𝕸𝖔𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖞 𝕭𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖘

chapter vii

natalia and tate, enjoying themselves off the satisfyingly frosty bottles of alcohol from his mini fridge, lost track of time as they proceeded to socialize on the lawn chairs of his patio. full of hearty laughs and flirty remarks, the hours of the night had passed on to 2 am.

"i feel like i'm forgetting something." she quietly mentioned in a mutter to herself, setting down her fourth beer. the glass clinked with a chime on the concrete as she placed it in the ground before readjusting herself in the warmed, white plastic seat.

"forgetting something? did you leave something at work?" he replied, trying to help. thinking she might have, she scrambled around to look through her purse and found her phone. a mess of messages filled up the vacancy of her lock screen and she read through them quickly, until she'd seen one.

blue: "he stood me up. i'm gonna go grab a drink."

the text was briefly sent at 11:21 pm, after she'd settled at tate's around 10:30. she must've misheard the ringer.

"crap," nat frowned. this was definitely not what she was hoping for. the worst case scenario she imagined.

natalia: "shit, i'm so sorry. where are you?"

the reply was delivered, sounding a swooping effect. tate, sitting silently in the chair next to hers, looked concerned.

"something wrong?" he asked as he chugged the remaining quarter of his beer.

"my roommate got stood up. i think she went out to drink, but she should've been home by now."

"do you think she's in trouble?"

"no, i don't think so. i think she's just upset." nat searched for her location, which pinpointed her to be at—

her workplace?

-

severely let down by her own high hopes, blue sulked in the driver's seat of her car with her forehead resting on the steering wheel. rarely, she'd found the confidence within herself to dress in the corset she'd planned on wearing ahead of time and arrived at the cafe he'd promised he'd meet her at for four gruesome hours without a single message from him, until she gave up hope. he wasn't coming. with heart wrenching feelings of embarrassment and disappointment, she decided on nat's work to drink herself away.

blue wasn't really too big on alcohol, but if she wanted to, she really could drink.

now sheepish about her revealing ensemble, the young woman clutched her purse aggressively, slammed the car door, and locked the camry as she stumbled into the bar. it was bustling, crowded, and sweaty, but the few working that night spotted her amongst them and were surprised as a whole, to see her without nat attached at her hip.
blue had already met all of her co-workers before from previous visits of dropping off lunches during nat's shifts, and dawson, who was particularly fond of her character, noticed her clumsy entrance first from behind the bar.

"alice?" he called out to her reluctantly.

she slid herself up on one of the stools at the counter sluggishly in front of him with a sorrowful expression. the other, already tipsy, sleazy men that were sitting at the bar a few seats away were staring intently at her, and dawson glared, trying to persuade them to stop.

"a rum and coke, please." she pleaded, unable to make eye contact with the blonde bartender.

"alice, are you okay?" dawson hesitantly fixed up her drink and served her her rum and coke with two small ice cubes that floated within it, clinking and clanking against the glass. blue gazed off into the drink, then up at dawson.