--- TENSION. starting at the base of her spine, coiling around each individual vertebrae, pulling muscles uncomfortably taut while creeping through the entirety of her back, her shoulders, her neck-- finally ending at her temple. she couldn’t help but contort her features as the irritating pain that seemed to appear out of nowhere, though erica should have been well aware that it had been lurking below the surface of her skin, permeating each and every part of her body and just waiting for the most inopportune moment to strike. bringing two fingers up to massage the area and closing her eyes, erica let out a soft sigh at the temporary relief it brought, before letting her hand fall to rest on the edge of her chair and feeling that familiar throb return with a slight hiss added to her exhalation.
“fuck,” the muttered curse left her before she could truly think about it, her mind totally and unequivocally absorbed in the next job and what’s to come with it. there’s no time for this, the frustrated thought floated through her head and she wholeheartedly agreed. there wasn’t any time, and she couldn’t falter now. not when her plans had only begun to see fruition.
heaving out a sigh as she pushed herself up off of the seat, erica reached up to card her fingers through her hair in an almost agitated motion. there was too much to worry about, too much at stake... but all she could think of to soothe the ache was drink-- or sex. the latter, while there were, admittedly, many options available to her-- no. erica could not do that. she refused to allow herself to get even remotely tangled in a connection that could be her downfall, and refused to allow herself to become so involved with any of the people that were supposed to be her coworkers. this was business, after all. she could give them her respect and temporary trust all she liked, but at the end of the day erica still couldn’t be sure who would stick around after (god forbid) a failure in their plans. her plans.
... the bar it was, then. always the bar.
it wasn’t uncommon to find her drinking, alone, at any hour of the day and most of the time the rest of the team seemed to just accept it without question. however, tonight felt... different. off. and perhaps that was on her. despite finishing nearly four glasses of whiskey and a couple shooters of vodka and wallowing in her discomfort for a good hour, she couldn’t manage to shake the feeling. as though it had sunk it’s claws deep into her shoulders, drawing blood and resting heavy on her admittedly small frame. it refused to let go, and she refused to stop trying, an endless struggle that she didn’t want to admit she’d already lost.
the tension was there to stay, and she hated it, along with the many other fears she had over this next job in particular. they wouldn’t come down to kentucky. would they? it-- no, they... they wouldn’t...
ugh. that was not a thought she was the slightest bit prepared to be considering.
even as the liquor dulled her senses and her mind, erica wasn’t blind, deaf or dumb to the presence of someone else in the room when they entered it-- thank god for that, she was in need of a distraction --but when she heard her name it certainly had a... watery air to it. tipsy, at the very least, the brunette very nearly didn’t acknowledge whomever had called for her attention, quirking an eyebrow and attempting to catch their gaze in the mirrored wall of the bar first.
... oh, for fuck’s sake. she couldn’t see a damn thing, having forgotten her contacts, and her vision blurry beyond five feet. that wasn’t going to help matters.
at the very least, it could only be one of eleven individuals that had access to this place. eleven individuals that she could be (mostly) sure weren’t about to try anything stupid. and after a long moment of frustrated silence, erica hummed quietly, tilting her head just a fraction to let whoever was there know that she was listening and she was aware, before trying her hand at a half-hearted joke; “... forget something at the office?”
