Jubilee (laminar) wrote in x_emplary, @ 2008-03-15 00:34:00 |
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i. in which they arrive (introduction)
It was a real pity that the bar they went to didn't have any decent beers - Shiro had suggested Harry's, where the guys knew them well enough to keep the lagers (usually Kirin, but with the occasional Tsingtao) flowing, and tolerated a harmless bit of flirting when Jubilee got tipsy. But no, she had to rock the boat, and as a result, was sitting with her friend at what could be considered a high-end bar, though apparently they hated their customers so much they served the beer warm. Well, at least the seats were comfortable, and the floor was clean.
She plucked a pineapple slice from her Piña Colada and sucked on it before popping it in her mouth. "Look," she argued half-heartedly, in defense of her admittedly bad choice, "they have perfectly all right cocktails and things. I'm sure you can live without beer for a night, shake things up a bit. How about I shout you a Scotch? Some gin and tonic? Piiiiiña Colaaada?"
The last part was sang as she picked up her glass and made it dance under Shiro's nose. Of course Jubilee didn't blame his slight sulk - who'd want to be under the suspicion of ordering a chick drink?
Quite characteristic of the man when events occurring around him seemed to lean a little to his dislike, Shiro twitched his lips to a side and sort of just...stared at Jubilee, really. He had one hand against his right cheekbone, the other one on the table and in the position of table-tapping. He would have been tempted to do that had he not dismissed the action as something rude to the management of the bar.
He only shook his head to the Piña Colada when it was offered to him and instead, said crisply, decisively and naturally, "Ginjoshu." partly expecting for Jubilee who didn't have the bad day to shoulder their night's expenses.
"Sake? Feeling cultural tonight, are we?" But nevertheless, she waved down a passing server, and ordered his drink, knowing that Shiro probably spied the American-made drink so was confident that they'd have the exact brew he was asking for. Jubilee wasn't concerned with making all the rounds today, least she could do, really, seeing as her regular drinking companion was just brimming with indignation and anger at the day he just had.
Taking a sip of her drink, she waited quietly for the inevitable onslaught of complaints, an almost teasing smile on her face. This silence was just an indication of the barrage to come, and was just the thing to get him started.
"No," he slightly rolled his eyes. "I just don't know what to order." Pause... "And not Piña Colada, I don't like that drink."
When the little silence fell upon them, Shiro found himself staring at that little stain sitting comfortably just in the middle of their bizarre-ly shaped, crimson table. Eventually, he did sigh, though...or groan was more like it. Right hand sort of rolled over to his face so that his fingers covered his eyes and the edge of his palm was just on his nose.ii. in which Shiro rants
"You know...sometimes, I don't understand why I'm still not quitting my job." this would have been the 29th time he's told Jubilee the same sentence though.
"Well," Jubilee feigned thinking, though she's probably countered this way as many times as Shiro had whined to her. "Lots of people need things that you order cheaply, obviously, and you're noble so you can't bear the thought of your clients not getting the bargains they so greatly deserve. You're an integral cog in the whole machine and it can't possibly operate without you."
She liked to overly dramatise her sarcasm, or at least when it came to the subject of Shiro and his much complained-about career. It's not that she didn't sympathise, it's just that making light of the situation would usually make people feel better.
Usually, being the key term.
"Noble," Shiro scoffed a little through his nose. "That sounds about right," and no, he didn't like the way it was right.
The green-on-semi-transparent bottle of ginjoshu came to their table at the return of the waiter along with a stout glass to pour his sake into. He did this first, having rolled his sleeves a few inches off his wrist while he was watching the stuff set before him, and took a solemn drink of his first alcohol for the night. It wasn't exactly his ideal first drink (he really wanted a Kirin) but it did its job.
His mind was already thinking of the next drink to order.
"No, seriously," hands lifted to cover his face as he took some time to think or to formulate a coherent set of words that relates his idea best, "Sometimes I like what I'm doing, sometimes I don't. And a lot of times, I come home without even having enough...spirit to ask myself if I liked what happened that day or didn't. It's just that," pause, think, groan. Hands dropped to the table (though with care, given his injury), "Let me ask you, how would you feel if one of your suppliers completely just put you in trouble of losing one of your biggest clients ever by just deciding to be...a total asshole?" Shiro just isn't the type of person to swear a lot, too.
