"Haven't seen you in a while," if a few days is a while. You think for him that it might be.
Just a shrug in return and a tap of his fingers on the bar. Pulling a glass you pour his usual. He has a usual. He is a usual. Not the kind of usual that sips a drink and lets the day slide off his shoulders, he finishes the glass and taps the bar again. One and two he takes down evenly, smoothly, quickly. Three he takes a sip and looks around.
"You look like shit," you smile and tell him and he smiles. A lesser man might take offense but he's not a lesser man.
"You know how to sweet talk a guy," he taps his fingers on the bar and she refills his glass.
"It's one of my charms," you watch his eyes slide from you to the screen above the bar. His smile stalls and fades. The screen is giving way to the evening news.
"Do me a favor, turn that off." And Ryan Hardy taps his fingers on the bar again.