Two Tequila Shots Later
by Diana-san
It was the third night of this week. He wondered if he should say something but the dark aura that was emitting from the girl in front of him seemed less than amicable and he really didn't want to get into any long conversation. For all he knew, one wrong word could set her off and end him up with a lawsuit. He read the news. He knows about the crazies out there.
To him, she looked like a crazy. With bright pink hair and a scowl across her face, if looks could kill, he would be dead in ten seconds. She asked for the usual which was a long island iced tea. Nothing too spectacular but it was the drink that said "I got problems and I need to not feel them quickly."
Pretty much she was looking to get wasted tonight. He could feel that it was going to be a long night. She had come before on Friday and Saturday but tonight was a Sunday. Either she did not care to show up to school or work tomorrow or she was just going to show up hungover anyways.
The two nights before, she had finished her drink and left while still teetering back and forth on her heels. He was about to catch her before she toppled over and collapse on a customer but she had caught herself in time and was able to call herself a cab. Tonight, however, it didn't seem like she have the intentions of leaving to go home. She had been staring at the same spot on the bar table for the last past half hour as she sipped at her straw as if she was drinking a lemonade.
Sasuke wished that the place was busier but it was a Sunday night with no game playing and he was pretty sure all the regulars had decided to give up drinking for Lent or something. So his only attention to focus on was the girl. Her phone suddenly vibrated and the dim glow of the screen lit up against her face as she glanced at it to read whatever text message she had just received.
Her face seemed to have entered a deeper scowl which he didn't even know was physically possible. Quickly, she turned off the phone as she flipped the phone over to lay on its front. She grabbed the straw off her drink and dumped it on the table as she picked up her glass to gulp the rest of her drink down. With a slam of the glass to the table, she waved him over.
"Two tequila shots," she ordered.
"Are you sure?" he asked warily as he cocked an eyebrow at her.
The girl raised an eyebrow back at him as she slid across a credit card towards him. "Put it on my tab."
He sighed but took the card as he credited the drinks to it and handed her two shots of tequila. He sure hope that whoever texted her was actually saying that they were going to come over to bring her home.
She smiled as she pushed one of the tequila shots to him. "Drink," she ordered.
"I can't. I'm on the job," he replied back.
She glanced at the clock that was right above him. "When do you clock out?" she asked.
He sighed. He had finished his shift five minutes ago but he couldn't go home until after the bar closes. His roommate had strictly told him that he needed to have the place alone to himself until 2 am. "Stupid Naruto," he muttered underneath his breath. He knew he shouldn't have promised Naruto anything.
Sasuke glanced at his co-worker who gave him a shrug. "You're off the clock so why not?" his co-worker mouthed to him.
Sasuke loosened the collar of his bow-tie as he grunted and picked up the shot. "Cheers," he murmured as he clinked the tiny shot glass against hers.
"Wait! Lime and salt!" she called out but he had already took the shot.
He took a lime and bit into it as he allowed the tangy juices to erase the traces of alcohol from his mouth. He watched as the girl just shrugged and licked the back of her left hand as she sprinkled some salt to let the salt stick on. She licked the salt as she took the shot in one gulp with her eyes closed. Quickly, she reached for a lime but there wasn't any left. While watching her in amusement, he had accidentally stuck the second lime wedge in his mouth as something to chew on.
Her eyes widened as she grabbed him by the collar and pulled him in. Her face came close to his as she opened her mouth to bite down on the other half of the lime wedge that was hanging by his mouth. Their lips touched as he felt the lime juice trickle down from the wedge to their lips. They must have remained in that position for a whole minute because he felt as if time was slowly moving by as she continued to suck on the lime.
Finally, she pulled away and he spat out the lime wedge. "What the hell…" he muttered.
"First rule. Never steal a girl's lime for a tequila shot," she stated calmly as she crossed her arms.
"Sorry," he muttered.
As he glanced at her, he saw that the scowl was no longer a permanent resident on her face. She seemed pleasant and cheery. But perhaps that was the alcohol effect kicking in. Her cheeks were slightly rosy and she seemed to be wobbling slightly on the barstool she was seated on.
"Sasuke-kun," she murmured.
How did she know his name? He glanced down at his shirt. A gold name tag with his name written across in bold black letters was pinned to the front of his black polo shirt. "Yes?" he asked.
"That's a nice name. My name is Sakura. But of course it is right, given my hair color, amirite?"
He smirked. Of course, she would be named after the color of her hair.
Suddenly, her phone buzzed again as she annoyingly reached at it to remove the battery and dropped it in her empty glass. He wasn't sure if that was safe at all but he said nothing about it.
"Bad day?" he asked. He almost wished he didn't because that was like an invitation for a long conversation but it had somehow slipped out and now he couldn't take it back. He just hoped her answer wasn't something agonizing to listen to.
"Try bad week," she said wryly.
"What happened?" Again, he needed to learn to keep his mouth shut. Maybe tequila did things to him. Like make him care about strangers he had never met. Although, he did meet her two nights ago when she first showed up at his bar.
She glanced at him as if wondering if he was truly asking because he cared to know. As if she was testing him, she eyed him for several seconds longer as her hand reached out to crumple the straw on the table.
"Well…" she started. "For starters, my boss is a jackass and is blaming me for a mistake he clearly made on his own when I had told him weeks before that he should have went for the second option instead of the dumb choice he did make on Wednesday. And my two year anniversary with my boyfriend was this last Friday only I found out he was cheating on me for a whole month when he accidentally sent me a "happy one-month anniversary" gift," she scoffed. "Can you believe he would send a Tiffany necklace as a one-month gift? All he got me for our one-month was some lame ass socks that had a joke I didn't even understand."
"That's rough," he replied. He almost bit his tongue when those words came out. This girl had such a terrible week and all he could offer her as words of sympathy was that's rough? He was probably a terrible human being. At least in her eyes.
"Yeah, I know," she said with a delayed laugh following afterwards. "Man, I was sure a fool."
"You should get back at him," he said.
Sakura raised another brow at him. "I don't find revenge to be the answer."
"Revenge is sweet," he said with a small smile.
"And what do you suppose I do?"
He had to think about that. "Make him regret cheating on you."
"Like?"
"I don't know. Find a guy ten times as good as your ex and dress yourself up and show that jerk what he's missing."
Sakura burst out into laughter. "Right, and where am I going to find such a guy? I can barely hold on to my own guy as he went and cheated on me," she said in disgust.
"I'll do it," he offered. God, he had got to start thinking before speaking.
She blinked in surprise. "You don't even know me," she pointed out.
"Yeah, but you seem to be a decent girl and you did buy me a drink."
Sakura smiled in amusement. "The drink was a dollar. Hardly worth the effort you are trying to offer me."
"Still. Your ex sounds like a jerk. I don't want him to be the impression you will get of guys in the future. Your boss seems like a jerk as well. You got to know that there are nice guys out there."
She nodded slowly. "And I do. At least, now I do," she said softly.
"So, you want to go exact revenge then?"
"No, I don't," she responded. "I rather just forget about the guy and move on."
"You're quick to be moving on after just two days," he commented.
Sakura smiled. "Well, I met this guy. He's my bartender and he tried to convince me to do this crazy whole revenge plot on my ex. But I think I'll just ask him if he wants to go out on a date sometime when I'm not entirely drunk and look a little nicer in a dress rather than an old t-shirt and jeans."
"You look nice now," he said with a small smile.
She smiled again. "So how about another round of tequila shots? I'll let you take the lime from me again."
He arched an eyebrow. "So you can just take it back?" he mused.
Sakura laughed. "You're a fast learner."