Tiana nodded, laughing. “It can be rather exhausting at times… Though I couldn’t imagine working all night and trying to sleep during the day. Seems rather inconvenient.” She raised an eyebrow, glancing over at him when he sang the jingle. He was rather talented, that she knew, but was just now acknowledging. At least, now that he wasn’t blocking her path anywhere. “The kind that stomp around and drop everything? Or… the other kind of loud?” Tia laughed quietly, seemingly embarrassed to ask if his upstairs neighbors had a lot of sex. “Oh, Kanga. I know her. She’s a real sweetheart. It’s really nice of her to let you stay though. But with her son…” She let out a low whistle. “I can imagine that’s tough.” Laughing again, Tia shook her head. “And what if I did?” she teased, moving from the balcony railing. “I can stay a little longer, like an hour or so. But please,” Tiana motioned forward. “Lead on.”
“Doesn’t matter if its inconvenient or not,” came Noah’s mutter, feeling like she was judging him again. So he couldn’t find a 9-5 day job and he worked most weekends? He thought he’d landed a pretty good gig all things considered. “It keeps me afloat.” He would work through the sleep deprivation and he would work through his apartment troubles and maybe one day he would get a car and that would solve his public transportation issues. It would take him fifteen minutes to get to Siren’s Song by car, but it took almost two hours by bus. That, and buses didn’t run early in the morning when he got off work, so he had to take a cab or an Uber and use up some of that night’s wages. “And my neighbor’s have a lot of dogs they haven’t trained to be quiet. Or they will be quiet, and then the whole lot of them will start barking at once. It’s a privately owned apartment building. The landlord can do what he wants and he mostly has low income families living there with bad credit. There’s not much I can do about it except move. Kanga is a temporary fix.” He knew she’d probably ask him to stay longer, but he couldn’t afford to stay there and pay rent on an apartment he didn’t live in. And he knew if he gave up his apartment, he’d never find another one like it. Wow, he was such a loser. He never should have asked her to come by and see him work. He’d felt on top of the world at the dance and if anything, a little cocky. All that seemed to wear off after the adrenaline left him. It was a horrible idea. She was clearly out of her element.
He held the door open for her and followed her inside, before helping part through the crowds of people as he led her back to the bar. He let the bartender on duty know she was his plus one for the night, so all her drinks would be half price. “If you don’t like the crowds, there’s a VIP alcove on the west wall over there you can use as a guest of the DJ. I have to get back to work, but I’ll see you around, yeah? Thank you again for coming out....” He offered her a smile. He was honestly thankful for the gesture. He’d gotten quite a shock out of it which was at least something different from the norm.
