ONE CLICK AWAY

Previously:

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."

Night Two - The Not-So-Good-Fellow (2)

"I am terribly sorry!" Brienne blurted out, "I didn't see you there!"

"Can't say that this hasn't happened before," Tyrion joked and looked up to the blonde woman, "I am rather short, you know?"

Certainly glad about the fact that her counterpart was joking about the incident, Brienne exhaled sharply. She hadn't realized how tense the encounter had made her. Talking to people she didn't know she would be talking to was one of the biggest challenges of her day to day life and she could feel the tension rising up inside her. Also, she was flustered and embarrassed at the fact that she had paid so little attention that she hadn't seen the dwarf at all.

"I am really terribly sorry," Brienne repeated, "Mr..."

"Lannister, Tyrion Lannister, thank you, I do accept your apology, Miss ...?"

"Tarth. My name is Tarth, Uhm, Brienne Tarth."

"May I call you Brienne? We do kind of have a relationship now, since you've almost killed me with these long legs of yours," Tyrion quipped and his eyes sparkled with mischief. Brienne started fidgeting with the hem of her dress at his rather blunt remark and if she had to guess, she'd assume that her cheeks had turned into a lovely shade or pinkish-red.

"I wouldn't be sure about a relationship, Mr. Lannister, but I guess there's no harm in you calling me Brienne, is there?" Brienne answered, smiling at the absurdity of the encounter unfolding right in front of her eyes.

"Then I insist you call me Tyrion," the dwarf said, slowly climbing on one of the barstools, "and I also insist that your drink is on me!" With that, he waved at the bartender who approached with no hesitation.

"What can I get you?" Tyrion asked.

"Uhm, how about a strawberry margarita?" Brienne responded and Tyrion grinned.

"The fruity type, are we Brienne?" he teased. Brienne let his remark go and waited for their drinks to be made. As thankful as she was for a free drink, the situation had been pretty awkward and she was dying to get back to her friends. She received her drink, mumbled her thanks and quickly retreated from her new acquaintance, feeling Tyrion's intense stare on her as she went away.

"Hey, did you already order?"

"Oh I did, dear brother, I did," Tyrion grinned as Jamie appeared next to him, "but I can always order some more, can't I?"

"I'll take what you are having," Jamie said, confused at his brother's astonishingly good mood.

"Coming right up," the bartender said, having listened to their exchange and Tyrion turned around, facing his older brother.

"I've just met the most astounding creature," Tyrion said.

"At Chez Shae? That's hardly surprising," Jamie laughed.

"No, hardly. I do think we've seen her before, dear brother, and I am pretty sure you paid for a tab when we did."

At his brother's remark, Jamie's head jerked around, searching the club with his eyes. If his brother was referring to who he thought he was referring to, he was about to spot a 6,2 blonde woman with a strong muscular body and legs that went on for days. If he was lucky, she'd be dancing again, moving her extraordinary body in slightly arhythmic ways that were surprisingly adorable to him. In the sea of heads and with a lot of people dancing on the dancefloor, Jamie wasn't able to make her out in the crowd. 'She might have sat down', he thought, 'no wonder I don't see her.'

Tyrion, who had followed his brother's stares, grinned with satisfaction. He had been right: Jamie was interested in one of the women they had seen roughly a week ago in the newly opened hotel bar. For one, he was grateful Jamie was not interested in the cute redhead Tyrion had very much enjoyed looking at, and also he was genuinely happy that his brother was looking at any woman, really.

"She's really tall," Tyrion laughed, "she almost stepped on me."

"Well," Jamie grinned, turning back towards his brother, "that does not surprise me, dear brother, for you are quite ... petite."

For that, Tyrion playfully hit his arm.

"What did I do?" Jamie laughed.

"Speak the truth," Tyrion answered and took a sip from his drink, "now, dear brother, what's the plan here?"

"What do you mean?"

"The blonde," Tyrion explained, watching his brother's expression change as Jamie realized that Tyrion very well knew who he had been looking for mere moments ago.

"What about her?" Jamie asked, innocently.

"Are you going to go find her and spend some time with her and take her home and ..."

"Tyrion..."

"My inquiring mind needs to know!"

"Your mind is in the gutter and you don't have to know anything!"

"Of course I do, dear brother, but just in case you missed it, I will find out eventually if you did any of the things I just mentioned. We do live in the same building. I will even tell you where I keep my condoms if you ask nicely."

Jamie snorted and rolled his eyes at his brother, then helped the latter off the barstool and toward the small fenced off area to the side of the club that Tyrion had been able to reserve for the night, thanks to his connections to the nightclub's owner. Jamie was still looking for the tall blonde, even as they reached their destination.

"She can't be gone already," Tyrion said as they entered the roped area and sat down on the plush red sofa, "I just paid for her drink."

"That seems to become a tradition," Jamie joked, his eyes still raking over the bodies on the dancefloor.

Brienne sat down next to Sansa with an audible thud and exhaled sharply, placing the strawberry margarita onto a small glass table in front of them. Her body language must have screamed 'Save me' because Margaery immediately asked, whether she was alright.

"I am, thanks for asking," Brienne replied, "I just embarrassed myself, that's all."

"Why," Sansa asked, her eyes widening, "what happened?"

"I went to the bar to get a drink and I must have not paid any attention to where I was going because I ran into someone..."

"Uhhh, was he good looking?" Margaery inquired, sipping from her Martini.

"Uhm, I don't know, really, it was merely his height that was the problem. I didn't see him because he was very short. He did introduce himself, though..."