Did "asshole" count as a curse? 'Cause if it did, then Jubilee was swearing a lot more often than she thought she was. "You know, I really hate rhetorics like that," she said lightly, nudging her shoe with her toes so the straps slid off her heel. If they were going to make a night of it, then she was going to be comfortable. "In your case I think everything eventually comes back to the question, why don't you quit? What's stopping you?"
Being self-employed, she'd never really understood the plight of white collars. Jubilee didn't think that she'd ever be one of them, preferring to call her own shots or none at all. It was a refreshing mindset usually, but not always one that Shiro needed.
A casual glance at their glasses told her that at the rate these drinks were going down, they would be in need of a bigger table.
"Why don't I quit?" eyes gazed up to the dark-ish ceiling. "Hm, good question. Well, one, it's been years since I've last applied for a job and I'm not sure I want to go through all that hassle. Two, I've gone far from being a run off the mill sales personnel to being considerably one of the heads of the company. Three, they pay me a lot of money and four, I just don't really like the way the word 'quitting' sounds." hand reached for the stout glass and tossed half the remaining content back to his throat. Second shot's a charm.
"Though once," Shiro continued after swallowing down his sake as though it transformed itself to a tough rock of ice on his tongue, "I really did consider trying a new job but lo, I got a raise the very next day. You believe in heavenly signs, Bee? I do. I'm not a religious nut but it makes things easier, somehow. Don't you think so, Bee?" he pressed his hands against his lips, forming a loose fist out of all the fingers as he looked at his friend.iii. in which Jubilee lectures
Shiro should not be drunk already, but Jubilee wouldn't put it past him. Sake was, after all, a mite stronger than beer, and they were drinking on relative empty stomachs, disregarding the pitiful plate of nachos they shared before coming here. "I'm sure my opinion doesn't carry as much weight as, say, someone who can empathise with your exact situation, but it looks to me like you're making excuses."
She leaned back into her seat as the DJ put on some new music, the "doof doof" from the subwoofer making the floor tremble a bit. It was like a really tiny, ineffectual massage. "You're what, 34? 35? You can't exactly work at the same company until you retire."
Or maybe he could. Working at the same place until they retired was probably a trend among Asians.
"Thirty-three," the way Shiro pushed his voice made it known that he would like Jubilee to remember his age correctly. He brushed some locks off his face, combing them all the way back as he remained leaning over their table. "Well, I don't know, I haven't really thought about the whole idea of retiring yet," though he would like to retire in his country with some big money.
And then all complications started pounding into his head again: like a wife or his age of retirement or children or family or hey, he was a mutant, wasn't he?
"Ahh, I'll think about that when I'm forty," he finished his glass and poured another round, reducing the sake within the bottle to about a third to a quarter of its height. Damn America and their bottles. "Let's talk about something else." it didn't quite sound like a request, too.iv. in which they talk about the big four-zero
Pft, who had time to memorise trivial things like birthdays and anniversaries? Half the time she couldn't remember her own. Though Shiro's tone made her feel determined to check when his birthday was and make a note of it somewhere, lest feelings be hurt come the day. "Well, let's talk about what you're going to do when you turn 40. Big party? Splurging? Lots of strippers? It's never too early to plan something like that."
Stopping a passing waiter, Jubilee pointed to the near-empty glasses on the table, with the unsaid message of "keep them coming". She didn't have to worry about getting to work on time the next morning, and if Shiro didn't fancy a hangover then he should have enough willpower to stop himself from drinking.
Shiro, though, wasn't so sure about that.
"Strippers?" that actually managed to crack out some laughter from Shiro as he leaned his back against the chair's support, arms folded. "No, I'm not fond of strippers like you are, thanks." he shook his head. "Well, I don't really know, too...maybe there will be, maybe there won't be. Depends on where I am and what I am by the time that happens, don't you think?"
"Barring any significant life-altering events, you're not the type of person I see changing too much in seven years," it wasn't meant to offend or be any kind of insult or anything, just that Jubilee thought her friend was the type to settle down and stick with it, if the whole staying at his job thing was any indication. Herself she would have no idea where she'd end up, but turning thirty was not a subject she felt particularly desperate to discuss, or even think about. "So I figure it's probably safe to draw up some invitations now and email a bunch of suit-wearing business-inclined people."
