graham. (montabrew) wrote in reduxpitch, @ 2016-03-11 17:51:00 |
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It had been a long day, which wasn't saying much because most of Graham's days were long. He'd gotten in early that morning, given himself a reprieve in the early afternoon to go home and take a nap, but back at work after he'd felt just as exhausted as he'd been when he'd left. It wasn't anything unusual, just the mixture of physical labor and having to use his brain more than he might like, going over the monthly figures and paperwork that tended to overtake his desk because he liked to put it off. He couldn't ignore it forever, and that was what had taken up more of his afternoon than anything else. Tossing his quill down onto the stack of papers, he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his hands over his face. Part of him wanted to call it a day and go home, but the rest knew there would be just as much to do the next day, if not more. Rather than go home, getting a drink to help him along seemed like a better option, so he shoved back from his desk to get up and wander out of his office to do just that. -- Higgs wasn’t in a great habit of just showing up to places, certainly not without a notice, but he had been in Hogsmeade dropping off some things for work, so popping into Graham’s brewery seemed like an okay thing to do. If Graham wasn’t in then he wasn’t in, Higgs would just go home, since this had been the last thing on his to-do list for work. Except Graham was in, because he exited from his office at the same time Higgs entered. “I come for the promised great beer,” Higgs informed his friend with a grin. He hadn’t actually come for the beer, not really. The beer was certainly a bonus, but he had thought that it had been a shamefully long time since he had last seen his former housemate. “And I suppose perhaps to check in on you, too,” he added. “But I shan’t officially admit that,” Higgs said more teasingly, because actually, he had no issue with admitting that he quite liked checking in with his friends. At least he was pretty sure he never attempted to mother Graham the way he did with some of his other friends. -- Graham paused in the doorway of his office when he first caught movement out of the corner of his eye, but once he saw who it was coming in, he gave his friend an easy smile. He wasn't always a fan of unexpected drop ins, but when it was someone he liked they were almost always welcome. Higgs was definitely on that list. "Beer I can do," he replied with a grin, continuing his way fully out of the office and going over toward his friend, giving his shoulder a playful push at the second part of what he said as he went past. "And don't worry, I won't tell anyone you came to check in on me." He motioned for Higgs to follow him as he walked over to where they could get some pints poured, pulling two glasses down from a shelf and setting them on the counter. "What great beer do you want?" - “Something light?” Higgs asked. He hadn’t really come here with the aim to get drunk, hardly, but suspected that entering a brewery was a rather slippery slope to drunkenness. A few beers wouldn’t get him there, but he was careful not to drink anything terribly strong. Higgs hadn’t really drunk extensively since he entered the army, and doubted that now was a good time to start. Still, sticking to low percentage beers would suit him just fine. “How have you been? Is the brewery going well?” He asked curiously, glancing around to see what had changed since his last visit. Higgs wasn’t even too sure when his last visit had been so chances of things having changed around were pretty great. “Name any beers after the Falcons yet?” He asked teasingly, sure that Marcus would have greatly enjoyed that. As would Gemma, really. -- "Something light," Graham repeated, humming to himself as he picked up one of the glasses and turned to the taps behind him, finding the one for his pilsner and filling the glass for Higgs before grabbing his own and doing the same. He set both glasses on the counter and absently looked around the brewery when he was asked about it. "It's been going really well, actually. Expanded out to a few new pubs last month so I've had to up production to keep everyone happily in stock. Cheers." He picked up his beer and clinked it against Higgs' before taking a drink, shrugging a shoulder and offering him a grin. "I'll gladly name a beer after the Falcons, but I'd prefer to if they agreed to carry it at their stadium. Might have to work on that with a few teams, actually. How have you been? Keeping all those girlfriends happy?" - “Cheers,” Higgs repeated as their pints met, before taking a sip of his. “It’s good,” he said honestly. Not with surprise, because it was hardly as if he had expected the beer to not be good, but as a compliment. It was good to hear that the business was going well. Higgs didn’t really have the mind for business, but he could