ONE CLICK AWAY
Brienne had been right: The following morning she felt as if her head was close to exploding, her mouth was dry and a dull ache in her limbs made it hard to move out of bed at all. She tried some of her warm-up stretches but gave up fairly quickly as she felt them doing her no good at all. Smoothing down her sleep shirt and shorts, she slowly but steadily made her way into the kitchen only to find Sansa and Margaery already in there, brewing coffee.
"Coffee?" Sansa asked, grinning, as she saw a very tired Brienne enter.
"Desperately," Brienne answered.
"You had fun?" Margaery quipped, handing her a coffee put, its content steaming and the smell filled up Brienne's nostrils.
"Surprisingly enough," Brienne murmured, "I did."
Sansa raised her eyebrows at her friend, questioningly. "Why is that even a surprise? Us three, together, in a bar? That's bound to be epic and you know it. No need to be surprised."
Brienne playfully nudged Sansa in the side with her elbow
and the latter giggled.
"You know what I mean. I'm not the type of person that likes to go out, people are too much for me at times and I usually imagine me not liking any of it, you're right there. But last night was actually fun!"
"Could that be connected to the mysterious person that opened that tab for us?" Margaery asked, filling her coffee pot with another delicious dose of the brown liquid.
"That was very generous," Sansa added. They silently had come to the conclusion that they didn't want to pressure their waiter, Pod, into telling them who the mysterious man - or woman, mind you! - had been. Somehow none of them thought they could press this out of him anyway since the waiter had mentioned something about client-waiter confidentiality and also let it slip that Mr or Miss Mysterious also had given him a very generous tip.
"I can't help but wonder..." Margaery grinned.
"What?" Brienne asked, innocently.
"Do you think he ... or she ... would be generous elsewhere?" With a smirk, the blonde turned around and made her way toward the living room couch, followed by a giggling Sansa and an incredulous Brienne.
"What does this even ... oh OH!"
"That's precisely the sound you'd expect in that case", Margaery laughed and Sansa almost spilled her coffee onto the coffee table since her hands were shaking as uncontrollably as the rest of her body as she was trying to contain her laughter. Brienne rolled her eyes at her two friends and sat down.
"Honestly, though," Margaery steered away from this very dangerous topic that could cause Brienne to close off to her friends once again. She didn't like to talk about her lack of experience and the fact that she genuinely thought she could never attract any man by herself, "I am glad you enjoyed last night, even though we could not get to the bottom of Mr. Mysterious' identity. Wanna see some of your dancing?"
"I wanna ... what now?" Brienne's eyes widened. They widened, even more, the moment Margaery hit 'PLAY'.
Jamie was bored. It wasn't as if there wasn't any work, in fact, his entire desk was covered in small brown folders that contained fact sheets for several of his cases, some post-it notes with scribbles reminders that his secretary had attached to some of the pages. Earlier, Jamie had found a post-it that said "Don't forget to eat!" and one that said, "Stay hydrated". He sighed and slowly got out of his expensive black leather swivel seat and took a look around. As with the estate that Jamie and Tyrion lived in, the office building of the various Lannister-owned companies intimidated by the sheer amount of luxury and the fact that things already looked expensive even if you didn't see the price tag. There were very few personal touches within his office space, just as their father had told them to decorate it. "Clients should not see any weaknesses, nothing they can hold against you. Anything you hold deal will eventually be a liability, so it's best to not even tell them there could be anything," Jamie remembered his father saying.
Jamie could not resist, though. His bookshelf contained some of his favorite books, among them an entire Shakespeare collection which partly was as old as his university career. Up on the wall behind his desk, there were a few family pictures, mostly of him with his younger brother Tyrion, one of their respective sweet sixteen birthday parties. One Christmas picture showed their mother, pregnant with Tyrion, surrounded by Jamie and his stepsister Cersei with Tywin standing behind them, patronizing the scene.
Jamie was bored because he didn't like his routine, hadn't for quite a while now. At some point, he couldn't even clearly name, his work had stopped being interesting and had started being tedious. He was no longer looking forward to seeing his high-profile clientele, he was bored by what they were bound to say when they sat down on the comfortable leather chairs opposite his desk. Most days his routine consisted of work, a nightcap with his brother and sleep. There were not many people outside of the Lannister circle he could call friends, even acquaintances, really. Being a Lannister worked like a quarantine station - even if you were no longer infectious, people would still remember you once were. You stayed a Lannister even if you didn't choose to be one. You stayed isolated.
A knock on the door brought Jamie back into the here and now and as he called out "Come in", it was his little brother that entered.
"A good day to you," the dwarf smiled and closed the door behind him.
"That depends," Jamie briskly said.
"The Tyrells again?" Tyrion laughed. The Tyrell's divorce case had been their constant companion over the last three months.
"Olenna backed out of the agreement. Stubborn old witch," Jamie grinned and Tyrion laughed before he climbed onto one of the leather chairs and got comfortable.
"She's quite something, that one," Tyrion said.
"That's one way of saying it," Jamie agreed and handed his brother a glass of water.
"Oh, thanks," Tyrion said and drank almost half the glass in one go, "I had no idea I was thirsty until you handed me the glass."
"That's thanks to Gilly," Jamie grinned, got himself a glass of water and upon sitting down on his swivel seat he showed Tyrion the post-it.
"Stay hydrated, huh? Does Gilly know we went out last night?"
"She does not, she's not even in today, remember? It's Saturday, it's only us fools that are here."
