Surprise was evident in Brad’s face when he greeted her. He really wasn’t expecting to see her at all, the last time they actually saw each other was when they broke up, so the whole exchange felt really strange not to mention awkward. “I uhm… didn’t know you were here,” he said as he took the beer the bartender put in front of him and had left before he even had the chance to thank him. “How’ve you been?” he asked “You look as lovely as ever by the way” he said.
The awkward tension caused Lauren to finish her drink quickly. “I haven’t really left my room much,” she admitted quietly, motioning with her empty glass to the bartender for another drink. After she said it, she regretted it. Lauren didn’t want to go into much detail about how awful she felt the last few weeks with anyone really, at least not tonight but there it was - the question, ‘how are you?’ “I’m okay. Can’t really complain.” she answered, not returning the question back in hope of changing the conversation. She normally would skip over reading about him or anything like that so she really had no clue how he was or what he had been up to. Lauren felt her cheeks get warm after the compliment and rolled her eyes a little bit. “Oh, shut up.” The bartender came back with another drink and she took a large sip, bringing her attention to Brad with a small, flirty smile on her face. He looked good, too, but she wouldn’t admit it. Lauren didn’t know if it was the buzz from the strong drinks she was slamming down, her loneliness, or if she had just buried her feelings so far down that seeing Brad unleashed them but something was still there for her. She was curious where the night would take them or what this meant, if it meant anything at all. Her mind was rushing in with a bunch of thoughts, assumptions, and scenarios like it did 99% of the time when she was put in a situation she didn’t have control over. She tried her best to hide what she was thinking and feeling from him. He had a tendency to look right through her bullshit. “Let’s take a shot.” Lauren suggested, figuring alcohol would help ease things. She ordered two shots of fireball and handed one to Brad. She held her shot glass up to cheers. “To a good night?”