appreciate that it wasn’t easy to start something from the ground up like Graham had, to establish himself in a market that was probably reasonably competitive. “Do you only supply to magic establishments?” Higgs asked curiously. He didn’t know much about brewing beer, but struggled to think of how magic and Muggle brewing processes might vary for the end result. It still tasted like beer. “Well, you’ve got an easy in with the Falcons’ captain,” Higgs commented with a grin. Working through the players was probably not the most efficient approach to having stadiums carry Graham’s produce, but it had to be easier than nothing at all. At the question, Higgs gave a hearty laugh. “Oh, you know, it’s hard work being this popular,” he joked. “I think one of them’s dating someone else and another wasn’t very impressed with not even having her name listed,” Higgs commented even though he knew for a fact that at no point had Ashleigh desired her name to be listed and that Lydia wasn’t maybe dating someone else. “Good thing I married at least one of them,” he added. “But I can probably teach you the ways, if you’d like,” Higgs teased before taking another sip of his beer. -- “Thanks,” Graham replied to the compliment, taking it for what it was and not as Higgs not having expected it to be good. Other people he might have raised an eyebrow, but not him. He paused mid-drink at the question, shrugging a shoulder as he swallowed and set his glass down. “Yeah, just magic establishments. I don’t really know anything about… muggle places? I’m sure it’s a lot the same as magic, but it would be more complicated to go about. Something to think about for the future, maybe.” He huffed out a soft laugh, raking his hand back through his hair to push it away from his face. “Fair enough, assuming Marcus wouldn’t feel used. That would be great to have happen, actually. Business has been going well, but the Quidditch market… would really open a lot of doors.” Graham couldn’t help but grin at Higgs’ comments about his girlfriends, because the Prophet really did have a way of making mountains out of molehills. “I think I’ll pass, but I appreciate the offer. How’s that going, by the way? The whole married thing?” - “The market’s a lot bigger with Muggles, right?” Higgs offered with a shrug. He might not have known a great deal about business but Higgs had spent ten years living as an almost Muggle. Not quite and obviously a lot of that had been abroad, which didn’t make him greatly knowledgeable about Muggle pubs either, but he did suspect that there might be a reasonable level of both competition but perhaps also success. Higgs didn’t think Marcus would feel used but perhaps it depended on how Graham phrased it. Then again, Marcus was hardly a child, he could easily refuse if he wished to. “Could ask Wood, too,” Higgs said thoughtfully. “That man is far too eager to please,” he added honestly. Not that Higgs was suggestion Graham abused the fact that Oliver Wood was a ridiculous human being who tried very hard to please people, but he kind of was. Higgs liked Wood but mostly he did find the other man to just be a bit too Gryffindor. It did not come easily for Slytherins not to abuse such pathetic defense mechanisms. At the question about his marriage, Higgs shrugged slightly. “It’s fine?” He offered. “Complicated but fine,” he added, feeling somewhat unfair to both Alicia and their marriage to describe it as ‘fine’, even though it kind of was. Better than fine, really, but with plenty of problems to still bring it back down to a less... exciting level. Even, though, Higgs did find it plenty of exciting. “We’re taking it slow, make sure we don’t repeat the mistakes made last time around,” he explained. -- “Yeah, it would be bigger with muggles,” Graham mused, running his thumb over the condensation on his glass. If things got much bigger he was going to have to hire someone to help out. He liked being able to do everything himself, both for ease as well as not having to spend money on an employee, but he was aware it couldn’t always be that way if he wanted to be successful. “I’ll have to talk to Wood, too. Just start making a list of all the people I played against in school and start there.” He took a long sip as he listened to Higgs talk about his marriage. Complicated he understood well, not in that type of relationship but others. Complicated but fine, that was different. “That sounds like a good plan. You’re already married, might as well take the time to slow it down and get to know each other again.” He offered his friend a smile. “I’m sure it’ll all work out for the best. Second time’s the charm?” - “Something to keep in mind, I guess,” Higgs shrugged. He really wasn’t knowledgeable enough to just ask about the Muggle pub market, hell he wasn’t really knowledgeable enough to ask about the magic pub market. Still, it was an idea. “Well, there’s obviously Marcus, and Gemma, and Wood, I can talk to them on your