4:00PM: Noa and Marc
"Sorry," Marc said quickly as he stepped away from the woman he'd just bumped into. He was several years out of practice at getting drinks in a busy bar -- the last time he'd really had to deal with it had been in the early 2010s, before life with a kid had gotten really hectic -- but it was a nice thing to have to get used to again. City life was something he'd have to re-learn; he'd regained the capacity for polite, normal conversations and behaviors over the year and a half they'd spent in Johnson City, but this was something else.
When he spoke again, he made sure to add the Texan accent he was committed to putting on. "I'm new in town, and I guess I ain't used to things around here just yet."
“It’s fine, sweetheart,” Noa assured, holding up her unspilled Jack & Coke as proof. “It ain’t like there’s not a lot of people here tonight.” She’d had had a hard time wedging herself next to the bar for her drink, she wasn’t going to blame a stranger for having some difficulty too. Especially when it hadn’t cost her a drink.
"Thanks," Marc replied, beaming a wide, good-natured smile at her. He sidestepped closer to the bar, hoping to take advantage of the space the woman had vacated. This was a good opportunity to meet some new people, though, and learn more about the city. He continued to face her, that smile still on his face.
“How long you been in Austin?” she asked, more or less used to hearing that statement now that so many people had come in to try and revitalize the city.
"Just a few days. Came in on Christmas morning," Marc replied, holding out his right hand to her, which she took with a smile. "Name's Jack. Me and my brother are in from a settlement out west. How long you been here?"
“Noa,” she returned, then added, “I’ve been around here since the fall of 2016.” It felt both longer and shorter than that some days. “It was Atlanta before that.” And that definitely felt like it had been longer than just a few years.
"Real veteran of the place, sounds like." It piqued his interest, too; Marc hadn't come to Austin until a few months after she had, but he found himself studying her a little more intently, wondering whether they had any overlap back then in attention to noticing her good looks.
She nodded, just barely smiling as she dropped her hand back to her side, then took a sip of her drink before she asked, “What part of Texas did you come from?” She’d heard Houston and San Antonio were both lost causes, and that Dallas/Fort Worth was too. But that was the extent of cities in Texas that she knew.