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The bar isn’t what it usually is for a Wednesday night, Rachel knows through passive observation. It’s full of townies on Monday through Wednesday, accounting for the rush hour people seem to enjoy on hump day. Thursdays are, well, thirsty. It’s the time in which the college students meld in with locals with actual ID’s and that’s the slippery slope leading into the busy weekend.
Rachel has gotten used to the in-and-outs over a six-month period. In the school of business Friday classes are nonexistent. Fatin, her roommate and self proclaimed best friend was always dragging her out for thirsty Thursday, especially freshman year. It’s how she met her girlfriend last semester, but it’s also the reason she’s kind of in a little bit of a predicament.
Like most times something in her life goes horribly awry, this can be blamed on Fatin. Yeah, there’s this particular instance. It could be likened to a terrible domino effect, none of it would even be happening if Fatin hadn’t introduced her to the hot bartender that was apparently giving her what Fatin called the “fuck me eyes.” Rachel wouldn’t have given it a shot and consequently, Victoria would never have the chance to brutally dump her before her five-hour flight at the start of winter break.
The breakup wasn’t messy by any means if you don’t count Rachel herself. She is a mess, but nobody needs to know that. The problem is, Fatin does, and she’s convinced a night out can get her out of this funk. It’s part of the reason she is where she is. Fatin wanted to go the bar with her, though it took some convincing. Fatin is still on the clock even as their uber drops them off.
“She has a brand new girlfriend. Trust me, I know you’re a cold turkey kinda girl and blocked her already but I saw their coordinated posts for today. They’re definitely in love,” Fatin explains using her index nail to scrape the corner of Rachel’s mouth. She knows better to swat Fatin’s hands away. The news isn’t necessarily good, so she deepens her scowl and tolerates Fatin tinkering with her face before they walk inside.
Fatin clearly tries to be sensitive, because she knows Rachel is still sore over the subject. It’s certainly not her expertise. Eventually, Fatin notices her sour face after her attempts at jokes are just met with the clacking of her own heels as they approach the entrance
“Oh my god bitch, I didn’t say that to be a dick. I’m just saying, it’s Valentine’s Day. Would you take your girlfriend to a bar on Valentine’s Day? No, being all up on sweaty ass people isn’t romantic” Fatin explained, and it at least got her to crack a smile before they were swinging the door to hell open.
So yes, Fatin wore her down. The problem with going out with just Fatin, is that Fatin gets around. It’s never bothered Rachel. Sure, she’s never had a friend– well firstly she’s never had a friend like Fatin– but she hasn’t ever known a person, let alone a woman, to be so sex-positive. She actually thinks it’s kind of cool. The issue is, she was promised that she wouldn’t be left alone but by now she’s watched Fatin be led out by a tall brunette and there aren’t good odds she’ll be back soon. The whole point of going out was to not dwell on being single, and now she’s without a girlfriend and without a friend.
So there’s that, and Rachel’s sure she can’t regret her decision to go any more than she does when she hears it over the music. In her exes defense, Rachel is hanging close to the entrance, and maybe that’s why she hears Victoria’s all too familiar chortling. Immediately, her head snaps to towards the source, and of course, Victoria is there. Rachel presumes that the girl she has in tow is her new girlfriend.
And Rachel knew, Fatin loves this bar and loves to gossip so the whole situation isn’t a huge surprise. Somehow seeing it in the flesh still nauseates the hell out of her. It’s only been three months since they broke up and Rachel can’t help but wonder how she found someone else so quickly. Or why Victoria broke up with her in the first place. Rachel still has a lot of questions.
The only thing that breaks her out of her stunned state is the very real probability of her being spotted, so no matter how irrational it may be, she storms away from the entrance and up to the bar.
Once she’s pushed through enough bodies she glances back through the shuffling people and doesn’t see a single flash of blonde hair. She figures they must’ve gone to the bathroom. Or they’re hooking up in a corner or something, her brain adds. She knows it happens a lot. Ironically, Victoria had been the supplier of those stories.
“Are you gonna order or?” some guy to her right sounds, far too deep in her bubble.
It makes her feel a bit icky anyway, but adding Fatin, Victoria, and her single status in worsens her mood so maybe that’s why she snaps, “Can you back the fuck up?”
It could’ve been because she was loud, her explicit body language, or the fact that the man himself looks taken aback, but she manages to capture the attention of a group of girls down the bar. She huffs in annoyance, drunk girls love to laugh at unfunny shit. But then one is breaking away and coming right towards her.
She ignores it and pushes off the bar slightly to examine her options. The building is crowded, dark, loud, she’s basically freaking out for no reason. If Victoria sees her at all, it’s not like she’s going to greet her. They’re not going to do a little catch up on Valentine’s Day, while she’s with her new girlfriend. And if she’s spotted she can just pretend it’s not really her.
So she forms a plan in her head. She’ll slip into the sea of people, leave the bar, text Fatin and get herself an uber. If she hurries she might be able to catch Dot coming home from her date with Mateo. She gets really into the scenario for a second. The prospect of spending her night how she wanted in the first place, waking up without a hangover.
