Sarah swirled her wine in her glass and leaned back in her chair, looking relaxed and elegant as ever. Tally was practically drooling over her, she couldn't look away, she was thankful she had her own drink to hold in her hands, to keep herself from fidgeting.
"So, tell me about yourself Tally," Sarah said curiously, her eyes sparkling with the flickering of the candle on the table.
"What do you want to know?" Tally replied with a sly smile as she stirred her drink.
Sarah leaned a little closer, still holding her drink in hand and keeping those pretty blue eyes locked on Tally's. "Everything. I want to know all about what's going on behind those beautiful coffee brown eyes of yours," Sarah sipped on her wine.
Tally blushed at the idea that Sarah could be so interested in her. "That's pretty broad, where do I even begin?"
Sarah quirked an eyebrow at her. "You could start with how you came to work at that little establishment,"
Tally shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, I mean obviously it's not my dream job or anything, at least get to work with my friends. It's really just to pay the bills until I can finish my degree,"
"Tell me about it. Field of study, career aspirations, motivations, go, I want to hear it all," Sarah leaned on her elbow.
Tally narrowed her eyes at her. "What is this a job interview? A criminal interrogation? Or a conversation?"
Sarah just full on laughed at that. "A conversation, of course, Tally, I'm sorry, but please go on,"
Tally shook her head with a smile. "I'm a second year master's student in psychology. I'm close to being done. I am so tired of homework," Tally sighed.
"You'll get there. You're smart. But what I wouldn't give for a few classes and a bit of homework rather than my actual work work," Sarah grinned as their salads were placed in front of them. "Thank you," She nodded to the waitress.
"You don't like your job?" Tally inquired as she speared a heap of lettuce on her fork.
Sarah took a bite so she could debate her answer. "Mmm. On the contrary. I love my job, there are just some aspects that I could do without, as there are in everything," She tried to keep her tone upbeat, but she couldn't help the somber undertone those words carried.
Tally nodded and stuffed more dressing coated veggies in her mouth. "What exactly do you do?"
"I manage an office,"
"And your office does what exactly?" Tally was curious, disregarding the remnants of her salad in favor of looking at Sarah.
"We…" She was interrupted by the main courses being delivered. Sarah had ordered Chicken Bellagio. Originally, overwhelmed by the menu, Tally had slipped and tried to order 'pasta' at which Sarah laughed and the waitress looked confused. She quickly looked at the menu and chose the first thing she saw, Ravioli alla Vodka, and looking at it now in front of her, she was not disappointed. It smelled fantastic.
"What do you mean you just left?! Are you out of your mind? What were you even thinking?!" Abigail sounded appalled, dragging Tally out of her reminiscence of earlier that evening. She had explained the whole night, but she was still caught on dinner. It was so nice, relaxed, just being able to sit and talk to this woman for longer than the average exchange between customer and server. She wished she could go back to that moment, or really any other moment before she showed up here at Abigail's.
Tally just shrugged. After hearing herself explain it all out loud it did sound pretty stupid of her. Ugh. She was never good at things like this. "I don't know, Abs, she was on the phone and it seemed important, and I didn't want to bother her, and…"
Abigail raised an eyebrow at her. "So?"
Tally was at a loss now. Scylla had decided to take Raelle back to her place a little while ago so it was just her and Abigail now, and Abigail was even less of a fan of Sarah than Raelle was. She was not sure she would be given the best advice here. "Do you think I should go back?"
Abigail choked on her drink, nearly spitting it all over the floor. "Oh no no," she shook her head. "Tally, no,"
"But I could, it's only been what? Half an hour…," Tally tried to stand with some half drunk, delusional thought that she could, and maybe should, just march right back upstairs back to Sarah's apartment. Abigail's horrified expression stopped her though, signaling that it was probably a worse idea than it sounded in her head.
"It's been two hours, how would you even get back, do you know where she lives? Um, actually, how did you get here, you never actually said, did you walk, take a cab, she didn't drive you obviously," Abigail asked but Tally didn't know what she should say.
"I just walked, it wasn't far actually," She avoided Abigail's gaze. "What if I called her to apologize?"
The other girl leaned back and sipped on her drink, considering everything. "No, Tally, you said you left her a note right, so let her call you,"
Tally looked around her. "Where's my phone? Have you seen it?"
Abigail just shrugged and hid her face in her drink. "No, where did you last see it?"
"Do you think she will?" Tally asked from where she was on the floor now on her hands and knees looking for her missing device.
"Considering you said everything had gone well to that point, yeah, I'd bet money on it," Abigail shrugged. "But then again, you did just leave, randomly like a crazy person, she might not be happy about that. Honestly I can't believe you did that, but even so, yeah she'll call,"
Tally sighed and leaned against the couch. She knocked back the remaining mouthful of her drink, coughing slightly. "If you say so, I hope you're right,"
Abigail stood and took Tally's bottle from her. "Hey!" Tally protested.
"What, you were done, relax, and you're staying here tonight, in case you hadn't already realized that, missy," Abigail tossed over her shoulder as she cleaned up some of the mess.
Tally rolled over and pushed herself up to be leaning over the back of the couch so she could watch the other girl. "No, I can call an uber, its fine,"
"How? I have your phone," Abigail whipped out the device from her pocket.
"Damn you, I knew it," Tally huffed. "Give it back,"
"Yeah yeah, whatever, it's dead anyway but it was for your own good. I probably saved you from calling that poor woman a thousand times," Abigail smirked and Tally scoffed.
