the rack of ribs he was digging into.

Rhett did his best to help recover it, taking some of the soaked papers and lifting them from the table. “Honestly if proofs don’t end up with coffee or food on them, did the project even get done?”

“Oh no, I think that’s exactly where you’re mistaken. This lady demands perfection, nothing less than that.” Julie mumbled as she tried her best to recover from the little mishap. “Are you -- I know you’re a builder but are you really going to dress like that? You’re not exactly helping me sell the vision.” Her focus went back to dabbing as much coffee as she could off the architectural drawings.

“You know it would be cheaper and more to the point just to do shots if your goal is to get shitfaced.”

“Who said that’s my goal? Besides, it’s over far too quickly if I play it like that.”

It wasn’t too long before the familiar voice clicked in his mind and he shifted in his barstool to face the other. Someone he hadn’t really thought he’d ever see again. “Rough day?” Somehow he couldn’t think of anything clever, or funny, or even remotely interesting to say. 

Almost instantly, Jacq found herself frozen in place. What were the chances? “More like a rough year.” The brunette mumbled wondering if she could get away with just playing dumb. Acting like she didn’t even know him at all. Pretend that Matthias was just another stranger at a bar that she’d stumbled into. “If I give you one of my drinks, will you promise to keep your gob shut?” She knew that plan was probably pointless in itself if fate had somehow hauled their asses together again.