The next night found Ezra in the bar again. Sitting up front was sober fighting Chris, still looking at a glass. Ezra shook his head and ordered himself a beer before looking around. He did catch Chris's eye once and the blond gave him a nod and pushed away his glass before walking out. The victory shown on that man's face was barely visible but Ezra caught it. That and the gratitude. At the pool table were two men talking loudly. One of them was about seven years at least younger than the other man.
Figuring he could try to play a game with them, he walked on over and got their attention.
"Would either of you be interested in a game?" he smiled.
The younger gave a bright smile, "Yeah, sure! Grab a stick."
Ezra did and the other man collected all the balls and put them in the triangle. The younger man broke first.
"Names JD, that's Buck." The younger man said, jabbing a thumb at the man with a mustache.
"Ezra." Ezra nodded to both men after taking his turn.
"So," JD took his turn, knocking in one of his solids, "I haven't seen you here before yesterday."
"Thought I might try out a new locale." Ezra said, one of the corners of his mouth lifting to smile.
"Well it's nice to get new faces in here." Buck smiled as he drank his beer. He turned back to the bar where the female bartender was working on someone's order.
JD rolled his eyes, "Would you forget it. She is just going to ignore you."
"I'm always up for a little challenge."
"Are you attempting to make a conquest with the lovely bartender over there?" Ezra rose an interested eyebrow.
JD huffed and knocked in another solid but the white ball went in too, ending his turn. "Don't encourage him. He's been saying the same thing, and she keeps on ignoring him. She might as well be deaf and Buck invisible."
"That's because you wouldn't understand love if it came at you with flashing neon signs." Buck snorted.
"Well it's the same for you and jokes. You have no sense of humor." JD snapped.
Ezra knocked down two of his stripes and drank some of his beer. He watched as the two bickered.
"JD, you couldn't tell a good joke if you tried telling it to a pack of hyenas. Hell, they wouldn't laugh at your jokes either, and they laugh all the time!"
The two glared at each other for a while and then JD turned to Ezra.
"Alright Ezra, you can be the judge."
"Oh this is going to be good." Buck said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"So a three-legged dog walked into the bar and he asked the bartender, 'I'm looking for the man who shot my paw.'" JD chuckled and waited for Ezra to get it.
Ezra wanted to groan out loud, but restrained the feeling and drank some of his beer before looking at JD, "I'm sorry, but that has got to be the worse joke I've heard."
"Maybe you don't get it. He's got three legs and—"
"No, I got it. I just don't find it all that amusing. Perhaps if I were a little more intoxicated."
"You guys have no sense of humor whatsoever." JD shook his head.
Ezra chuckled they finished up the rest of the game with Ezra sinking the eight ball. He said his goodbyes to them and watched from the door as Buck tried to talk to the female bartender. The woman did ignore Buck, but the man continued to try. Ezra just shook his head.
The man was persistent. He had to give him that.