"I would not have," Abigail looked at her knowingly. "Only once or twice, maybe three times at most. Shut up. She was so nice, and not poor, she's pretty well off based on the look of her apartment," Tally clamped her mouth shut hoping Abigail hadn't picked up on that clue.
"Hmm," was her only response.
Tally flopped back onto the couch dreamily. "I can't stop thinking about her. Those eyes Abigail, her eyes, were so… and her hands, oh my god,"
"Nope, Tally, I don't want to hear anymore about her eyes and I definitely don't need to hear about her hands," Abigail groaned.
"What, we didn't even do anything Abs, jeez," Tally scowled.
"I don't care, just get your ass over here and take a shot with me," Abigail had poured the remnants of a vodka bottle into two shot glasses.
Tally just grumbled but gathered herself off the couch. She hated vodka. It always burned.
They clinked the tiny glasses together and knocked them back. Tally shuddered as the liquid with the citrusy tones seared down her throat. She would have much rather been drinking more of whatever drink Sarah had made for her. She coughed and Abigail chuckled at her. Being already pretty drunk she had forgotten how necessary chasers were, as she scrambled to find sme water.
"I still hate that stuff you know," Tally squeezed her eyes shut and gripped the edge of the counter.
"I think that was a good one to end on. Now, I'm going to bed, you are too,"
A few hours ago:
"Izadora! Enough. I don't want another word," Sarah hissed into the phone.
"But Sarah, you can't just ignore this and hope it goes away,"
Sarah clenched her hand on the handrail. "I can for now. Can she not wait until Monday?"
"No. She was very clear. She wants to meet with you tonight,"
"Absolutely not! Is she aware it is a Friday evening?!" It was clearly rhetorical. "No. Tomorrow is the best I can do. Tell her I'll meet her for lunch at whatever that fancy diner is on that side of town. You know the one,"
"Are you sure you want to make her wait like this?"
Sarah rolled her eyes. "Yes. Believe it or not, I do have other things in my life besides my job, Wade will live, even if she has to wait until tomorrow,"
"You do know all of our jobs are on the line here, not just yours?"
Sarah chuckled humorlessly, after all, Wade didn't scare her. "I can handle her, Izadora, relax, now I have a guest over so I really must go,"
"You better be right about this,"
"I am. Pick me up at eleven tomorrow, we can talk strategy on the way,"
"Fine. See you then,"
"Goodnight, Izadora," Sarah clicked her phone off and leaned over the handrail. After taking a deep breath, she decided she had to go back inside. Tally was probably bored out of her skull. She expected to see the girl sitting on a barstool sipping on her drink, but her apartment was empty.
"Tally?" Sarah called out as she slid the door shut behind her. She sighed as she strolled back into the kitchen after checking every room of the place. She clearly wasn't there, yet the girl seemed too polite to just leave like that. Sarah pulled out her phone, but she had no messages and no missed calls and that worried her. Tapping through her contacts she scrolled down to Tally's. She must've left for a reason. From her perspective the evening had gone fairly well, apart from the ice skating incident.
The phone rang once then immediately went to voicemail which wasn't a great sign. "Hey Tally, it's Sarah, well you probably knew that, but uh anyway, I wanted to make sure you got back alright, let me know when you get this, or don't I mean you don't have to, uh yeah," She hung up, berating herself internally for not just keeping herself together. She paced around and redialed.
"Hello, Tally, you know it's impolite to just leave like this, though I suppose that's equally as impolite as taking a call while I had a guest over, so we're even then. Still you could have said goodbye, now I have to worry that something happened to you, well I don't have to, but I am," End call.
"Tally, I regret that you left so early, and that I didn't even get to offer you some of my dessert...uh that dessert being a cake I made the other day, not um I didn't mean...oh jesus Sarah," She threw her phone down on the counter and sighed. That's when she finally was paying enough attention to her surroundings to see that Tally had been kind enough to put her glass in the sink and there was a note sitting folded neatly on the counter.
Sarah,
Thank you for the lovely evening. Put it on my tab, but I will be needing another one of those drinks. You were right, it was divine. I hope the news on the phone wasn't as terrible as it looked. I am sorry for leaving like this, but like I said, if we're still on for Sunday then I needed to start cleaning like last week. I had a great time with you and I hope to see you again soon.
Tally
She picked up her phone again. "Tally, I am sorry about earlier and for all of those other voicemails, you can go ahead and delete them without listening to them . I had a wonderfully delightful evening with you, I am sorry it got interrupted. I would appreciate it if you would let me know you got home safe. I look forward to seeing you on Sunday evening. Feel better. Goodnight, Tally,"
Clicking her phone off she sighed again. Despite better judgment, she took a big drink of whiskey straight out of the bottle to ease her nerves. Her impending meeting had her on edge, and not yet knowing if Tally had gotten home safely was bothering her too. Overall it had been a nice night though, and she was grateful to Anacostia for pushing her to get out there and just do it. The girl's smile was worth it on its own, but her laugh, the feeling of her hand in hers, and the look in her eyes when she looked at her, oh all of it made her feel absolutely giddy. If only Izadora hadn't called. It wasn't her fault, she was just doing her job. Really the one that deserved Sarah's wrath was Wade.
Sarah despised her, and interrupting her evening with Tally had done her no favors. The gall of that woman, thinking Sarah would just drop everything at her beck and call. It made Sarah furious just thinking about it.
A hot shower and another shot of whiskey later she forced herself into bed, and thankfully the sweet thoughts of Tally flitted across her mind and allowed sleep to find her easily.
