Re: AT THE BAR (soon to be ON STAGE SINGING MY DRUNK LITTLE HEART OUT)
Julian had worked long enough in the business, both behind and in front of the bar, to know a drunk when he saw one. Even if Ariana was only hedging on the label, he could still scent the inevitable, and wondered for a moment if she'd come only to drown long harbored sorrows, which, not for the first time, surprised him.
It really didn't make much sense for her to be here, after all, not in the one place that would certainly cause her more pain than she'd already had inflicted on her. And there it was again, that damnable guilt that just had to raise its head during these sorts of trains of thought. He hid the grimace evolving on his face with another sip of his electric blue drink, the glass held so carefully between skeletal fingers, before even attempting to respond to her observation.
"If it wasn't you, dollface, I'm sure it would have been someone else. Money's money, and then it's just printed paper unless you know what to do with it," were the smoothly delivered words uttered by his mouth. It was a cruel blow - even he was quite aware of the help she'd been in cultivating the business, and Julian was more than willing to give her the due she was owed. Just, not out loud, and certainly not in the form of a partnership in owning the club. He'd raised this place (metaphorically speaking, of course) from the ground up, fed it with his life's blood.
Certainly Ariana had been a huge boon in having the funds to throw around, and had probably helped to speed up the growth of the club exponentially throughout the years; but Julian was also quite sure that, had she not been there, he would have been perfectly capable of finding another sponsor or seven. But what had been said couldn't be taken back, and almost instantaneously he wished he could, uncertain of the effect his callousness would have on her currently inebriated status.
Apologizing was not something entirely outside of his spectrum of experience, but it wasn't something he would do, especially amidst a huge of a crowd as this. He could always try to ask Ariana to follow him into his office, where they could just have it out and then treat each other respectably as grown adults were expected to, but his knowledge of both people and her caused him to slow any approach on that front - it would have been too easy for her to start some kind of a scene, whether it was knowingly or drunkenly.
For some reason, in the back of his mind, he didn't want to cause her further embarrassment, not when things were getting so sticky between them. Rather, had been so for such a long time. From behind his painted mask of black, white, and blue, Julian watched her expression carefully, trying to gauge her reaction before things got out of hand. It was something he was good at, anyway.