There’d been a fixed goal in her head for her life for as long as she could remember. One thing that her heart had been so entirely set on that she’d built her whole life around it. She had her dream and it had been the main motivation in her life. The reason behind her two degrees and endless hours poured into any kind of experience she could get her hands on. Successful and devoted, it had only been a matter of time before she’d reached the peak of her ambitions. Finally she was where she wanted to be and yet as always fate had a way of twisting things around her and leave her standing precariously on the shaky summit of her lofty achievements.
For all she’d had her vision, it hadn’t been the easiest of roads. Not when her father had always had his own picture of the future - one that painted the two of them together, father and daughter completely interwoven leaving her feeling stifled and suffocated. She’d tried his path or at least pretended to humour him but her heart had never been in it. He’d known that and taken it as a perceived slight that the business that he’d built up himself supposedly wasn’t good enough for her.
She found it hard to feel guilty over her choices, especially when her brother had stepped in to fill the void that she’d left in her father’s plans. Noah was far more of a natural with people than she was and she knew that his way with others had provided endless connections for their family winery. It was what had made the bars he’d invested in after the death of their father so successful too and it seemed obvious that they’d go on to be hotspots in Adelaide. What she’d never have been able to predict was that a car accident would leave her having to step in to help her sister in law steady the ship.
Juggling the bars as well as her day job was hardly easy but then again she’d never been one who ever really struggled. Besides, it was just what you did for family.
After a long day at work she’d wanted nothing more than to go home and curl up with a bottle of wine in the privacy of her own apartment but she knew that market research had to be done. The competition to her brother’s legacy had to be assessed. Confident steps had carried her over to the bar, eyes skimming down the menu before a slight satisfied smile flickered over her lips upon seeing one of her family’s bottles on it. A glass of red was ordered for herself before she scouted a place where she could interact with someone. Ideally a regular but she’d settle for someone’s brain to pick, first impressions counted.
Swift movement plucks her drink off the bar but before she can meander through the room a comotion catches her attention and she shifts just in time to see an intoxicated man stumble hard into one of the barstools. A soft “Ooh” escaping her as she winced somewhat playfully. Sense movement out of the corner of her eye she let dry words leave her lips, head tilting towards the man who was now being escorted out. “I bet he’ll be feeling that in the morning.” Lips pursed together slightly to prevent a smirk from settling too easily onto her features when she knew it was hardly a gracious trait to poke fun at others. Even if they did make it so easy.
With the ice now broken her gaze slipped back to the person who she’d joined, head tilting to the side as she considered them before allowing leisurely words to drip from dark painted lips. “You come here often?” She was well aware it sounded like the cliché bad pick up line, her curious gaze fixed on them over the rim of her wine glass hardly helping it come off anything but flirtatious. But she wanted to suss out her competition and in her experience there was nothing quite like a promise of undivided attention for pulling someone in.
@maura1x1