Meeting at the bar.
Elena
For the 8th time in as many minutes Elena found herself checking her watch, making sure that it did say just gone 9. And it did, fancy that, no change there. Nervously she shifted on the bar stool, its cheap leather still uncomfortable no matter how she situated herself. For probably the 8th time as well she contemplated moving and finding a table and then immediately quashed the idea, just as she'd done the previous 7 times. Though it wasn't very late the bar had already begun to fill up with most of the tables already taken by larger groups; a mix of young student looking types and obvious regulars, with the noise beginning to reach that slightly more raucous stage. Besides, uncomfortable as the stool was it did give a good view of the door, a fact that Elena was very aware of as she glanced towards it for the...oh god knows what time. Looking away she instead decided to focus on her outfit – not that she was dressed up or anything, just, she wanted to look, well, good. Not for any special reason, just because. Her dark blue jeans nicely contrasted her tight black shirt, which in turn made her burnished blonde hair stand out all the more. She looked good; and, as unwanted as the attention she was receiving from some of the male gazes in the room, it did make her a little relieved that she attracted any at all. She'd worried that with her pale skin the darker colours might make her look pasty but a glance at the reflective mirror behind the bar alleviated her worries. And, if she happened to be looking at the reflection of the door in the mirror as well, so what.
Why was she so damn nervous, Elena berated herself, running a hand through her shoulder length hair. Was it because this was her first time back in London for a while? That might be part of it she conceded. Her journalistic assignments had begun to pick up again after the lull following the whole Lazarevic ordeal; a fact that generally had her hopping across the globe in search of new leads and stories. As exhausting as it could get she found that she relished it and the strength it took to carry out her job always made her grateful for her health. Still, a new job had her kicking her heels for a while so she'd found herself here, in the big city. But being back here was only part of it, if she was honest to herself, which she always tried to be. No, and here she didn't let herself shy away from the thought, a big part of her nerves definitely had to do with who she was meeting. Tonight. That is, if she even showed...Elena found that she was looking towards the door again, so to distract herself she drained her gin and tonic and waved to the bartender. Unfortunately he was busy at the other end of the bar, a flirty looking waif of a thing keeping all his attention; the girl looked barely legal but it certainly was keeping him occupied it seemed. In frustration Elena swilled the dregs of her drink in the glass, annoyed that now she had nothing to occupy her and stop her thoughts from dwelling on all the what ifs and questions and all the noise that always filled her head if she stopped to let it. She really didn't know why she was letting this get to her so. She was just meeting up with someone for a drink, nothing special. Even if the someone in question was in her thoughts more than she liked to admit. Dammit, where was she. They had said 9 o'clock and now it was (checking the watch again, time number nine) almost quarter past. Then, even over the increasing noise she heard the door of the pub opening and it took all her control to just calmly turn her head rather than spin around on her stool like some eager schoolgirl.
The figure who graced the doorway caused Elena to both breath a small sigh of relief and feel a small tightening in her chest. She could see the woman she was meeting this evening scanning the bar, her dark eyes surveying the place before zeroing in on Elena. With a small smirk the woman gave her a nod before making her way over, her gaze never leaving her, her leather jacket blending well with her tanned skin. Desperately, Elena pushed down the rising tension within her and attempted to appear nonchalant as the woman sidled into the unoccupied stool next to her; a hard thing to do with the way the woman's black hair lightly brushed her arm as she settled herself in, causing a shiver to run down Elena's back. Once comfortable, the woman smiled at her, a welcoming glint in her eyes.
"Sorry I'm a little late; London traffic and all that," eyes raked down her form, taking her in and apparently liking what they saw, "No one bothered you or anything, did they?"
"Not at all Chloe," Elena replied, finding an answering smile rising on her lips to mirror the cheeky one on the woman across from her, her earlier nerves fading now that she was here "I can handle myself you know. As hard as that is to believe."
"I don't doubt it Sunshine" came the smirking reply, a slight eyebrow raise showing her obvious doubt. With a laugh Elena swatted at her which caused Chloe to chuckle in response, the sound causing another unwanted (or wanted) shiver to run through her.
"So, not the most lively place you choose for this little get together," said Chloe, giving the pub a once over with her eyes and clearly unimpressed, "what made you pick here?"
