Andrew was well aware that he should have called it a night two hours ago, but at this point, The Honey Rooftop was packed with locals, the music was playing, and the drinks were flowing. Walking up to the bar, the Chinese-American grinned broadly at the bartender, who shook his head as he poured two more shots of Fireball.
“Xièxie” Andrew said in Mandarin as he grabbed his drinks and knocked them back quickly. Looking up at the clock, he wondered where his sister, Anne was. Frowning, he grabbed his cell phone. Anne was a lawyer, a job that made their father’s incredibly proud, while Andrew’s career choice of being a photographer was less impressive. Of course, one of the benefits of being a freelancer meant that Andrew got to pick and choose his hours, which meant that his weekend had started three hours ago, where his sisters was just now beginning.
“I’m switching you to water,” the bartender said when Andrew turned around.
“I’m not even drunk,” Andrew said as he flashed his trademark grin.
“I’m trying to save your liver,”
“Stronger bartenders have tried,” the photographer said as he took the glass of water. “Just switch me to beer. It’s a compromise.”
Grabbing the glass of water, Andrew turned around, only to find himself bumping into someone. Luckily, he was able to save his drink.
“Sorry,” Andrew said with a frown. “Didn’t see you there. You okay?”
Retirement at thirty years old was such a weird concept still to Eva Miller who had recently competed in the Olympics for the last time in her career. Even though she had known all along that athletes of her rank always retired from the sport and an earlier age that most people with regular jobs, only because training took such a tool on the body no matter how careful you were, she couldn’t wrap her brain around the idea that she was finally done and now she had to figure out what she wanted to do or be the next thirty years of her life. After the games in Beijing, Eva and her partner Jason Moir returned to Colorado, there were celebrations, a lot of press and interviews and just as the woman had a chance to sit down and catch a breath, her father confessed he had been diagnosed with Cancer a while ago and the first portion of what her next steps needed to be revealed itself as she came to the decision to move back to Utopia to help take care of her father while he underwent aggressive treatment.
She had been in Utopia for two weeks and she hadn’t had a chance to get out of the house and rediscover the town, although the woman was purposely keeping herself out of radar because she wanted to have the privacy to readjust rather than be flooded with questions and invitations. Yet, she couldn’t avoid the outside much longer due to her constant need of staying active and it became even harder the moment Jason arrived to town to visit his own family a couple days prior.
“You’re newly retiring and somehow you’re still working, Evie.” Her father said as he sat down in the hospital while hooked up to an IV drip that administrated the treatment into his bloodstream. After a lot of convincing from both her father and Jason the woman finally decided to go out that night as some of the people she and Jason knew from high school made plans to get together at a bar called The Honey Rooftop. About an hour later, Eva found herself at the bar laughing about some story one of her former classmates said about her children. It was a little crazy to think that many of them were already married or at least we engaged or had at least one kid simply because those thoughts were stuff that had been so far from crossing the Olympian’s mind as her whole focus all this time had been in mostly on what competition came next and how they could surprise people next.
“So, you two never actually dated? Come on guys, you two look like a married couple on the ice and on TV all the time. I could bet you guys have a crush on each other and aren’t willing to admit.” One of them said causing Eva and Jason to look at each other and shake their heads. It was a question they couldn’t avoid even when they had publicly said in interviews that the two were nothing but really good friends. Of course, nobody would ever know that they attempted to date for a couple of weeks when she was sixteen but quickly both realized how weird it was and came to the realization they were nothing more than good friend who could portrait such chemistry in their performances but nothing more.
“Guys, no, we’ve known each other for over twenty years, we are grown adults in their thirties. Don’t you think we’d have come forward by now if we were in fact dating?” Jason said and Eva chuckled and shook her head again.
“I’m getting a drink, be right back.” She said before walking away from her table and headed towards the bar, but just as she pushed through the crowd but just as she was about to reach the bar, a man turned around so quickly his arm bumped into her but somehow managing to keep his drink from spilling on her shirt.
“Sorry. Didn’t see you there, you okay?” The man said as Eva was looking down at her shirt before she looked up at him and caught his smile as he looked at her in an apologetic manner.
“Oh, I’m okay. Don’t worry about it, seriously.” She said with a smile, “It’s hard to see anybody really with all this people here.” She said as she looked around, the place was full with people, her attention being pulled by the bartender who had been a former classmate of hers when they were in middle school who immediately called her by her name.
“Eva! And the stars are visiting!” The man said causing Eva to pull an awkward grin, as she was cringing at the way he was referring to her. The woman knew she had selected a career that would possibly cause reactions like that but still, she didn’t get used it. “What do you want?” He said asked before spotting the man behind him.
“You don’t tell me you finished your drink already, you need to slow down.” He said and Eva couldn’t help but arch an eyebrow and chuckled as she looked back at the stranger she had just ran into before looking back at Mike.
“A tequila shot and a beer, please.” She said and smiled again before looking back at the man. “Are you okay? He’s making it sound like you’ve had half the bottles in this bar already.” She said with a chuckle.
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