"We might as well call it a day," Tyrion grinned, taking in the mess that was Jamie's desk, "it doesn't look like the muse kissed you to get things done anyway."
"Not really," Jamie responded and emptied out his glass of water in one go.
"Not that there is much kissing, to begin with ..." Tyrion teased, watching Jamie's eyes turn dark.
"Well, that would be..."
"... None of my business, yes, dear brother, we've talked about this. Can't help but notice that you don't have any ... how do I say this ... social life."
"We went out just last night!" Jamie protested, even though he could already tell how weak his argument was.
"We only did because I dragged you out. That doesn't count!" Tyrion said and got off the chair, "I mean if you are this troubled by going out to meet girls after ..." At this, Jamie's eyes were shooting daggers and Tyrion thought it wisest not to continue that thought.
"All I'm saying is if it's this tedious, why don't you give the internet a go? There's plenty of sites you could use..."
"Yeah sure," Jamie laughed, "the infamous Golden Lion, the oldest male Lannister heir, openly enrolled in a dating profile or app. I can already tell father would not approve any of the scandalous articles that would surely follow such a revelation. I can already see the headlines: Jamie Lannister - is he this desperate? Or: Jamie Lannister, the beautiful lion, hopes to find his lioness online."
"I would buy that," Tyrion laughed, "but seriously, some of those don't even require a picture if you don't want to put one up. Besides, it doesn't have to be about anything more than an interesting talk with a stranger. That's more social interaction than you get most days, dear brother. Of course, you could always come to one of the night clubs with me, you know? How about next week?"
"I'll think about it," Jamie answered and Tyrion didn't really know which of the two things he had mentioned Jamie had just affirmed but it didn't matter too much. The fact that Jamie took his personal laptop back home gave him an idea which of the two Jamie was thinking about on their way home.
Roughly two hours after Tyrion and Jamie had arrived back at Casterly Rock, Jamie was showered and just dressed in a pair of boxers and a plain white shirt as he flipped his personal laptop open and sat back against the headboard of his bed.
Tyrion's remark would not leave him alone.
He didn't have to know he would give his idea a go, did he?
Name: Golden_Phoenix
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Eyes: Blue-Green
Location: King's Landing
Hobbies: Shakespeare / Skiing / Exercise
Tell us something about yourself: I prefer the glass half-full.
Night Two - The Not-So-Good-Fellow (1)
"Stop fidgeting!" Margaery admonished her friend as their cab approached the nightclub 'Chez Shae' the following Saturday night.
"It's too short," Brienne exhaled and looked down at her thighs that were barely covered by the dark-purple mini dress that she was wearing.
"It's not too short," Margaery answered, "besides, you've got fantastic legs. It's time you showed them!"
Brienne's answer consisted of unintelligible murmur as she went back to staring out of the window. Sansa turned around from the passenger seat at the front to shoot Margaery a worried glance. They had feared that Brienne might feel uncomfortable in the dress they had gotten for her, despite her looking downright fabulous in it. The dark purple complimented Brienne's creamy white complexion and the small golden belt highlighted her slim waist. The side parting of her hair and the meticulously curled hair (courtesy of Sansa Stark, thank you very much!) combined with the discreet makeup (plus the wicked purple eyeshadow, thanks to Sansa Stark, too, thank you very much!) she looked like a warrior goddess, ready to hunt. When Margaery had told her exactly that, Brienne had started to laugh.
"Who am I hunting, exactly?" Brienne continued to giggle while turning slightly to get a better look at herself in the mirror.
"Men!" Sansa squealed, "I mean, come on, look at you, will you? You're drop-dead gorgeous!"
"Ah come on," Brienne said, turning away from the mirror and gesturing toward her friends, "that's you. I'm just ... just Brienne."
"Ok, just Brienne, come on, let's hunt!" Margaery exclaimed and they were out of the door. Now, about ten minutes later, their cab came to a stop in front of 'Chez Shae' and Brienne would be making a decision: Going home, taking the makeup off, slipping into comfortable clothes and watching a movie and eating ice cream, or to go into the club with her two friends. One of the two would mean she'd lose a bet. The other would mean being unable to prevent people from looking at her; something she normally meticulously avoided by constantly looking toward the ground or wearing boring office clothes that no one bothered to look at twice. One thing was for certain; in the dark purple mini dress she was wearing and given the fact that she towered over her two rather petite friends, there was no way people would not be looking ... at this freakshow.
"Who do you not know?" Brienne asked Margaery incredulously, as they slipped past the roped waiting area at the entrance by a barely visible nod of the bouncer.
"Well," Margaery started out but Brienne dismissed the answer with a hand gesture that could be seen as a mixture between dismissive and insulting. She was willing to get this over with as soon as possible and now they had overcome the first hurdle: Getting into the club.
"I'm gonna get myself a drink," Brienne said as they entered the floor and the music echoed in her ears, threatening to deafen her with every beat from the bass.
"Alright, we have a table on the podium to the right, meet us there?" Sansa said and winked.
"Sure," Brienne said, "sure..." A roped-off podium table? Sometimes she wondered what secrets her friends were not telling her. She slowly made her way toward the bar area closest to the entrance of the club, turning some heads as she walked. Conscious about the shortness of her dress, Brienne tried to tug it down a little bit further but gave up rather quickly. 'They gotta just deal,' she thought and as she approached the bar she raised her hand, meaning to ask for, rather yell for a drink when ...
Thud.
"I know I am not as tall as most of the people in this room, but I'd still appreciate not being stepped on."