Hey everyone. This story was brought to you by Herbology Hangout, [72 Hour Speed Comp], Biosciences: Zoology assignment, March Writing Club's Love in Motion, Pop Figure Collection, and Sophie's Smut (Or Not, As It Were) on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. For Herbology Hangout I wrote for Bartender!AU. For [72 Hour Speed Comp] I wrote for the action prompt of leaving cute notes in people's pockets. For Biosciences: Zoology I wrote for Task 9 Elliptical Wings which was to write about a Seeker. For March Writing Club's Love in Motion I wrote for the pairing of Cho/Gabrielle. For Pop Figure Collection I wrote for the Marvel Movie figure of Valkyrie and used the prompt of Bottle of alcohol - (drink) Firewhisky. For Sophie's Smut (Or Not, As It Were) I wrote for the word thrust. Warning for mentions of sex. Word Count is 1,137. I hope you all enjoy the first chapter of A Date with Destiny.
Cho Chang sighed as the blonde girl at the end of the bar motioned her over yet again. Since the girl had sat down all she had done was down shot after shot of Firewhisky. Not that Cho didn't admire the girl's ability to hold her liquor. She really did. These sort of people kept this place open but she couldn't help but wonder what made this girl want to drink so much so fast.
Making her way down the bar filling orders as she went Cho met the blue eyes of this girl she didn't even know. She felt an instant connection with this girl whose name she didn't even know. Filling one more drink order before she was standing in front of the beautiful blonde she put her hands on her hips.
"I think I'm going to have to cut you off, honey," she told the younger looking girl, who was more a woman now that she was looking at her properly. "We don't need any of patrons getting alcohol poisoning and suing us. Now do we?"
The girl cocked her head to the side clearly drunk at this point. "But I'm perfectly fine, nice bar lady," she slurred.
Cho nodded her apprehensively. "And I'm a wild hippogriff, lady," she snorted. "Why don't we just sit here and have a nice hot cup of coffee? Or at least try to get some food in your system?"
A man down the counter shouted for a refill.
"I'll be with you in minute, sir," she called back to him. "I'll get you something lite to soak up all that poison you just put in your stomach and when I get back I want to hear all about what brought this on." She could see the other woman was about to argue so she moved along to fill the order of the man who'd called out and then put on the food for the girl.
After a few minutes of cooking she finally set the plate of fries covered in cheese and bacon in front of the girl. "Eat," she told her. "You'll thank me for this later." Folding her arms across her chest she stared the girl down until she began to eat the fires. "I'm Cho by the way." She pointed to the name tag on her shirt. "So what's got you wanting to drink your life away..."
"Gabrielle," the girl said with a French accent. "Why do you care?"
"Because," Cho says remembering back to the Triwizard Tournament. Remembering how vibrant and fun loving Gabrielle Delacour used to be. "There has to be a reason why you're trying to drink yourself into an early grave. What happened to the happy go-lucky little French girl who came to cheer her sister on during the Triwizard Tournament?"
Gabrielle sighed not wanting to relive the moment she walked in to find her fiancee in bed with another man. "You wouldn't understand," she told the pretty dark haired Asian woman. "Guys probably haven't ever cheated on you. Ever." She wobbled a little on her bar stool as she leaned forward.
"A guy? That's why you're drinking yourself to death?"
"We were engaged to be married." Gabrielle felt her cheeks flush as the memory began to replay itself in her mind. "I had gotten off work early today thinking he'd be happy to see me home early and that we could go out to drink. Do something together for once."
Cho nodded encouragingly as she listened to girl.
"So I went back to the apartment to find that door was locked which seemed strange in hindsight seeing as his car was in the driveway. So, of course, without thinking I fished my key out and unlocked the door. I should have known what I was going to find when I saw the shirt flung over the lamp."
"Another woman?" Cho asked.
Gabrielle broke down into tears and shook her head. "It was his best friend," she choked out. Gabrielle could still see her ex-fiancee Seamus leaning over their bed with his best friend Dean Thomas pounding away at him. She had choked out a stifled cried of anguish as she ran from the room. The thing that hurt the most was that he didn't even bother to chase after her.
"Another man?"
"His best friend, Dean Thomas."
"He's an idiot," Cho told Gabrielle handing her napkin to wipe her eyes with.
"I should have seen it coming though. He had begun spending more and more time with Dean and less and less time with me." She didn't want to mention the fact that he'd come home covered in marks she knew she didn't give him.
"You're lucky found out about this before you married him," Cho pointed out. "That would have been much more expensive problem to deal with than this is." Cho had found this out the hard way when her husband left her for his secretary.
Gabrielle laughed at this picking up her cup of coffee. "I'll drink to that," she snorted. Gabrielle felt much better now that she'd finally admitted what had happened to someone. Plus Cho was so much easier to talk to than any of her friends. "Thank you, Cho."
"For what?"
"For just listening," Gabrielle told her leaning over the bar and brushing a kiss over the other girl's lips. Before she could lose her confidence she thrust the note she'd written earlier that night into Cho's apron pocket. She got up and then proceeded to wobble over to the fireplace and Floo to her parents house. She didn't want to go back to the house were Seamus lived. Not until she was ready to collect her stuff which would be when he wasn't there.
Cho watched the girl disappear from the fireplace with a goofy smirk on her face. She hadn't expected that Gabrielle would actually kiss her. Especially after hearing her story. She put her hand in the front pocket of her apron and felt something strange that hadn't been there before. She pulled her hand out to reveal a napkin with writing on it. She looked closer and was shocked to find not one but two notes hastily jotted on the napkin.
One simply said Gabrielle Delacour and her number.
The other said:
Cho,
You are really really pretty and I think I like you a lot. I left you my number and would like it very much if you used it to answer my question. Would you like to go out to dinner with me tomorrow night?
Gabrielle
A small smile formed on Cho's face as she took in the notes. Punching the number into her phone and saving it for later she decided that she'd give this a chance. But she'd call Gabrielle tomorrow when she sobered up more.
I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of A Date with Destiny.