behalf, if you’d like?” Higgs offered in reference to who they might have played against in school that currently played professionally. “Asher Spinnet,” he added as an afterthought. Higgs wasn’t actually too sure what Alicia’s brother’s current opinion of him was, but it hardly meant that Higgs couldn’t ask. Higgs did grin when Graham said that second time perhaps would do the charm. “Lets hope so,” Higgs replied honestly. “How’s your love life going? Need those lessons I offered?” He asked with a small laugh, clearly joking. Higgs was neither under the impression that he could or was in the position to teach anyone how to pick someone up. Even if he was still very proud of the Prophet ascribing four different girlfriends to him. -- Graham tilted his head in consideration before offering a shrug. "If you think it might work better coming from you, then go for it," he said, pausing to take a drink. "Otherwise I have no problem talking to them about it. You're closer, so even if it's just bouncing the idea off or finding who I should be talking to, that would be helpful. Asher might be all on you, either way. Unless it would cause problems with the missus and all." He huffed out a laugh at his questions, rolling his eyes. "I think I'll pass on the lessons. Your particular brand of love life sounds exhausting." Leaning against the counter, he gave a half-hearted shrug. "I don't know. There's a girl I like, and I think it's fair to say she likes me too. I've never really done anything much more than something casual, so who knows." - “It can’t hurt, right?” Higgs commented. It wasn’t that he thought he was in a better position to ask, more that he perhaps saw Marcus more often. Was friends with Wood. Sort of. For as much as anyone was friends with Oliver Wood, really. (Higgs still sometimes viewed it as a hostage situation wherein he was the hostage.) “And I can ask Asher,” he added. Higgs doubted Alicia would care one way or another, not on that particular point. Higgs still took far too much pleasure in reminding all of the Spinnet siblings that he had slept with two out of three. He couldn’t even say which one of the three was the funniest to say it to. Higgs snorted at Graham saying that Higgs’ brand of love life sounded exhausting. Yes, he supposed, if he was actually attempting to juggle four girlfriends at once, that might get a bit tiring. One was plenty of work at times, really. “I doubt that not having had anything more than casual matters if you like someone?” Higgs said with a small shrug. “Worth a shot, at least, right?” He offered. He was hardly a good person to ask about that sort of thing, since his only proper relationship had ended in marriage. Higgs had, of course, had plenty of casual before and after Alicia, but, well, she had also kind of taken all of his heart and Higgs neither wanted to or expected to get it back. -- "Yeah, it can't hurt," Graham repeated, and it was true. If he got in with some Quidditch teams, he would have a great thing going and might surpass even the stretch goals he'd set for himself. The goal was, of course, to pay off his parents sooner than expected. But the sooner the better, and if it could be quite a bit sooner, he would be ecstatic. A contract with even a couple of teams in the league could help him out a lot. "I think it is," he agreed. "Worth a shot, I mean. She nice, and pretty, and seems to like kissing me," he added with a grin. Plus he liked how cute Astoria was when she blushed, which was shockingly easy to get her to do, and it usually happened unintentionally. "So yeah, I guess I'm gonna see where that goes." - Higgs grinned into his pint when Graham said that she liked kissing him. “I find that helps, yes,” Higgs told him somewhat teasingly. “Good luck,” he added, raising his glass in a small toast to Graham before taking another sip. There wasn’t much else he could say, really. Higgs, unlike some of their friends, didn’t find admitting to like someone particularly hard, nor did he was under the impression that dating was not something men did. If anything, Higgs quite enjoyed dating and it made no difference that his dating was being done with his wife. Finishing his beer contently, Higgs looked at the empty glass. “I could probably try something different, if you need critical commentary on your beer choices,” he informed Graham with a smile. The beer he had had was very nice and Higgs wouldn’t object to another one, but it was a brewery, so it felt like a shame to only try one type of beer. -- Graham huffed out a laugh and drained the rest of his beer, setting his empty glass by Higgs' and grinning. "I think I could probably find something different for you." There were many options available, after all, so he grabbed two clean glasses and turned to find the next beer for them to have - though perhaps not the last. They had more catching up to do, and doing so over drinks at the end of a long day seemed like the best way about it. |