"It's got good Yelp reviews and, well, it was nearby," Elena admitted, a little self-consciously, "besides, we don't have to stay."
"Well, it'll do for now," she said, before grinning at Elena widely, "still, I do know some places that are much more...fun, if you're up for it reporter girl."
"I'm not sure if I want to know what your definition of "fun" is," Elena replied, rolling her eyes at Chloe obvious attempt to annoy her, "and it's reporter woman actually. My girlhood is far behind me."
"So I can see," said Chloe, giving her a really blatant up and down which caused Elena to laugh even as she had a hide a slight pulsing she felt. Damn it all, why did she have an effect on her. Chloe seemed to sense something behind her laugh and she continued on by saying, a little gently Elena felt, "sorry there love. Didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything."
"You could never make me feel uncomfortable" Elena said quickly, if a little untruthfully. In all honesty, everything about whatever her relationship with was Chloe made her a uncomfortable in some way. Still, it was clearly the right thing to say if the wide smile that Chloe now sported was anything to go by.
"I'll have to work on that then," she said with a quick wink before noticing Elena's empty drink, "what are you doing sitting here with no booze? Not much of a night out for a drink with no drinks is it."
"Bartender's distracted," Elena stated, indicating to where the man was still caught up in conversation, if that's what you called whatever his leery interaction was "couldn't be bothered to deal with that noise."
"Well we can't have that then can we," said Chloe, a glint in eye, "watch and learn pet. This is how you get attention in a bar."
With another wicked grin she slid off her stool and seemed to focus on her target.
That amount of swaying should be illegal, Elena thought, putting her head ruefully into her hand as Chloe sashayed over to the bartender. Though, she could understand Drake and Sully a little more now; all of their comments about Chloe's more than luscious behind (which they thought she hadn't heard, more fool them) made a bit more sense now as she found her own eyes glued to the tight jeans wiggling over to the bar. No, bad Elena, what was she, some horny 13 year old? Not that attraction had anything to do with why she was here, obviously. Urghh, and now she had just pictured herself with a Sully-like moustache. Not a pleasant image. To distract herself (again) Elena looked away and instead tried to think about something else. Now that Chloe was actually here she could calm her nerves and maybe start to think about why they were meeting in the first place. It had all begun so gradually, this, friendship, or whatever they had going on. Being with Nate again had been good and the experience he'd gone through had seemed to mature him a little if his new outlook was anything to go by. He'd even made noises about settling down which – considering the expenses and scares of his last adventure – had really sounded like a good thing to Elena. Still, he'd kept in contact with all his compatriots and sometimes Elena had spoken to them as well – especially Sully, old charmer that he was. And then, seemingly out of the blue, Elena had got a personal email from Chloe Frazer. It hadn't been anything dramatic, just asking how she was and what she was up to, but considering their lack of connection it had been a little strange. Or maybe they did have a connection? A flash of images and sensations went through Elena's mind;: heat, cloying heat; pain, such horrible, rending pain; a body holding hers, arms as smooth as velvet wrapped around her; a voice rough with worry but soft with care saying her name, telling her to be strong. No, no more. Elena shook her head. She tried not to dwell too much on...that time. The fear was still strong in her. Man, she needed another drink.
As she found herself peeking over to where Chloe was attracting the barman, and smirking in amusement at the dumbstruck expression on his face as well as the annoyance from the other girl, Elena thought back to how there little, relationship, had progressed from there. After her initial reply, with the contents almost as banal as you could get, she'd received another message a few days later that, among a couple funny observations as to Elena's lack of apparently anything interesting to say, had a certain snarkiness of tone that had appealed to her. So, she'd messaged her back something a bit more substantial; letting her know more about her work a bit more and throwing in a few wittiscisms herself. From there, it had just gone on. She'd found herself messaging Chloe back more and more often and then, after a while, they'd started phoning each other. The sound of Chloe's voice on the other end of the phone had given Elena such an odd feeling – a sense of prickliness and warmth; hard to describe but not unwanted. Still, nothing they spoke about had any real depth to it – mainly Chloe would make funny comments and tell amusing tales of adventure and Elena would laugh and talk about her work. Oddly, neither of them said it but by unspoken agreement Nate was barely mentioned at all; the one time Elena did bring him up in connection to something else it had caused a weird silence and she'd had a feeling of...guilt? And as much as that couldn't be right – she was chatting with another woman, Nate's kind of ex to be precise so if anyone should feel guilty it would be Drake – the feeling had been there and he just hadn't been talked about afterwards. Then, with her trip to London and knowing that Chloe was in the same city at the moment, it had just seemed natural to suggest they meet up in person for a drink. And yet, once Elena began dwelling on it, she'd found herself getting inexplicably more and more nervous until she'd become the woman of a few minutes ago; a nervy wreck forever checking her watch, terrified apparently of being stood up.
