Yan Xinque

Rhona glanced over to where Mireya was, slowly continuing walking as well with Jax at her heel. “I do have an eye on her.” However, the last thing she needed was Olivia’s guard dog to check up on her every move.

She raised her brows at the other’s comment. “What. Come on, you can’t tell me you haven’t wondered what Mireya is to her? Olivia never cared about anyone or anything, except for… What’s his name… I forgot. You know, the American, the one guy she’s actually close enough to to call him a friend.” A shrug. “But hey, that’s none of my business.”

“Uhuh, sure.” He was still grinning. Rhona was in the business longer than he was, or at least more of a professional. She was a skilled fighter, and he was happy they had never decided to face off, or at least never been at opposite sides, because while he figured he could take her, they would probably go next to next. 

“I don’t wonder, Olivia will establish whatever it is they have when she thinks she has to. Until then, if she says roommate, then I accept roommate. You should do to, if you want to keep your job.” He ignored the bit about the American, he liked the American, but he didn’t want to be close to the business, also he liked to think somewhere deep in her heart Olivia cared about him too. Like, tiny bit. 

A deep sigh escaped Alejandro when he put yet another assignment down on the pile of papers he had finally gotten around to grade. He took a long sip of his coffee to reward himself for this, sadly, rather small accomplishment before stretching a little, a tired smile spreading on his lips when he looked back at the person nearby. “I honestly think not a lot of people realize that most of us teachers hate grading almost as much as our students hate doing their assignments and taking their tests,” he joked, though his words held some truth - he’d been sitting in his spot at the small coffee shop for hours, reading through a majority of his students’ works the entire morning and slowly but surely, he was starting to feel like going insane. “There’s just too many sometimes and I don’t mean to complain but look at this -” he trailed off and gestured at the pile in front of him. “And that’s only half of it, I’m not even sure I grasp the concept of a letter anymore.” With that, he put down his pen and took off his glasses, for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I need a break,” he mumbled. “And I should probably stop bothering you with my stuff, I’m so sorry.”

“The concept of a letter is to help us write words.” Yan said, smirking behind his newspaper, which he gently put down to look at his boss’ psych. Or better yet his boss’ bestie. Surely he didn’t mind not being his boss’ bestie, the boss lady didn’t need him to be a friend after all, just an advisor. “Maybe I can help, I totally nailed my papers back in college.” He took one of the assignments from Alejandro’s table in a greedy manner. 

Truthfully Yan had no reason to be in a coffee shop, he liked coffee, but this was watered down and disgusting. Yet, being out of the penthouse from time to time was nice, and to pester Olivia’s friends was even more fun. Olivia had told him, in strict confidence, that the guy wanted nothing to do with the business. But Yan figured he was more than just part of the business. “Also, hi, fancy seeing you here.” 

Cleo could see in his stance that her closeness was disturbing him, even if he didn’t want to show it. She tilted her head to the side, not moving even an inches away from him and shrugged boldly. “I don’t really care about money, but watching you clean it up because Jack’s gone, that will make me really happy,” She said with her usual proud smirk. She did know the barman and that’s why she got one last drink even if it was late. “So now, will you get me a new drink? Or will you kick me out yourself? Both sounds really hot.” She said, her smile only growing wider as she was only trying to make him more uncomfortable – or angry.

Of course she knew the bartender. That guy talked up to all the hot women in here and always locked up early, probably knowing some security guard would be left to clean up the last of it. He found his grin turn into a sneer. There were two choices here: kick her out, which she obviously deserved for making him clean up, or give in and give her a new drink. In his normal line of work, Yan wouldn't think twice about giving someone a share of his thought. Yet he kept his footing, not budging as she tried to get a reaction from him. "Your drink is on the floor. I suggest you clean it up and then leave.” 

Lees verder

There weren’t many people she trusted with Mireya’s safety. Truthfully, there were only two individuals who she knew she would trust with this particular task of keeping her safe. One of them was Jax and the other one was Rhona McHale. The hitwoman had done a job for her every now and again and it had always been clean and efficient. Rhona knew that they had a good business relationship and Olivia was positive that besides Jax, Rhona was the only one who wouldn’t be able to be bought by anybody else.  She was honorable and did exactly as she was asked. That was good enough for her, as long as it meant Olivia’s current, well, roommate was kept safe.

Glancing up just slightly, Olivia of course noticed the grin on the man’s features when she mentioned Mireya’s name. “What.” It was more a statement than a question, and yet still one that demanded an answer. “What’s with the grin?”

She looked back down on the booklet, finally closing it with a sigh. None of these things sounded very inviting to her at this point in time. She was hungry, that much was for sure, but having gone through a whole pile of booklets at this point she still wasn’t sure what to get for food. Perhaps it was the fact that Mireya from time to time was now actually cooking in the penthouse. “Well, I’ve been trying to figure that out for half an hour, but you can see how successful that is.”

