In the corner

I find myself a spot in the corner of the bar, sitting down at the table. It takes a few minutes, but eventually Emma hurries over with a flushed face and a stray hair on her cheek. Aww, she doesn’t need to be embarrassed that I arrived while she’s on break.

“Surprise!” I grin.

“Y-yeah, what a surprise…” Emma awkwardly replies.

“How was your break?” I ask.

“Oh, it was…” Emma gets lost in thought for a moment, a smile crossing her face. “…hot.”

“Hot?” I blink.

“O-oh yeah, the air conditioning is being funky in the break room.” Emma quickly replies. “S-so it gets really hot in there at the moment.”

Man, a lot of electronics get funky around Asher, huh? Is he the type that always accidentally breaks them?

“I hope they fix that soon then.” I nod.

“W-well, I think it’s fine…” Emma replies. “…kind of nice, actually. Anyways, what would you like?”

“Same thing as last time, please.” I smile.

“Alright.” Emma nods, but before she leaves I grab her hand.

“Wait.” I say. “You have a stray hair on your cheek.”

“I-I do?!” She practically shrieks, wiping away the hair. Didn’t realize stray hairs bothered her so much. “T-thanks babe…” She whispers, quickly scurrying off to the bar.

I watch as she goes behind the bar, approaching Asher. I hear a faint smacking sound in the distance, Emma jumping up in surprise from the sound.

I quickly look around to see if there’s a fight going on, but it doesn’t seem like it. Maybe the sound came from one of the hanging televisions then.

Doesn’t take too long until Emma returns with the same drink as last time, placing it down in front of me.

“You don’t have to wait for me to finish my shift.” Emma states. “I think I’ll be doing some overtime.”

“Really?” I ask. “You sure?”

“Yeah.” She nods. “Asher needs some help with…cleaning up tonight.”

“Alright. Well, just text me if you change your mind.” I tell her.

“Okay.” She gives me a quick smile before continuing to do her job.

Guess I’ll walk home alone then.

I finish my drink, pay for it, and then start heading back alone. I get back to the apartment and decide to just watch some television. It’s been about two hours when my phone buzzes from a text.