"Well that was funny," said a silky voice by Elena's ear, causing once again another damnable shiver to go through her, "did you see that brat's face? No competition."
"Well someone's certainly confident," she replied, taking her drink from Chloe as she sat herself back down next to her, "who's to say he just didn't have a thing for brunettes."
Chloe smiled at and took a sip from her own drink; a pint of lager, how very her.
"You have seen me, right. I bet even the ladies get weak at the knee when they see me."
Did she seem to be studying Elena a little bit closely as she said that? For now Elena laughed it off with a pithy comment of "See, now thats overconfidence" deciding to ignore any implications of that thought for the moment.
"Confidence keeps you strong love. Important in my line of work, what with the danger and all."
That caused an eye roll from Elena – Nate was always saying stuff like that. Not that she wanted to think of him just this minute, not with a certain dark haired woman smiling at her impishly.
"So, how long are you here for? You never said if this was a flying visit or not." Chloe asked questioningly, her dark eyes firmly on her, a slight seriousness to her expression now.
"Not sure really; why I didn't say. I'm all but kicking my heels with boredom right now. Besides...I think they might be debating who my team should be. I'm not sure if they'll let me take another camera on my own. Not yet."
"I heard about that," Chloe smiled, "How many expensive camera's have you lost now. 5 was it?"
"Ha, ha," Elena replied dryly, taking a sip from her drink before coughing slightly, "what is this? How much alcohol did you tell the barman to put in it?"
"What?" said Chloe, all fake innocence, "I thought we were having a drink? Besides, its only a double, don't be a pussy."
"Says the lady drinking lager," Elena shot back, "how much more stereotypically Australian can you get."
"I'll catch up, don't you worry Sunshine," she said with a disarmingly charming smile, "and when you're done with this dump we can head somewhere a bit more energetic."
"I don't know. Maybe I like this place now," joked Elena airily, "still not sure thats where I want this night to go anyway."
"And where do you want this night to go then" came the quick sharp reply from Chloe, a, strange, look on her face. Kind of serious but with a twinkle in her eye. Whatever it was it made Elena all the more aware again of how close they were sitting and brought so many things back to focus that she had been pushing aside as much as she was able too; like the depths of Chloe's dark eyes or the slight shivers that went through Elena's body every time Chloe moved and a part of her tanned body was revealed.
"Let's just see," she said eventually, finding her throat really quite dry. With a quick movement she turned her head and drained her drink, now glad for the strong kick of spirit present in it.
"That sounds like a plan" said Chloe in response, amusement sparkling in her tone. Gently, a hand took the now empty glass from Elena, pausing just a few seconds to allow a moment of extra contact. Then Chloe was up again and leaning close into her, the extra proximity causing her to clench her body involuntary to stop herself from doing, something.
"What do you bet I can get that barman to come to us this time?" Chloe said quietly intimate, her voice warm.
Even with her body doing some very strange things to her and the sudden rush of alcohol going to her head Elena managed to gasp out,
"I'm not taking that bet. Foregone conclusion, what with all your 'confidence' you've got going on."
Chloe laughed in response and sat back down. Together they shared a look before both breaking gazes at the same time. As Chloe chuckled and set herself to waving down the barman Elena realised that, despite her initial nerves, she was having fun. Maybe thats all this night would be. Just a bit of fun. Catching Chloe's eye again Elena wondered who she was trying to convince.
Oh well, she thought, best just to go with the flow for now. It's just a meeting with a friend, that's all. No harm there.