Chapter 34

Inside the License to Liquor bar, the front half of the long building was dedicated to an oval bar down the centre of the room lit by a cascade of fluorescent neon lights. The stools around the bar and the standing tables packed against the wall were all beaten to crap and mismatching, clearly scavenged or salvaged from other bars that had failed in the city over time. The walls were plastered with posters from video games and old movies from the 80s and 90s. The bar itself was already busy, and you and Gemma had to release your arms to get between a couple of groups of people.

Usually, you would have some sort of nerves about doing it, but tonight? After the two days you'd had? You took Gemma's hand confidently to lead her through, and when you broke through the other side she was just smiling that broad grin of hers and didn't pull her hand away. You both sidled up to the bar, facing each other.

"What would you like to drink?" you asked. The office interns hadn't actually gone out to drink together - something you realized someone probably should have organized in the last month, especially since it might have sped up the process of finding out Gemma had a little thing for you. Now, there wasn't much of you that was interested in grabbing a drink with Eric and Andy.

"I'll start with a Bramble," she said. "Then it's probably best I move on to beer. I can get a little messy on too many mixed drinks."

"I wouldn't mind seeing Messy Gemma," you laughed. "But we do have work tomorrow, so it sounds like a plan."

You signalled to the closest bartender, who completely ignored you. There were only three of them working behind the bar, each wearing black shirts with the old Golden Eye 007 death screen on the front and 'License To Liquor' in bold on the backs. You knew the guy you waved down saw you, but he turned to some other customer down the bar, chatting and talking with them.

"Wow, guess they prefer their regulars," you laughed, waving it off.

"Oh, I've got this," Gemma said, then put two fingers in her mouth and whistled. It wasn't super loud, but it cut through the noise and classic video game music the bar was playing over the speakers. Another bartender, this one a woman with a fairly large septum nose ring and tattoos along both arms and up the sides of her neck, looked over and Gemma waved her over.

"Damn. So you're a bartender whisperer and Sabrina is a secretary whisperer. I've been missing out on learning some new skills," you laughed.

Gemma rolled her eyes with a smile. "It's not a big secret. Girls get served first at bars since they're more likely to get mad and make a scene about it."

The bartender came over and you leaned toward her so you didn't need to shout. "Two Brambles to start."

She raised an eyebrow. "Never heard of it."

[A/N: If you want to read advance chapters then join my patreon. It will help me a lot if you guys support me!

Link : www.patreon.com/RoyalHentai]

Gemma was ready and put her phone on the bartop, a recipe already pulled up. "Crushed ice, dry gin, lemon juice and syrup, then blackberry liquor. We'll take raspberry if you don't have it."

The woman scanned the less-than-common cocktail recipe, nodding along, then set to work.

"I'm surprised you wanted to try it," Gemma said, settling onto one of the bar stools. "All my guy friends back home think it's kind of a girly drink. That doesn't stop them from drinking since it's fucking delicious, but not on a first date."

You shrugged. "Why would I care if you thought I drank girly drinks? If you like it, I have to assume it's tasty."

The bartender came back over with the two drinks. "Twenty," she shouted over the noise.

Fuck me, you thought. There was no way that was a $10 drink. Still, you fished a twenty and a five out of your wallet and passed it to her.

Gemma had already picked up her drink and was smelling it, but you saw her watching you pay, and she had a little smile of satisfaction on her face. You picked up your drink as well and held it up to her. "To a fun night of getting to know each other," you said. "And me beating your ass at skeeball."

She laughed and clinked glasses with you and you both took a sip of our drinks around the crushed ice. It was bright, a little sour and the drizzled blackberry flavour gave a burst of tartness.

"Alright," you asked. "So what was that look?"

"What look?" she asked innocently.

"The one you gave when I paid. Did you want to go dutch here or something? Because I'm totally not against that if it's important to you."

"No, no," she said. We'd both set our drinks down, and she put her hand on my arm as she leaned in. It was loud in the bar, which made our conversation feel more intimate. "It's just one of those red flags I look for on a first date. You tipped the bartender well, but not too well. Too little or no tip, and you're cheap. Too much and you care too much about what they think, which means you probably spend way too much time here and want to fuck them."

You glanced over at the bartender, who was down the bar from us now, and made a considering face. "Well, I mean I'm not huge into the tattoos thing buuut..."

"Stop," Gemma said, drawing out the word with her wonderful accent.

"What other red flags should I be making sure I don't send?" you asked.

"Well that would be telling, wouldn't it?" Gemma said with a little smirk.

"Touche," you admitted and raised your drink to her in a salute before taking a sip. "Alright. I assume everyone you've met for the last year you've spent here has asked the same things over and over about Australia. So I want to know about the best place you've travelled to outside of Australia."

"Oh, that is a good play," Gemma nodded. "And you're right, every single date or conversation I got into would ask about home. My best trip though? That has to be Japan. Tokyo was so fucking cool, but I really liked the day trip we took out into the north to this city called Aomori. It was a lot smaller and was beautiful on the coast. We went to this gorgeous art museum there. Hold on, I have got to show you this picture." She started thumbing through her phone, hiding the screen from you as she went through her pictures. That got you wondering about what she might be hiding - something sexy?

She eventually turned the phone around and showed you these pretty pictures of some more traditional Japanese architecture used for modern buildings, along with pictures of her and one of her friends. She talked at length about the museum and several of the other stops they made. Then she stopped on one last picture, in front of a pink flowering cherry blossom tree. She and a guy were standing there, arms around each other's waist, while the friend and another guy were standing next to them in the same pose.

"Oh, shit," Gemma said, quickly turning off her phone. "Sorry."

"What?" you asked.

"That was just my ex. I always do this, accidentally bringing him up. I swear, John, it's not a big deal."

"Hey," you said, taking her hand. "If it's not a big deal, then it's not a big deal. As long as you're not using me to cheat, I don't care that you have an Ex, alright?"

She sighed. "Definitely not cheating," she said. "But now that it's out there, I might as well get it out of the way. I was actually engaged to him, coming out of high school. We were young and dumb and I thought I loved him even though my parents thought it wouldn't work out. I almost eloped with him on that Japan trip, honestly. But I didn't, and thank God. I found out two weeks later he'd been cheating on me with another girl we knew from back in high school, and was hiring escorts while I was saving up for a down payment on an apartment while we were both in our first year at Uni. You know he actually went to a brothel while we were on that trip? I found out during our breakup fight and he said it was just for 'the experience.'"

You blew out a breath, slowly nodding. Sabrina blowing you today, twice, at the front of your mind. Right before this date. "Gemma, I'm-"

She leaned forward and planted a kiss on you.