The Closer (18+) ✓

| 9.1 | the silver jubilee

❝I always thought it was sad
The way we act like strangers
After all that we had
We act like we had never met.❞

Chapter Nine:
The Silver Jubilee

The bar was buzzing unlike ever before as I stepped in through the glass doors. I was able to tell that this was one of the busier nights, considering the number of times I had frequented this place with the others. It was the unofficial socializing joint for all of Innovus, and as I sifted my way through the crowd, I found myself saying polite hellos to a lot more people than normal. Busy night indeed.

"Tris!" I turned in the direction of my name being called and found Rina and Tracie on the other end of the bar, waving me over. They were seated in a large cushioned area with the rest of our colleagues, several glasses of alcohol cocktails lining the teakwood table in front of them.

"I see y'all started the party without me," I mused, smiling down at Rina who leaned sideways against James. She was already tipsy, by the looks of it.

"The alcohol never waits, darling Tris," she hiccuped, before taking another sip out of her glass. I snorted and slid down on the couch next to James who shot me an awkward hello, having to bare the weight of a nearly unconscious Rina on him. I made a mental note to train the girl how to hold her liquor as I shared niceties with everyone else around the rectangular table. My voice nearly caught in my throat when I stopped on the brown curly mane and soft caramel skin belonging to the one and only Jasper Smith. I was least expecting him to be part of the drinking gang.

"Jasper?" I closed my gawking mouth and laughed, a little in nervousness. "What are you doing here?"

"What, I can't join you all for a drink?" he teased, cocking his head at me in slight curiosity.

"N-no, it's not that." I flushed, looking away from Jasper as I searched the crowd of the bar. If Jasper was here, that had to mean he would be here too...

Eagerness mixed in with hope overtook my initial anxiety at the thought of seeing Hans. It had been three months since he had effectively put an end to us. Three months since Hans and I had spoken. Three months since he had touched me.

He had made himself rare after that night, even around the office. At first, I thought it was out of consideration to let me do my job without the thought of what had happened between us affecting my work. But then I realized, it wasn't out of his generosity of spirit or kindness. He was tactfully avoiding me. Well, not tonight.

I turned to Jasper who was observing me all the while with a quiet smile on his lips. "Is Hans with you..." The question died away on my lips as my eyes fixed on the sexual magnet weaving his way through the dance floor with a drink in his hand. A flicker of irritation sprung up when I realized the number of women mentally stripping him, or the way one blonde, in particular, tried wrapping herself around him to convince him to dance. The fact that Hans coldly rejected her, and didn't pay heed to anyone else, brought a smile to my lips, one that quickly died when our eyes met.

I felt the world mute itself around us. The thrumming of the music, the clinking of glasses and people's laughter as shots were taken died out to the stillness of the air between Hans and I. He froze in his step, eyes spreading in shock ever so slightly before taking up the stoic mask he always had on. I noticed the way his lips pressed into a thin line of anger as he continued forward, breaking the moment all too quick as he made it a point to look away from me as he slid into the opposite seat from mine, next to Jasper.