Now she was just teasing, and felt a victory sip was necessary.
Well, Shiro liked suit-wearing business-inclined people. He grew up to that crowd and learned how to walk like one, how else would he be a graduate of Business Administration if he didn't? Really, what Jubilee said brought a little smile to his face and he gave it an I'll-accept-that nod as he lifted his glass, gestured it a bit towards her and drank from it.
Their second rounds arrived just as the waiter had come back to their table.
"In that case, it doesn't look so bad turning forty, after all," continued he with a little grin on his face as he arranged the new drinks a bit on the side to look like the kings, queens, and bishops of a chess game. "I guess that means I'll be coming home a millionaire, huh? What about you?" he nodded at Jubilee, resting his elbows on the table, loose fist on his chin, "You plan to go back home some time in the future? Maybe when you're bored of everything...you know." though he could never see Jubilee with a husband.v. in which they move onto the future
If asked, Jubilee wouldn't be able to see herself with a husband. A husband with her maybe, but not the other way around. "Home? I don't even know where home is," she shrugged, saying this very matter-of-factly and not meaning to garner sympathy, or anything like that. "There'll be no settling for me. It's the high flying life, or nothing at all."
The last pineapple slice and the rest of her drink went into her mouth, so she was still chewing as she said, "you know, they say that the first million is the hardest to earn, but it's not like the millions after that are entirely cruisy. One bad decision and you've gone from riches back to rags. In some ways that's worse than being poor throughout." Not that she would have any idea what being poor was like. And, really, Jubilee didn't exactly have the burning desire to find out.
Shiro knew exactly what she felt like -- not with the husband-part of the conversation but with the whole financial-part of the conversation. Because he felt like he ought to somehow catch up with Jubilee's speed in her alcohol, he downed the rest of his glass, emptied out his bottle and set that one aside. A few more, he might have to shrug his jacket off and loosen his collar a bit. Thank God he wasn't required to wear neckties.
"Well, it'll be disappointing," Shiro nodded as he said this. "I mean," gesture of hands in slight shrugging, "That'll be losing your house and forcing yourself to live in some cramped apartment or working three jobs a day just to make ends meet when you're quite used to just spending half your day in the office and then earning millions just by doing that." He paused, "...I guess...I guess I'm also glad none of my relatives have gotten that desperate yet...but I guess I'm also scared that might happen to me which is why I work," he said with some laughter, taking up his glass of sake and sipping from it. "When I was in high school, you have no idea how I completely did not need to work part-time during school days."
Trying to imagine Shiro in high school was strange. Jubilee knew that it must've happened at one point, but a teenaged version of him was difficult to visualise. "Sometimes I think you worry too much about things? But apparently you've been doing that longer than I expected, so I guess that's all right."
She reached across the table, with the intention of ruffling his hair, but found that she couldn't reach unless she sat up. That was a deeply undesirable scenario, as these seats were just so comfortable and there was a nice sort of groove forming in the leather behind her back, so she let her hand flounder for a bit before taking it back.
"At the rate you're going," she continued her train of thought, "you probably won't have to worry about being poor. You're not exactly Mr Big Spender."
"Thanks, Bee...and that's probably why you and I complement each other," agreed Shiro with a smirk. "I think that you, on the other hand, need a little help keeping your money to yourself."
...somehow, those words stabbed a funny thought into Shiro's mind, though, and he put on a little funny face as he gazed up, fist by his chin again and his lips may have even protruded a bit as he tossed that idea around and about. "...you ever think of putting up a charity?" he looked at her with a silly little grin. It was quite random a question, but if Jubilee was not going to keep the money to herself and instead would hand it over to help the poor...
Well, that was going to be veryentertaininginteresting.vi. in which generosity is declared male or female (who's the more egotistic of the two?)
"Charity?" Jubilee frowned and tugged on her earring. It wasn't like she desperately wanted to hold on to her fortune - of course she enjoyed having such financial freedom, but she wasn't going to miss the donation, however much she'd put in. No, it was more the concept of setting one up. "It seems, I dunno, egotistical? I'm happy to donate, but to actually have one, in my name, is very..."
Melodramatic? Redundant? She was grasping for the right word, but none came, so she had to settle for a very simple, "... male."