She’s geared up to enact said plan, is just about to take her first step when two things happen. One, the girl from earlier has finally reached her and is saying something she can hardly hear. Two, she sees her ex and her alleged girlfriend emerge from the opposite side of the bar. She has to make this escape quick.
“Was that guy bothering you?” The girl asks, sort of yells actually. The illumination near the bar helps to make out her features a bit more. She’s tan and slim with wavy hair, and obviously has a knack for asking dumbass questions.
“I thought I made that clear,” Rachel snips.
The girl makes a confused face before she yells again, “What?”
“I thought I made that clear!” Rachel tries again, and then the girl starts rapidly nodding. Rachel sighs, she is indeed a drunk girl, here to laugh at stupud shit. Without thinking, she glances in Victoria’s direction, it’s impossible to wonder whether or not she’s been spotted.
That’s when the worst thing of her fucking life happens. They lock eyes, just for a second, before Rachel snaps her head in the other direction.
“I actually– I came to tell you…” the girl slurs, “I know the bartenders here, we can kick his ass out if need be.”
Rachel panics, hard, hardly even listening. She grabs the girl’s elbow and leans in close to her ear, hopefully, it looks at least a little romantic or intimate.
“What’s your name?”
The girl thrashes away from her, it’s not a good look, but she seems unfazed as she answers rather loudly, “Toni!”
Rachel gives a discreet look around, but Victoria hasn’t noticed anything. She sends a prayer that literally nobody else will ever learn about what she’s going to do.
“Hey Toni, my ex is here. Can you pretend to be my girlfriend for a bit? I’ll buy you…” Rachel starts but Ton’s dazed eyes tell her she’s had enough, “I’ll give you twenty bucks. Just hold my hand and pretend you like me.”
Toni shakes her head, “I already have a girlfriend.”
“It’s..it’ll be fake. She wouldn’t even know,” Rachel says shamefully, and if she’s honest she’s not above begging this random girl.
“My girlfriend is crazy, we’d both be dead,” Toni gets out through a fit of giggles.
Dismayed, Rachel looks for Victoria again, they’re just barely getting their drinks. That’s when Toni saves the day.
“My sister is single though, come with me,” and she legitimately grabs Rachel’s wrist and finagles them to the other end of the bar, away from her. Rachel didn’t have much time for protest, or even to say that her ex clearly didn’t plan on saying anything to her.
Rachel doesn’t realize that they’ve reached Toni’s sister until Toni practically pushes them together. She slams into the other girl, who does kinda look like Toni so it’s kind of Rachel’s bad. Rachel spews out an apology that the other girl probably doesn’t hear.
“Pretend to be her girlfriend Marty, I’ll give you ten bucks!” Toni says joyfully, and then she leans toward Rachel, conspicuous as ever, “You owe me twenty dollars.”
Marty isn’t put off by this the least bit, to her defense. In reality, she’s very polite.
“I think I should know my girlfriend’s name?”
“It’s Rachel, you’re Marty?” Rachel replies heedfully.
The good news is, if Victoria does somehow see her, she’ll think that she has a new hot girlfriend too. The bad news is, Marty is very hot, and this is embarrassing as fuck.
“Martha, actually. If I’m allowed to ask, why am I your girlfriend?”
Here’s the thing about bars. The whole building is dark, but obviously, people want to see their drink being made so there are a lot more fixtures near where the drinks are. It’s so unfortunate because Martha can probably see evidence of Rachel’s humiliation.
“My ex-girlfriend surprised the fuck out of me. My friend left, I panicked because she saw me, and then I asked your sister, and here I am,” Rachel breezes through, tries to not to dwell on the fact that Martha has somehow gravitated towards her. Their proximity from an outside perspective might indicate that they really are together.
As to not take advantage of her kindness Rachela adds, “Toni didn’t let me say before we came over here, but my ex already saw me and had the opportunity to say something and didn’t. So, you know, you’re probably good.”
Martha’s eyes clearly study her face before she steps back a little.
“No twenty bucks then?” Toni says before downing her cup with both hands, her head tipped up like a child.
“Shouldn’t she chill?” Rachel checks with Martha.
Martha whispers close to her ear, “Her girlfriend has been serving her water for the past thirty minutes, don’t say anything.”
Rachel mimes her lips being zipped before she asks, “What about you? Can I buy you a drink for being more willing than Toni?”
Martha opens her mouth but nothing comes out because Toni’s voice cuts through their bubble.
“Hey Vic! Where the fuck have you been?” She cries out and Rachel has to swivel her head a bit to see who she’s addressing and then the actual worst moment of her life happens.
If she hadn’t looked, the results would be the same, but she wishes she could’ve had some time to compose herself. But she doesn’t, and Victoria invades her newfound safe space in moments.
“Toni!” she squeals before pecking Toni’s cheek, “You’re fucked up, where is Shelby?”
Rachel is left to watch in horror as they exchange pleasantries and drunkenly laugh over each other. Her back is stiff, eyes wide, and she knows she must look like she’s seen a ghost. She’s actually looking at a demon.
