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Another grueling day at work and to top it off your friends had ditched you just as you’d arrived at the pub where you were supposed to meet up. You decide to have at least a couple of drinks to cool off, even if it meant seating on the bar counter by yourself with your book, because you just couldn’t bear any unwanted advances.
Deeply engrossed in your book you barely register when someone sits next you, that is until you hear him order his drink and it was a voice you’d recognize anywhere. You slyly look up from your book, enough to confirm he was sitting by himself and you try to supress your anxiety because Alex freaking Turner had just taken a seat next to you. What are you supposed to do? Do you just approach him, tell him he is amazing and leave? He surely doesn’t want to be bothered by a stranger at a pub, attracting unwanted attention to him.
“I love tha’ book.” You are caught by surprise, bumping your hand on your glass and spilling the rest of your drink on the counter, narrowly missing your book, “ ‘m sorreh, didn’t mean to spook yeh.” Alex is quickly to mop up your mess with some napkins, “ ‘ere, let me get you another drink. What would you like?” You snap out of your panic and stare at his soft brown eyes, “I-I, it’s okay. You don’t have to.” He shakes his head slightly, “I don’t ‘ave to, but I’d love to buy a pretteh girl a drink.”
You can feel your cheeks burning and you manage to stammer out a response, “Thank you. I’d love a gin and tonic, please.” Alex smiles and flags down the bartender, ordering your drink and a refill on his tequila and soda, “So, yeh a big fan of Hemingway?” It takes you a second to remember that you were reading Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, “Oh yes, I adore him. His vision of Paris and the whole lost decade authors… I just feel such a connection. I’m sorry, that’s a bit weird.” Alex smirks, his lip quirking up on one side.
“Not at all, I totalleh get what yeh mean. There’s nothing like Paris.” You are interrupted momentaneously by the bartender setting your drinks on the counter and Alex paying, “To Paris.” You giggle and toast him, “Yeh ever been?” You nod, “Yes, one summer. It was amazing.” He nods smiling, “I am drawn to it, tha knows? There is summat about that citeh, I can’t put me finger to it.” You can’t handle the amount of passion Alex is showing right now, it’s simply surreal, “I understand exactly what you mean, after all you did make the perfect record there.” He raises his eyebrows in surprise.
“Oh… Yeah I am a huge fan, goodness, I just really love Tranquility Base a-and…” You trail off unable to figure out how to keep going, “Fank yeh, that’s loveleh to ‘ear.” You ponder your next move, trying not to make a complete fool of yourself and Alex saves you, “I’m sorry, I-I just keep making a fool out of myself.” You cover your face with your hands which Alex gently removes, “Yeh ‘aven’t done anyfing to look like a fool, trust meh. Yeh got me wondering why such a beautiful woman would be sitting be ‘erself on a Friday night.”
You nod, trying to get over the fact that when Alex pulled your hands away he kept ahold of one of them, drawing circles on your palm with his calloused finger, “I-I got ditched, last minute.” That halts his movements, “Boyfriend?” You shake your head, so quickly you are a bit dizzy after, “No! M-My friends… There’s, hmm, no boyfriend.” He smiles and continues caressing your palm, “I see. So you’ve lived ‘ere in LA for long?” You nod, taking a sip of your drink, “A few years now, came for work and just stayed I guess.”
“I know what yeh mean, it’s a good citeh to… Lose yerself in.” You nod, thinking of all the empty streets of LA, “Yes… It’s as if you could fall on a crack in the pavement and no one would remember you’d ever existed.” Alex nods along, listening intently to you, a small smile playing on his lips, “But isn’t tha’ the beauteh of this city? It gives yeh the freedom to create exactleh because there is so much going on at all times that you have the time and space to get to know yerhself. At least tha’ was ‘ow I reached Tranquility Base, tha’ knows?”
You are mesmerized by him, from his easy smile and smooth deep voice, to his gorgeous dark grey suit, cut to perfectly frame his broad shoulders and narrow waist. You got lost inside your own thoughts, “ ‘ey, Earth to tha’ Moon, yeh okeh, love?” You snap out of it and smile, remembering whose company you were in, and Alex smiled back at you, “Thought I’d lost yeh for a minute there.” You take a final sip from your drink, “Nah, I just thought I’d heard the Martini Police playing. The music here isn’t the high point.”
“Well, I know this great little jazz club, up in tha’ hills. Would yeh like to join meh?” Alex extends his hand towards you and you don’t have to think twice before taking it, following him outside. Alex orders a car and the two of you wait, you stand with your back against the bar’s wall and
Alex stands by your side with his shoulder propped on the wall, “Do yeh mind?” He shows you a pack of cigarettes and you shake your head.
You watch as Alex lights one and takes a drag, blowing the smoke smoothly out of the corner of his lips, away from you, “ ‘orrible ‘abit, but I just can’t quit.” You shrug, it is an awful thing, but the sight of him, all that swagger and the slickness of his movements, makes you wish you could watch him do it all night. “There are worse things you could do.” He nods with a chuckle, throwing the cigarette butt to the ground and stepping on it.
“Is this a worse fing?” Alex places his index finger under your chin and brings your face up, he nuzzles his nose against yours before capturing your lips in a kiss, his lips move slowly against yours. You can taste the smoke in his mouth and your hand reaches up to his neck, your fingers running through the fuzzy hairs behind his ear. Alex sets his hand on your waist, pulling you closer to him when you are interrupted by a buzz on his phone. Reluctantly Alex pulls away and regards his phone, “The car’s ‘ere, c’mon, we’ve all night.” You smile and take his hand, following him to the car.