So far, Adrian had been having a pretty damn good day. He’d gotten good marks on his final project for his art class, and final projects meant that the semester had ended. He wasn’t even sure why he’d decided to continue taking the classes here in Atlantis. Sage wasn’t here, and even if she was, she’d probably be more impressed with the fact that he’d kept a part-time job for the last few months more so than getting good marks on an impressionistic art project. Hell, he was impressed with himself for that, but he’d still somehow wanted to keep the classes going.
It wasn’t as if he’d been taking a rigorous course load by any stretch of the imagination, but he was still glad to for the class to be over so he could get onto more important things in life. Like day-drinking.
Most of the time, Adrian ventured over to Lightning Brew for his drinking habits, but today he decided to head over to Dive. He didn’t want to get a disapproving look from Abe because he wasn’t ‘living up to his potential’ or some shit such as that. Thankfully, the boss man didn’t seem to be around for the afternoon, so he looked to be in the clear.
Strolling up to the bar, he ordered himself a drink. The bartender wasn’t someone he knew well, but he recognized him. Emilia’s ex-boyfriend who he knew she was still a little hung up on. Not that she said so in so many words, but she didn’t have to, especially not to someone who could see a person’s moods. Cappie brought him the drink, and Adrian nodded a thanks.
“So, where’s Mr. Boss Man?”
Cappie recognized Adrian as soon as he’d walked through the door. It was hard to get a face out of your mind after you’d seen said face smooshed up against the face of a girl you were still in love with at a St Paddy’s Day party. Still, it wasn’t exactly like he hadn’t done his own fair share of face-smooshing since he and Em had broken up so he couldn’t exactly hold it against either one of them. Well, he could, he just couldn’t admit it out loud.
Deciding to be civil, albeit cool, Cappie served Adrian’s drink calmly and efficiently, as though he was just any other customer.
“I don’t know,” he replied with a little shrug of his shoulders. How was he supposed to know what Abe got up to in his time off and away from the bar? He might be Cappie’s boss and he guessed they got on alright but they weren’t best buddies or anything. He wasn’t sure Abe had best buddies.
“Picking out a new coffin or something.” Cappie mused before shrugging again. “You may have noticed: Abe’s not much of a sharer.”
He paused, letting his gaze run over Adrian, taking the measure of him. He was good looking, with dimples he just knew Em would go mad for, and he came across as charismatic and confident, almost cocky, in the kind of way that only privilege brings. He reminded Cappie of Evan Chambers in that way. Urgh.
“You guys are from the same world, right?” he said, for want of something, anything, to move the conversation along.
Adrian couldn’t help but let out a short laugh at the coffin comment. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard the vampire/coffin joke in his life, but if anyone would spend their days in a coffin, it might be Abe Mazur. He took another sip from his drink and shrugged. “No, he doesn’t give out a lot of details. Some of his meaning can be read between the lines, but he can be a cryptic guy. Even if he doesn’t appreciate it in return.” God knows he’d cornered Adrian a handful of times. First when he was dating his daughter and then when he’d basically tasked him to keep an eye out on things when they first moved to Palm Springs. One of the best moments in his life had been watching Sage tell off the old man when he’d tried to hold something over her head.
“Yeah, same world. I met him around..” He paused a moment and tilted his head as if that helped him think. “A year or two ago? For me, anyway. I think it’s been a lot longer for him. I dated his daughter.” Briefly.
At that, Adrian took another drink. Brief and had ended badly. He was over it by now, but he still didn’t like to be in the same room with Dimitri Belikov if he could help it.
“I doubt I could work for him, though, so cheers to you.” Adrian held up his glass for a mock toast and then took another drink.
Cappie made a mental note to casually drop Adrian into conversation next time he was talking to Abe. He wanted to find out more about the guy’s dating history, even if he knew he was only torturing himself by doing so. The thing was, he hadn’t broken up with Em because he didn’t still care about her. He did. He just hadn’t seen them going anywhere and he hadn’t wanted to hurt her any more along the way to what he was sure was an inevitable end. Still, that didn’t mean he was happy to see her getting interested in someone else and he was finding it difficult to just ignore the fact that she seemed to be getting pretty close to this Adrian guy. At the very least, Cappie wanted to know what kind of man he was. He still felt the need to look out for Em, even though she seemed to have an army of friends and family around to do that for her these days.
“What can I say?” Cappie said, forcing joviality into his voice. “I guess I’m some kind of saint.”
“You good?” Cappie asked, nodding at Adrian’s full glass. “Only the Boss man has left me a list of wonderful and fun things to do,” he continued, his voice dripping sarcasm as he motioned over his shoulder towards back of house with his thumb. “Wouldn’t want to incur his wrath…” He paused. “Well, any more of it that I already have.”
“Must be,” Adrian said with a raise of his brow but inwardly was thinking ’yeah right.’ He didn’t know all of the gory details of his and Emilia’s relationship and subsequent breakup, but he knew the basics. He knew the difference in Em’s demeanor after it all went down, and despite her sometimes forced good mood, Adrian had cheated from time to time to check to see the colors of her aura. It had improved more lately, but it had taken a while for it to get back to its normal brightness.
“Yup,” he said shortly with an appreciative nod to the full glass. “Thanks for the drink.” Adrian didn’t need to peek into the guy’s aura to pick up on the fact that he really didn’t want Adrian sitting there. Giving him a small salute, he picked up the drink and stood to move towards one of the other tables near the back.
As for Abe’s wrath, Adrian smirked to himself as he walked away and stated under his breath once his back was turned to Cappie, “No, we sure wouldn’t want that…”