The Stargazer (Shane/Harvey X Reader)

Another Round

Spring.

Voices muddled together loudly over top of music in the Saloon. Slight cold breezes welcomed themselves into the evening when you had begun walking to town for dinner. A final gust sent a twinge down your spine as the door heavily weighed itself shut. Nobody noticed your arrival as the sound of the door was drowned out through the rush of excited voices.

You approached the bar and sat up on a free stool on the corner nearest to the fireplace. This time it was lit and flickered a glow across the faces of drinkers and diners near to it. The crackling warmth dressed you lightly, recovering your bare spots of skin from the early spring evening chill.

Emily turned from the back wall of alcohol and lit up as her eyes caught yours. Drying the inside of a massive beer mug she quickly skipped in a hop towards your seat at the bar.

"I'm so happy to see you, I figured you'd be back for dinner sometime!" The towel squeaked inside the mug, indicating it was dry.

"You've read my mind, what's Gus got on special today?" You implored.

"Just some leftovers of the same soup, not a lot of people came in for dinner last night. I told him not to make such a big pot so early in the week but knowing him..." she leaned on one hip and rolled her eyes.

You laughed and began to understand as you learned more and more about his cooking habits. Gus seemed to truly be a man of the craft, his life revolved around it.

"I'll just get some pepper poppers... and do you do pizza by the slice?"

"On a busy night like tonight, yes... though not usually." She scribbled a quick note on her pad and ripped it off.

"Make it two then, whatever kind you've got, I'm not picky."

Emily ran off to relay your order to Gus, leaving you once again alone. This was when you noticed you didn't have a drink, now too late and would have to wait for Emily to return.

Hurried steps heavily strode behind you, making the floor creak loudly in response. A zipper loudly pulled with force as a voice grumbled deeply. You turned your head and followed the source of the sound, a man walking to the corner between the bar and fireplace. He emptied the contents of the pockets on his blue sweatshirt onto the countertop and slumped against the wall. His face looked annoyed and impatient.

Emily found her way back to you, remembering she hadn't taken your drink order. You asked for two beers and she clunked them down onto the bar top in front of you. Already you had planned to drink more than that, but two was a fine place to start. You watched her as she turned to the man in the corner, she stopped momentarily in her path. The man's eyes stared down at her egging her on to approach him, breaking her hesitation. Emily seemed annoyed as she half listened to his drink order. Before he had even finished she grabbed a fistful of beer necks and dumped them in front of him rudely. In the same attitude he dropped money in front of her for the beers.

Keeping a positive mind you'd assumed he maybe had a bad day at work, or he and Emily had a prior personal disagreement. Unnoticed, you caught yourself staring as he hit off a cap on the edge on the bar and drank greedily, his eyes falling into yours after he sipped. Embarrassed you quickly redirected your eyes down in front of you, toying with the bottle cap from your own drink.

Your food was presented in front of you, the pizza slightly less than fresh, it was probably made an hour or so ago... but it was by the slice, so you had no room to complain. Steam rose from the basket of pepper poppers, clearly fresh from the fryer. Golden crust coated them the same as the green beans you had for lunch the day before. Without mind to the heat you cracked through the crunchy exterior, ripping the pepper in half to blow cooly on the interior. The smell was more intoxicating than the beer you had been drinking.