She shrugged. "'M not saying it's not ever going to happen. I just have to be passionate about the cause, as cliched as that may sound."
"Male." Shiro repeated to be sure, keeping his eyes on Jubilee so he didn't lose a thought. "Putting up a charity, in your name, is male."
Oh, that was definitely something he had not been expecting. He rather liked the result and he laughed a bit, taking his glass up to drink from.
"I never knew charities had sex. I don't quite get why it has to be male and not female, though. Is this saying that we're more egotistical than you women are?" he'd like to beg to differ if that was the case. Because case in point, the woman sitting in front of him.
If it was true that Jubilee was more egotistical than a lot of men (and she was convinced it wasn't), then she would be the exception that proved the rule. "Oh, come off it, charities don't have sex. They're all virgins. Like you." Because twisting things to becoming a sexual quip was always a laugh, as was poking fun at Shiro, so how could she resist? "And well, I'm not saying that women aren't, we're just a lot more sneaky about it."
"Yanno, if you look at it from a very partial, statistical point of view, I'm sure you'll find that the charities set up by men are all, 'look at me, I have so much money I'll give some to poor people', whereas the women-set charities are more, 'aw, look at the cute children' kind of thing." She had no idea if this was actually true or not - she was just pulling stuff right out her ass, for argument's sake.
Shiro choked on his drink at the virgin comment but said nothing more of it, just pressed the back of his hand lightly against his fist and listened to the rest that Jubilee had to say.
"But the point is that, you are still egotistical and I'd say more than we men are -- you said it yourself. Who knows, some of those male charity givers might actually be women in disguise. After all, the first female authors have published books behind a man's name, who's to say they won't do it this time? Besides, at least with the male charity givers, their bragging actually helps the poor with some finances. Ogling at children won't."
"They're usually unfortunate children, though. Probably AIDS babies or disaster orphans." She was grinning at the whole conspiracy theory thing Shiro had going on. "And if women pretend to be men while being giving, it just confirms what I said before about us being sneaky."
"Face it," the occasion called for another triumphant slice of fruit from her drink. "You can't win."
"Well," Shiro cleared his throat a bit as he leaned back and took his glass with him to press against his chest. "At least we men can take being egotistical and actually face it. You women still have to be sneaky about it."
There was a big gaping hole in the argument here, but Jubilee? Not the greatest debater ever and really didn't feel like using logic to be analytical. "That's really not a good thing, that men can be both egotistical and blatantly obvious about it. It makes it doubly worse, if you think about it."
She was kicking off her shoes now, which no one minded at Harry's, so she didn't really care if it was rude here. Even sitting in heels was hard work.
Shiro shrugged with a small laugh, "We like it that way, at least we're being honest and brave, aren't we?" and he emptied his glass.
One of her shoes did kick him a bit, and he arched his brows at that and sort of leaned to see what was happening down there, trying not to look like he was peeking at Jubilee. When he found stray sandals down there, scattered somewhere under long shadowed legs (as she had tights on) and close to his feet, he sort of gave his friend an elder brother's eye, "Hey, put your--" ahem. Pause and hush down a bit.
Leaning closer to her, he said, "Put your shoes back on, you want people to be lookin' at us?" yes, us. If it had only been Jubilee, Shiro could give less of a damn but his reputation was almost slightly also at stake here.
Jubilee's look matched Shiro's. It plainly said something along the lines of, 'I don't much care about decorum or anything but since you asked so nicely I will oblige unwillingly. Just be glad that I haven't asked you for a foot massage. Also? You are kind of a pansy'. Whether that message could be correctly conveyed was not clear, but Jubilee did try, arching one of her eyebrows so much that it disappeared into her side-swept fringe.
"To be honest I don't mind a few looks," she said sweetly, deliberately glancing slowly away from Shiro and fixed her gaze on a passing redhead. "You shouldn't, either. That virgin problem will have to be fixed sooner or later."vii. in which the question of innocence is finally answered (and everything is ruined for Jubilee)
But she slid her shoes back on anyway, even if she didn't do up the clasps. It still counted as wearing.
"I'm not interested," was Shiro's immediate response as he popped open his new bottle of ginjoshu before lifting his hand a bit to a passing waitress and muttering something about a 'Bronx Dry'. When she passed with a little nod, he filled his glass up with the sake and set the bottle aside.
