@sacredandwild || sc
The last time Benji set foot in the LAX airport, he couldn’t have even ordered himself a beer. It had been at least ten years now, hadn’t it? He couldn’t have been any older than seventeen, maybe eighteen at the oldest. How naive he’d been. How young. Though it seemed like yesterday, it also felt like a lifetime had passed since then. He wasn’t even close to the same person anymore. For one thing, he was grown. For another, he hadn’t come to California to mend ties with his father this time. This time, it was business.
“No Kirin, huh?” he was saying to the bartender, a grin tucked into one corner of his mouth. “Yeah, I figured not. Just a shot in the dark. Gimme a second to think it over.” As the bartender departed, he blinked to his left and saw a woman with soft, blonde hair that fell around her shoulders in waves. As he saw her reaching for her glass, he got a glimpse of a tribal-looking wolf tattoo on her wrist. It was simple and clean. Fitting for someone as clean-cut as she seemed to be. He had a feeling she’d be the kind of woman who would tell him to get lost before he even opened his mouth, and yet, he found himself thinking, ‘Who cares?’ Even if he got shot down, he just couldn’t help himself around a pretty face.
“Hey, stranger,” he tapped her shoulder lightly and put on his best (and hopefully charming) smile. “Got any suggestions? Maybe a local beer? I’m totally out of my element here.”