Yan quickly dropped the grin, wanting not to get into trouble, although usually when it came to trouble he gladly embraced it. With Olivia it was different, although from time to time he enjoyed teasing her a bit, he knew his limits. Or better yet, he knew his limits around the boss. She demanded respect, and he respected her even more because she did. None of the guards would dare move against her, none of the dealers dared risky moves, the young ones might, but most of them knew better than to double cross the boss. 

“Nothing, just imaging Rhona being dragged around town following Mireya wherever she wants to go. I guess she has a lot of things on her to do list.” And it would probably drive Rhona crazy, which was a separate thought Yan decided not to share. Some things were better left for the boss not to know. 

“Just let me know when you want to close and I’ll be on my way out!”, returning his grin a little, Sean wanted to avoid being actually thrown out at some point. At the other’s question about his job though, the man didn’t even think think twice. “Working in an animal shelter”, he immediately replied, knowing that his answer probably came out way too quickly because he just didn’t want to focus on what he had done for a living earlier in his life. Even though the man would probably know that there was something odd about his answer. So basically all he could do was hoping he somehow hadn’t realised it or simply would stay silent and not ask about his behaviour.

Of course Yan wasn’t going to kick the guy out, not physically anyway, he kinda liked the bloke, it would be hurtful to both their feelings. “No worries, I’ll let you know.” Hearing the guy worked at an animal shelter was sort of adorable. He seemed like the good individual who liked to help other people. Yan had been like that at one point in his life. Trying to save the planet, to make a bit of a difference. He smiled, to him it didn’t sound too odd, he said it way too quickly but that could be either because he was far too excited about working there, or because his previous job hadn’t been so shiny. “Well, that came out quick. I’m betting you’re very happy to be working there. Lots of animals left to their own devices here in the center of London?” he asked. 

His vision still blurred because of the alcohol, Jonny didn’t even notice that the man was obviously already pretty pissed off by his drunk talking. On the contrary, he was actually glad that he had found someone to talk to, who wasn’t one of his friends and wouldn’t be nice simply because he didn’t want to hurt his feelings or anything like that. “Better for my career, still worse for me..”, he mumbled, letting out a sigh. “Maybe I should still write some songs now though.. well, maybe not right now but you know what I mean..”, glancing down at the glass in front of him, Jonny wasn’t even entirely sure if he was talking to himself right now or to the man next to him.

Yan was getting really emotionally tired of this guy, it was hard talking with people who were too deep into their own sad feelings to see past them. Truth, he had driven away plenty of people, his folks included, with such behavior, and while he had refrained from doing that ever again, it wasn’t going to mend those old bonds. “Yeah, probably not right now. Maybe in the car home? Maybe a song about cool security guards allowing the final costumers to finish their drinks?” He grinned. 

Agatha rolled her eyes with no patience to argue with this man. The Norwegian drank the rest of the liquid. ❛ I’m not a customer, I’m a guest. As matter of fact, I do have a meeting with the owner of this place. ❜ It was late at night indeed, but the meeting was exactly on the time the place was closing.  

As she suffers from insomnia she barely can sleep an entire night, and she used this sleep time to work or things about business. That night she was dying on headache, she barely could think straight.

“Well, if you wanted to make him a business partner, you’ve picked the wrong guy. He left a half hour ago, got me to lock up.” He grinned a bit, but he also felt sympathetic with her situation. She had come all this way for nothing, probably. Although, given her tone, he really should no better than to feel sorry for someone as cold as her. “I can call him for you, or you can call him yourself. But given the situation, one could say he completely forgot.” Despite the sympathy however, Yan was enjoying the ride. 

Glad that the man obviously didn’t mind his change of the topic, there was finally a little smile appearing on Sean’s face. “I only hope you don’t want to kick me out just yet though..”, he said, glancing at the rest of his beer. Although he knew pretty well that, despite the fact that to him it had at least partly sounded like a joke, if that was the case, he’d simply go on his own. “It’s good to have something about your job that you really like!”, he added. And working in the animal shelter, he had finally found something that he enjoyed himself and that even somehow calmed him down.

“Oh no, not yet, but you’re not in the clear either. It will happen at some point.” He grinned. The second comment made him laugh. 

Looking up at the man next to him, Jonny still didn’t realise that the other obviously wasn’t that keen on listening to him talking about everything that had went wrong in his life, but after all he had to talk to anyone and he was drunk enough to not care who it was right now. “They probably would have thrown me out again by now anyway so..”, he shrugged before smirking a little, “And somehow it seems like one can write better songs if it feels like you’re life is completely messed up anyway. At least I’ve made a lot more money recently..”

Oh yes, great. You would’ve been throw out by now? Well, what a coincidence, I was thrown out by now. Really, for some reason he could understand someone wanting to throw this guy out, Yan really wanted to throw this guy out. Oh fancy that, the guy is a songwriter, he should’ve been able to guess that one. “I don’t think you need any meditation then, drowning in your feelings should be way better for your career.” 

“I’m not worried, I’m being thorough. Now, are you here to distract me while I try keeping her safe? I bet Olivia would love to hear about that.”

