Touching base with Mosche

When intermission started the bar area flooded as people from the stage area came to order drinks if they hadn’t been able to flag down a waitress and to stretch their legs or hop outside for a smoke break. With only ten minutes to accomplish those things, the area became crowded quickly.

That didn’t stop you or Mosche from being able to spot each other though, and he broke into a smile as he made his way out of the stage area.

“Hey you guys,” he said as he squeezed through the crowd, his hand clamped on Iris’s as she followed him looking just a little lost. When she saw who he was talking to she brightened a little at recognizing someone, but there was also that lingering awkwardness from breakfast earlier in the week. “I didn’t think you would come tonight. Thank you!”

“Hey, Mosche,” Gemma said a little coolly.

“Hi, Mosche,” Sabrina said, projecting a little more warmth even if she wasn’t quite comfortable with him. “Hi, Iris.”

“Hi,” the younger Korean woman said. She was dressed up in a cute summer dress and had a big black X marked on the back of her hand. Being only 19, you assumed that Mosche had helped her get into the comedy club and the X was marking her as not being able to drink.

“How did you like Mosche’s set?” you asked her.

“Um, it was fun,” Iris said, biting the corner of her lip a little.

“That’s exactly what I was going for!” Mosche grinned. “‘Fun’ is like, a really good spot to be in. There are so many other comics here that want to be edgy, I thought ‘fun’ would be a nice change of pace.”

You felt bad. Iris was obviously trying not to upset him by speaking her mind, and Mosche was obviously oblivious to that fact.

“So…” Sabrina said, trying to find something else to talk about. “Is that weirdo lesbian comic here tonight? I’m not looking to get into a fistfight.”

“Julie?” Mosche asked. “Um, I’m not sure. I wanted to sit with Iris so I haven’t really seen the other comics tonight unless they’ve been up on stage.”

Again, you felt bad because you had a feeling that wasn’t the only reason Mosche was avoiding his fellow comics. Tasha had torn him a new one publicly one week ago, maybe a little unfairly by making it so public. He had to be worried about the jokes that were being made at his expense.

“I need to go to the washroom,” Gemma suddenly said and looked at Sabrina. “Come with?”

“Sure,” Sabrina said, then hesitated but turned to Iris and raised her eyebrows in a silent offer.

“I’ll come too,” Iris said, shooting Mosche a little smile before letting go of his hand and the three of them started weaving their way through the crowd.

“Um,” Mosche said. “They aren’t going to, like… Are they still mad at me?”

“Disappointed. Frustrated. Grossed out a little,” you said. “I don’t think they’ll be vindictive, Mosche, and try to turn Iris against you or anything. But they are definitely on Team Tasha after everything that happened, and after finding out how much you hid about the situation to begin with.”

Mosche grimaced, looking down like a little kid who had just discovered what it meant to feel guilty. “Yeah, I kinda fucked up.”

“You kinda fucked up big time,” you clarified.

“Are you on her side, too?” Mosche asked.

That one made you groan inside your head and let out a breath. “Mosche, I’m your roommate and your buddy,” you said. “I’m not going to hold it over your head or anything, or try to keep reminding you of what happened to punish you. But you really, really fucked up, so when it comes to everything that happened I’m on Team Tasha. The girls and I are still friends with her, and I’m not going to try and get you two in the same place or anything, but that’s just the reality of the situation. She doesn’t deserve to lose friends because of what you made happen.”

His guilt turned a little to petulance for a moment, but he took in a breath and seemed to exhale it out. “OK,” he said. “That’s fair I guess.”

“Now I’ve got a question for you,” you said. “What were you thinking doing crowd work when you were trying to impress your new girlfriend?”

“I thought it went pretty well,” Mosche said.

“It flopped, my dude,” you said. “You know your bits are better than your improv.”

“Well, I’ve been practising and I thought I’d gotten better,” Mosche said. “It wasn’t, like, that bad.”

“It wasn’t that great either,” you pointed out.

It took another ten minutes, and the open mic show had started up again, for the girls to come back, complaining about the line for the washroom. Iris grabbed Mosche’s hand, saying she wanted to head back to their table, and he followed her with a thankful look over his shoulder at you.

“Took it easy on him, huh?” Sabrina asked as you offered her a hand to hop back up on her stool.

“Not really,” you said. “He straight up asked whether you guys were still pissed and I told him you weren’t pissed, but you were a lot of other negative things. And that we were all on Team Tasha when it came to what went down.”

“So what was that look then?” Gemma asked.

“That was him being thankful that I can be normal with him despite that,” you said and snorted softly at the look they both gave you. “I compartmentalised.”

“Maybe you should be a criminal defence lawyer,” Gemma said. “That’s a good skill to have when you know the person did something fucking awful, but you still need to give them a proper legal defence.”

“Maybe,” you sighed. You hadn’t really thought about your eventual legal speciality based on your personality, you’d always thought about it in terms of what might interest you.

The second comic was already up on stage, and Tasha came out from the back area over to you all at the bar. “I’m up next,” she said as she joined you.

“Break a leg, gorgeous,” Sabrina said, shooting her a smile.

“Your hair looks fantastic, your tits look incredible and you’re the funniest person here,” Gemma encouraged.

Tasha flipped her hair with her fingers as she grinned and blushed just a little. “Well, thank you,” she said. Then she turned to you. “Kiss for luck?”

You leaned in and planted one on her - short and sweet, no tongue so that if anyone was watching you there wouldn’t be more rumours about her. “Smash it, sexy,” you said quietly as you pulled away from her lips.

“That’s all I needed to hear,” she grinned and then headed into the dark of the stage area to wait for her introduction.

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