He was sitting on the bench across the room from her with a group of what appeared to be mates having a drink. He was odd, she thought. It was a post match drink. The others were all wearing scarves and stupid hats with the names of Football teams emblazoned across them, while his scarf had the name of a Gaelic football team. He also seemed to be in a different world than the others- he was part of the conversation and yet he wasn't, fitting perfectly into the natural environment in a general glance, but after having studied him for a while, you realized that he wasn't. He was special, he was different. He was sitting with his back to the window- his large shoulders and upper arms outlined in the evening glow. As he turned his head, she caught sight of his profile in the orange sunlight, his features striking her as desperately attractive. He lifted up his glass and took another swig of beer, and laughed at something a ginger-haired friend had said. His reply was caught up in a break of conversation of the other residents of the pub, and she caught a brief hint of Irish. She felt her body growing weak- she hadn't felt like this since she'd been a celebrity-struck teenage girl. The door of the pub opened with a predominant screech, and a group of women piled inside, all huddled into their coats, hiding from the cold. They approached the group where he was, and immediately he jumped up, walking over to greet them, and engulfing the nearest woman in an embrace, sealing it with a kiss on the cheek. Sybil sighed in disappointment- how she'd hoped that he was single. But soon, much to her delight, the woman joined the rest of his friends on the table sitting in the lap of the ginger-haired friend. The other friends followed suit (to their applicable partners) and left him sitting out of it again, framed by the window. His hair caught the sunlight, and she saw blonde, before she was jerked back into reality by her sister.
"Sybil, please tell Mary that Doctor Who is better than Torchwood." Edith begged, casting a glare at her other sister.
"You're only saying that because of your twig-like humanoid over here." Mary argued, gesturing to Edith's actor boyfriend, David. David looked up at the mention of his name, and then went back to his bored reverie. Sybil found herself mumbling something incoherent, and turning back to stare at him. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the ginger haired friend giving her an odd look, then nudging him on the arm, and pointing at her. Immediately she snapped her gaze away, and turned back to the rest of her party- her two sisters, David, Matthew, Anna, John, Daisy and William, who were all looking at her.
"You've never drooled over a bloke in a pub before in your life, have you?" William asked drily. Daisy giggled and pressed her face into William's shoulder, while the others hid their laughs more successfully than Daisy. Sybil cleared her throat in embarrassment and tucked a lock of raven hair behind her ear. The conversation turned, and she pretended to join in, while she quickly stole a glance at him from the corner of her eye.
He was staring at her now- his hands clasped around an empty beer glass, and a small smile lighting his masculine features. Her heart accelerated its pace, and her stomach began jumping. She distracted herself from these feelings by swallowing the remainder of her drink and standing up, offering to buy the next round. Anna looked at her, pityingly.
"We bought a new one two minutes ago, but you were a bit distracted." The others stifled laughter while Sybil blushed bright red. Intending to venture to the bar, she twirled around, and came face to face with him. Her heart nearly popped it was beating so fast, and she didn't think that she was quite in control of all her faculties. And then he smiled. All independent thought drained away from her brain in one moment, and nothing else in the room was quite there anymore.
"Hello," He greeted in the same Irish brogue that she'd heard before, and he seemed rather amused at her reaction. "My name's Tom. Tom Branson. I couldn't help seeing you over here... can I buy you a drink?" She thought that she might have nodded, though she couldn't be too sure- suddenly he was the only thing that mattered.
Ladies didn't fall in love within an hour, did they?