“Odd and exactly the kind of thing she would do.” She’d known Olivia long enough to know that she was exactly the kind of woman to send her right hand after someone just to make sure they did the job right. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure her girlfriend doesn’t die,” she said sarcastically, the title she had just used merely thrown in without a second thought.

“Honestly I wouldn’t figure you for the person who’s easily distracted. I thought you had an eye on her?” 

Cleo let out a breathless chuckle and shook her head. She definitely wasn’t used to people saying no to her, especially when she was doing nothing wrong. After all, if they served her her drink, it means it didn’t bother them, right? Still, she stood up, her body just inches away from Yan and held out her hand to grab the glass, her eyes staring into his. ”Fuck off,” She pushed it aside and let it fall behind the counter, probably into a sink, broken.

Yan wasn’t easily intrigued, or intimidated, but he did find the closeness of the woman as she reached for the glass a bit uncomfortable. Standing as well, brushing her off as she stood so close, holding eye-contact, he wasn’t sure wether to grin - because the dropping of the glass was just too damn precious - or be angry - because well, given the bartender had just signed off, he would have to clean it up. “You know, between throwing your drink over the counter and getting your money back, don’t you think the latter would’ve been more convenient?” 

Lees verder

she didn’t drink, she couldn’t right now it wasn’t even a possibility. all she did was stop by for some food to take back to her place, but here she was sat simply just staring at her glass. her non alcoholic glass, her brows just furrowed. “i haven’t even had a sip of anything.. i literally can’t drink no matter how much i want to.” she shook her head looking over at the male, “but if i’ve had enough…” she raised her hands.

Yan looked at her confused. She was saying some stuff that either didn’t make sense because he had no clue what was happening or she was so drunk she was rambling. She didn’t seem drunk however. “You can’t? It is really easy. You take the glass.” He took the glass, keeping eye-contact with her. “Then you take a sip.” Which he took, finding it was just sparkling water. Not even a pinch of alcohol, which was great, because Yan hated drinking alcohol. He placed the glass back on the countertop, raising his hands. “See?” He grinned. “It is sort of... past opening hours.”

Clenching his fist under the table to stop the slight shaking of his hands, some habit he had acquired after returning from Afghanistan, Sean listened to the other man’s answer before nodding. “It’s always good to have each others back..”, he mumbled, immediately lost in his own memories but trying to erase them from his mind again as soon as possible. If he taken better care back then, maybe his friend would still be alive today. Although there clearly was no use in thinking about that now. “If those neon lights are the reason why there’s not that many people in here, I’m actually glad about it..”, he finally said, taking another sip of his beer only to move his hands a little.

Being as observant as always, Yan noticed the shaking fists. They weren’t the angry sorts, he had seen the angry sorts far too many times. But it was clear there was something bothering him that went along with something Yan had said, although, not as an insult clearly, just as a reflex. Given the situation however, he decided not to bring it up. He enjoyed shit-talking about things, like the set up of the bar, but the conversation was mild. Which didn’t surprise him, the man clearly didn’t want to talk, but there was nobody else around, so he was waiting for him to finish his drink and leave before he could set to an other task. “Well, no, yes, obviously. Fewer people to kick out after hours, but I like kicking people out. Else this job is so boring.” He tried to joke, hoping to get at least a smile from this sad drunk. 

“Uh… mind your business?” Pouting dramatically as her drink was being moved away, Bambi was definitely not a fan of being cut off. “I know my limits, and you don’t know my limits, so that makes me super right and you super wrong,” she responded, reaching out for her drink back. Even with a dizzy head and her slurred words. “Do you feel bad when people cry? Because I’m totally, like… gonna start crying right now and you’re gonna have to deal with it unless you give me that back. Your choice.”

The dramatics made him grin. Totally drunk girls often liked to use crying as a way to get what they wanted. Usually he would order them a taxi, try to snatch their address from their purses or hope to find some friend or colleague to take care of them. Yet, there were very few people left in the bar, maybe one or two, and they didn’t seem to be bothered when he went to talk with her, so he guessed she was alone. “Crying people fill me with joy, because I am obviously sadistic.” he responded, leaving the glass where it was, out of reach for the girl.

Listening to the man, Jonny took another sip of his beer, which unfortunately was almost empty by now and it didn’t really look like he’d get another one in here. “Well I would need to still have parents to have any problems with them..”, he said with a shrug, an ironic smile on his face. Of course, he probably still had his father somewhere out there, but that didn’t really count. Although his mother was already dead for years and still managed to cause him some sleepless nights, after he had found out about his half sister. But if he’d start talking about that as well, he would probably get kicked out. At least that’s what he would do if he was the one working here. “And about that ‘not finding a job’ thing.. I’m probably the only one in this city to have turned down an actually pretty good offer..”

Good to hear some people still had it worse than him? It really hadn’t been meant as an invitation for the man to share more sad stories, but of course, he should’ve guessed this guy was as self-involved as it got. He just nodded, wondering if he was going to make their interaction a bit awkward if he suddenly dragged the man down the bar and out of the door. Might break some hearts. “Well, for those of us who put a lot of work into actually getting somewhere and failing miserable, I have to say: how dare you, sir!?”