"Really, it's going to be no fun, Jubilee." insisted he, shaking his head as he kissed the rim of his glass to sip from.
"I think the gentleman doth protest too much." Her eyebrow had still not returned from its arched place, and if the wind had changed she'd be in real danger. "If you only ever look at porn all day, how will you know that it's not fun?"
Shiro would probably walk right out of a room if something upsetting his delicate sensibilities was being played on TV, so there was no way he'd be watching it voluntarily, but embarrassing her friend was Jubilee's job. She lived for this sort of thing.
"What makes you think that I look at porn all day?" again, he laughed, quite visibly amused with what Jubilee had suggested and leaning set his glass on the table and to prop his elbows on it, too. Clearing his throat a second time, Shiro crossed his arms as he narrowed his eyes at Jubilee...then said, "I know it's not going to be fun...because I know so." if Jubilee might be more keen enough, she might catch on a little clue.
A little clue? That was like a bright red fire engine with its sirens on, driving pass the table three times in a row. The eyebrow that had just been restored shot up again, this time the other one had joined it too. Jubilee started laughing; she couldn't help herself. "You never said!"
She just assumed, because Shiro usually got so embarrassed about it and would evade the topic any way he could, either by changing the subject or doing something convenient like choking on his drink, like he did before.
"God, does this mean I can't christen you a forty year old virgin when the time comes? Everything is ruined!"
"For you," Shiro joined her in her laughter as he said this, propping a hand over his tummy as he leaned back and against his chair's support. Everyone had given them a fleeting glance by the time they'd exploded. "Besides, you never asked, did you? I wouldn't have lied, either way."
This went on for a couple more seconds, his ordered drink finding itself soon in the middle of their table as he sort of savored a bizarre victory. It was funny having fooled Jubilee like that even if he hadn't meant to but he sort of felt this coming and felt a little awkward calling this moment one of triumph.
Clearing his throat, he said, "No, I didn't mean to keep you guessing, sorry." he slid the bronx over to Jubilee a bit in case she'd like to have a little of it -- call it a peace offering! "It just seemed awkward declaring to everyone you aren't one anymore and it's like...who cares, right? And besides the time that happened, it was..." his lower left arm was flat on the table as he licked his lips and looked at his glass of sake, toying with uneven locks behind his neck. "...really memorable," he finally said to Jubilee, nodding. "I thought it was something really precious and not just some run off the mill event to prove you're a man and you could get it on with a woman."
Still chuckling, Jubilee pushed her hair out of her face and told Shiro very solemnly, or as solemn as she could be while grinning so much, "You know, some people define their entire existence by the people they 'get it on' with." She made little quote marks there, noting how eloquent Shiro was not this evening. "I know so many people who are like that, unfortunately, but you're such a one-eighty. It's very refreshing."
And because she couldn't reach him with her hand, instead Jubilee stretched her legs under the table and nudged his ankle, as a sort of pat on the back.
If they hadn't been friends for about two years by now, Shiro would so think Jubilee was flirting with him with the whole leg-on-leg thing. "You're welcome?" he grinned a little at his words. "Also, stop mocking my English, okay? At least you understand me." as if living in the country for a nearing half of his life still gave him the right to use the excuse that he was Japanese and was raised in Japan.
"I guess that says as much about you, doesn't it?" he said, drinking from his alcohol. Either it was the lights, or his cheeks were getting a little blush on its bones. "You don't look like someone who...defines her life with the people she sleeps with." there, no more get-it-ons.
"That's because I'm not," Jubilee tilted her head and made a face. "I'm surprised you didn't work that out already."
Somehow most of her second Piña Colada had disappeared without her noticing, so, seeing as Shiro still had his Bronx up for offer, she took a sip, relishing the taste after two almost overly sweet drinks. "Who ever defined their own life by someone else, doesn't matter if it's someone they're sleeping with or if they just know, that's a really sad state of affairs."viii. in which Jubilee invites a third party -- her stomach (they talked about nobility, too)
A waitress was hailed and a margarita was asked for, her 'r's rolled. The food menu was handed over after a brief exchange, and Jubilee studied it with a squinted eye. "You hungry? 'Cause I'm famished and I'm going to order something large so you'd better help me finish it off."