"Oh?" Sansa quipped.

"Yeah, said his name was Lannister," Brienne replied and watched in confusion as both of her friends stared back at her.

"Lannister, as in Lannister Corp., Lannister Inc., Lannister Law ... need I continue?" Sansa asked and Brienne blushed ferociously.

"Oh!"

"Oh, indeed. That must have been the younger of the brothers, Tyrion," Margaery said, "he's a sweet guy. Grandma Olenna is one of their clients, you know, in that very nasty divorce of hers. Its getting quite tedious, to say the least. But they are the best in their field and if anyone can tame a Tyrell, it's them..."

"That's good, though, right?" Brienne asked.

"Oh, it's very good. It helps that Jamie Lannister is very easy on the eyes, too," Margaery laughed, "he's a very handsome man, tall, beautiful golden hair, a defined chin and if he grows that little stubble he's especially irresistible."

Brienne could not help but wonder whether her friend had deeper and more intimate knowledge about Jamie Lannister but didn't dare to ask. It didn't matter anyway, did it?

"But if Tyrion is here," Sansa said, "does this mean Jamie is, too?"

"Don't think so," Margaery said, "he hasn't been seen out much, not since ... Cersei happened. The tabloids were full of that sad story, he would not have been able to be seen anywhere without a bunch of reporters and paparazzi following him. This has died down, thankfully, but yeah, I'd doubt that he's here."

"Cersei?" Brienne asked.

"Did you really not see any of this?" Sansa asked, "I think it even made the gossip programs on TV and I know you watch those!"

Brienne tried to hide her grin by drinking from her strawberry margarita. She had seen bits and pieces of the Lannister drama unfold but had figured it didn't matter that Jamie was back on the market. He'd end up with an actress or supermodel anyway, right?

"Anyway," Margaery said, "after that nasty breakup with his step-sister of all people, I can understand he'd want some privacy. It's not often that your adopted step-sister ends up to be your partner, does it."

"I guess not," Brienne replied.

"If we see them, we should say 'hi', though," Margaery grinned, her eyes sparkling, "you know, just to introduce you, Bri. I bet he'd find your legs very irresistible."

"Ha-ha!"

When Jamie finally found the woman he had been looking for in one of the other fenced off areas of the club, he was not surprised to find her in the company of the same two women she had been with the week before. One of them, a honey-brunette he recognized. It was Olenna Tyrell's granddaughter, Margaery. The other, a petite redhead, he didn't recognize. He watched intently as the three women interacted with each other, but his stare wandered down almost immediately to the blonde's creamy white thighs in that dark purple mini dress and her golden heels as if he were attracted by some invisible force. Seeing her a little more closely than the week before, Jamie realized just how light her blonde hair really was, just how long these legs were and just how tight the dress was hugging her body like a second skin. He swallowed. Hard.

Suddenly, the room felt smaller when he looked at her, everyone else disappeared. To him, it was just himself and the blonde women he now knew was called Brienne. He noticed her strong arms that she used to vividly accompany her words with gestures, the more excitement she wanted to transport, the more rapid her movements became. He saw the slight curve of her nose, most likely a remnant of it being broken at some point in time. He heard her loud and not very feminine laugh as Margaery whispered something in her ear.

He was mesmerized.

That didn't go unnoticed.

"You really wanna tell me you're not thinking about going over there and asking her out or something?" Tyrion asked, getting more and more incredulous the longer he had to endure his brother in this 'interesting' state he was in.

"I .." Jamie said, unsure how to proceed. It had been about eleven months since he broke up with Cersei, nine until it had become public and especially messy ever since word had gotten out that none of the children he had thought were his actually were. Instead, Cersei had managed to have children with three of her longer affairs each and to make matters worse, decided to marry one of them, Robert Baratheon.

"I'm really not in the mood to discuss this with you," Jamie finally said, trying to shut his brother off but to no avail. Tyrion wasn't fooled and to be frank, Jamie didn't want to fool his little brother. He enjoyed looking at Brienne, enjoyed watching her interact with her friends, enjoyed watching her dance (Jamie secretly hoped she'd go on the dancefloor rather sooner than later) and he was curious about what she'd be like if he indeed asked her out, got to know her a little better ...

Right as his thoughts drifted into murkier waters, Tyrion cleared his throat.

"We could always go over there, you know ... I am sure Margaery would love to introduce you."

"I'm sure she'd love that, but would I want a Tyrell to introduce us? That can barely qualify as a good omen, this family is a mixture between a hurricane and a train wreck..."

"I see," Tyrion replied, still watching Jamie intently who had gone back to staring at Brienne. The latter must have felt his glance upon here because her head suddenly jerked up and she was searching for whomever it was, that was staring. Then, she found him.

Blue met green.

Her eyes widened in surprise, his in shock.

"I gotta get out of here," Jamie said, loosening the buttons of his dress shirt and made a beeline for the exit before Tyrion was able to say anything. Brienne was watching Jamie's retreating figure, a mixture of surprise, anger and ... disappointment? Tyrion caught Margaery's worried glance; she had watched what had transpired and he simply shrugged his shoulders.

He genuinely didn't know what just happened. He just knew that his brother had acted like a complete fool and that Jamie had hurt Brienne by rapidly dashing out of the club. Tyrion knew it was not likely he'd get his brother to go out with him anytime soon. Sighing deepy, he got up, waved at Margaery, Sansa and Brienne and followed his older brother, hoping he'd still catch their town car.