"Or maybe you know...said sad person is just looking for someone he likes enough to copy and make into himself. Maybe something like an identity crisis or a lack of appreciation with the self," how he got a mite philosophical, it skipped him, too. When the menu came to Jubilee's hands, Shiro took this chance to straighten up and slide his suit jacket off his shoulders and arms and letting it hang by the back of his seat, revealing the expensive-looking, still-white, full-sleeved polo with cuffs unbuttoned and rolled a few inches up.
As she offered food, he refilled his glass (not that he'd drunken much from it) and slid it over for Jubilee to have a taste of as he took up his bronx and tasted the orange-shaded thing from the sharp v-shaped glass. He liked it (as can be shown by his nod), and decided to stick by it before he'd finish his bottle of ginjoshu, picking the cherry up from the alcoholic concoction and handing it over to Jubilee with a straight right arm so that it decorated her nose with a red dot from how he saw it.
Jubilee peered at the offered cherry, then at Shiro. "You are going to be so hungover tomorrow morning, the rate you're going." But she took the cherry anyway, and popped it in her mouth, playing with the stem as she ordered the platter (a little bit of everything - she wasn't kidding when she said she was hungry).
"Maybe they'll see how irresponsible you really are and fire you, save you a bit of trouble there." Her margarita came then, so she stuck the cherry stem between the ice, a tiny red beacon in the sea of green.
"Shut up and let me drink. I had a rough day, okay?" though it wasn't really evident now after a few drinks, a couple of laughter and some silly grins. As though to spite Jubilee, he took another sip off the bronx, "Besides," pause to swallow that drink down, "I just saved everyone's asses by driving out of my way just to deliver that piece of deflector when they could have been very well handed over to us." he liked to think of himself as the hero of the day, really.
Still, he could do without the extra effort.ix. in which the standards of a gentleman is defined
"And c'mon, you're paying for everything. Might as well make the most out of your kind-hearted generosity -- right, Ms. Bee?"
Slowly letting her mouth form an O, exaggerating her features so the melodrama would show. "Ugh, that is so rude, yanno?" She put on the accent as well, drawling, nasally. "I shout you food and drink and you tell me to shut up. Really hurts a girl's feelings, yanno?"
And now back to normal voice. "Right, going out of your way to help everyone else. I did mention 'noble' before, didn't I?" She smirked, dipping her finger and picking up some salt from the rim of her glass.
"Please shut up, then?" Shiro offered an apologetic grin which...didn't really work considering it ws too wide to be one for sorry's. "It's not my fault if I was raised as a noble man or a good person. It's like being a gentleman, you just can't shrug it off no matter how many times you wish you could." he gestured towards her, "Come to think of it, asking you to please shut up is a rather gentlemanly attitude, too, don't you think?" now he was playing with technicalities.
"That doesn't change the fact that you're ostensibly being rude to someone," if technicalities were being played, then Jubilee would match Shiro's efforts. "Because 'please' wouldn't be the operate word here, 'shut up' is. It's like saying that 'please fuck off' is being polite 'cause it's got the magic word attached."
"Now 'please quieten down' would be gentlemanly, but I don't think anyone below the age of 50 says that, so you're in a bit of a pickle." She paused for a fraction of a second, then carried on. "Though it does have the desired effect, since old age would just emphasise your gentlemanliness. Younger gentlemen are so hard to find."
That was obviously her favourite word of the day. Gentleman. Gentlemen. It just had a nice ring to it.
"I'm a young gentleman," his face never changed when he said that almost a-matter-of-factly. "And besides, I still said the magic word, didn't I?" to Shiro's current logic, that was enough.
He took a last drink with his bronx before he handed it to Jubilee (more like slid it towards her -- in case she wanted another sip of it) and retrieved his glass of sake though he just left it close to him as he lifted his arms and stretched back a bit, grunting a small one. Man, and who would have thought they would last this long in a high-end bar...
"So, what did you order, Ms. Lee?" Shiro returned his elbows to the table, feeling a little more awake and a little more buzzed up with thanks to the stuff he's been enjoying that night. A little game was decided and he was going to try to be a little bit more 'gentlemanly' around Jubilee (though he thought that was going to be difficult considering the honorifics he was used to were limited to his culture and would sound plain outside it).
Jubilee did take up Shiro's drink once again, even though her own was still mostly untouched. Eyes were rolled good-naturedly at the gentleman comment, but she let it go.
"Something delicious," she replied, and stretched, setting an almost empty glass back on the table. "You know, I think I might pop off to the loo for a bit. 'Scuse."x. in which both face the reality of women's rooms and long lines (and cute waiters, really)
Her dress was sticking to her leg when she stood up, so she spent a moment smoothing her clothes down. Her shoes weren't really fully on, but she could still walk in them, so they clicked loudly with every step she took. And yes, she was aware that she was dragging her feet and it made her look retarded, but she didn't much care. It wasn't like the toilet was that far away anyway.
The entire time she was smoothing her dress up and then starting to walk away, Shiro just sat there, watching her and making sure she didn't suddenly meet the floor or something. Not that he was underestimating her liver or something, Jubilee had one coated in iron he figured, but well, it was better to make sure.
When she was gone, he sat there checking the time and brushing his locks up a bit and waited. A second later, he loosened the topmost button of his polo top and five seconds later, he so just stole a sip off that margarita.
Mmm...
The waitress came with their massive (Shiro's eyes spent 1.2 seconds to just stare at the white thing she held) platter just as he was sliding the margarita back to Jubilee Territory and with a little arrangement of bottles, discarding of empty glasses and whatnot, the platter miraculously fit nicely on their table. It was a collection of cold meat, crusted bread, three dips, some deep-fried vegetables as well as some chips, mini sandwiches and deep fried chicken and fish fingers.
Suddenly, Shiro felt as though he shouldn't have taken it lightly. There was seriously no way Jubilee could finish this!
"Thanks," he said to the waitress with a quick nod-bow sort of head movement though catching up just in time to gesture towards their drinks and order another round of...a mixture of redundant drinks, it would seem like. Really, he was ('was' being the keyterm) in the mood to get drunk and sick (the thought of barfing did evade him) and wanted to perhaps taste a little bit of every kind of alcohol they served but as he remembered that tonight was just a Monday, he decided he ought to follow Jubilee's advice and take it easy. What a sad timing for a high-end night out.
The line for the bathroom was unusually long for a Monday night. It was going to take Jubilee a few more minutes in waiting. She tapped her fingers against her leg, impatient, both needing to pee and feeling her stomach growl in hunger. The woman behind her complimented her dress, and the two struck up a brief conversation, which, though limited by time, covered a few topics such as handsome waiters, long lines for bathrooms, and people who couldn't hold their liquor.
Queues for women's bathrooms were always longer than the corresponding ones for the less fair sex. Shiro would have to wait a little longer, though he should feel free to dig into the food, if it had already arrived.
Sadly, Shiro never felt very nicely about guests digging in without the host of the party. Well, if he was the host of the party, he wouldn't mind and would in fact ask his guests to oblige. But as a guest, he liked to make sure that the host was around to take the first bite or at least insist that he take it. When about two minutes have passed, a little look around had told Shiro that some tables have changed drinkers though it was strangely getting a little more silent despite the soft jazz music playing in the background -- he figured it was just him and the fact that it was late, though. A little embarassed when he gestured to the waiter by the counter that he was just going for a little break and not to clean their table up yet, he finally stood up and started toward's the men's room, holding his jacket by his arm.
But still, even after having relieved himself plus a little extra combing of hair and washing of hands and faces, his drinking buddy was still not around and brows arched as he checked his watch to see how long she'd taken. "She couldn't have thrown up, could she?" he muttered to himself, naturally in his mother language as he turned to see their waitress coming by with the new drinks. Pointing to the empty seat as he set the dark suit jacket on his chair's back, he asked, "Has she come back?"
"No," she had a bit of a Southern accent, he found, as she did miracles and managed to fit everything in their table. "You shouldn't worry, though, I hadn't seen her leave through the front doors, too." and she smiled when she said this, pressing her now-empty tray against her abdomen.
He simply nodded at that and gave her a small smile and an abrupt bow as he sat down, "Thanks."
"I'll keep an eye out for your girlfriend." she said with a wink as she started back towards the counter.
Shiro twitched his lips a bit at that. Of course, he had to remember they weren't regulars here...