But alas, also in the presence of an angel. It happens in a span of a few seconds. Martha slides her arm around Rachel’s waist and subtly pulls her rigid form closer until they’re touching and doesn’t let go. Obviously Rachel doesn’t have the aerial view of herself and Martha, but she suspects they look very comfortable together. Especially after she forces herself to relax. She figures she should lean into this, figuratively and literally, letting her arm stretch across Martha’s lower back. If she’s at all secretly comforted by the contact, nobody needs to know.
The timing of Martha’s actions is really impeccable because Victoria’s eyes flit over to them when she’s done with whatever party her and Toni were having.
Martha must have a fucking background in theatre or something because she acts completely normal.
“Hey Vicky! So nice to see you, how are things?” Martha half-shouts and Rachel can feel her hand caressing her side like it’s a part of their day-to-day.
While Victoria is distracted Rachel thinks of the odds of this happening. The one time Fatin is able to convince her to come back out since she was dumped. There’s another set of odds that seemed to have come together just to fuck her over.
1.Victoria is not working
2.Victoria comes to the bar as a customer and not a bartender
Then there’s a whole other situation of Victoria somehow knowing Toni and Martha.
“…oh yeah and this is my girlfriend Rachel. Rachel, this is our friend Vicky, she works with Shelby,” Martha introduces and Rachel feels the need to reboot.
Should she pretend like she’s just now meeting her? It would be weird because it seems every party knows the truth, besides maybe Toni. And who the fuck is Shelby?
It turns out she doesn’t need to decide. Victoria cackles over the loud music before leaning further into the circle and cocking her head towards Toni.
“You’re telling me, Martha is gay now? I know you got Shelbs to flip the switch…” she drones on but Rachel can’t catch up. She's thinking about how Martha is straight, besides now when she’s pretending not to be. Rachel tries to not be disappointed. This is nice for Martha to do anyway.
Moments after Victoria’s speech it seems that Toni registers it, and she looks wildly uncomfortable for a second before Martha saves the day.
“Yeah, I thought I was straight, but Rachel just awoke something inside of me. Like all the pieces of myself I already knew but couldn’t really place found themselves exactly where they need to be when I was around her.”
Victoria’s eyes narrow, vertical lines creasing between her brows. Rachel should recognize that her expression reflects anger, like she hates that they’re together, but she doesn’t. All she can think about is how she isn’t at all enticed, how those eyes do nothing for her, bar lighting or not.
She really doesn’t care. Of course Victoria interrupts her discovery, her face reverting to a neutral state.
“Well I would say—” she starts but someone hustles past her and nearly spills their drink on her, Martha squeezes Rachel’s side “—that I don’t believe you but that was cringey enough to come from a baby gay. So welcome, it’s great here.”
Great it’s—
“Nah, Martha is like in love with Rachel, so gay,” Toni yells, clearly trying to help. It nearly shatters the plan, but the day is saved again.
Her fake girlfriend nods, turns her to face her and Rachel gets almost no warning before Martha fits her lips around her own. She has little time to react but she kisses back as best as she can even though it’s over as soon as it starts.
When they pull away the air around them is pretty awkward. The rest of the interaction pretty much is. Though their point is officially made, the music is still loud, the floor is wet, Toni is drunk, Rachel is gay and she isn’t exactly sure who else is. Victoria’s girlfriend comes looking for her shortly and they both leave. Rachel doesn’t even wonder if the new girl knows anything about her.
She only gets to buy two drinks (hers and Martha’s) before Toni is feeling a little queasy and they move their three girl party outside. Their fingers are interlocked the whole way to the entrance and Rachel isn’t sure what to think. Martha only lets go so she can rub Toni’s back and reassure her that her ride is on the way.
Once Toni is safely on her way home Martha explains that she has to take Shelby home after her shift ends, in a couple hours. Obviously Rachel offers to stay with her.
“Thanks for tonight, that was really dope,” why is her heart beating so fast, she adds, “and unexpected.”
“Oh yeah, I go to these improv sessions with my friend Shelby and I thought it would be a good opportunity to practice. I hope the kiss wasn’t too much.”
Rachel scratches the back of her neck, feeling incredibly scrutinized under Martha’s gaze.
“Nah, it was good— the acting was good, how you thought fast and all that,” Rachel corrects and quickly tries to reel herself in to think about these things.
Holy shit, she needs to get a hold of herself. Rachel straightens her back, Martha is hot, maybe gay, and she’s realized she’s moved on.
“So, how much of that was acting?”
What a stupid fucking question Rachel thinks as Martha’s eyebrows draw together. Obviously Martha isn’t actually in love with her.
She’s really supposed to be better at this.
“I mean, was the kissing a girl a part of world building, did I really slide the pieces together or…”
This is going terribly and Martha is starting to smile a bit. Rachel’s starting to wonder if she’s embarrassing herself. It’s so outside of herself, she needs to get on track.
She stops rambling.
“Do you like girls?”
It’s the first thing she’s said since they stepped out that feels totally right.
Martha bites her lip as if she’s thinking, but she surprises Rachel with a nod.
Rachel cracks a smile, her heartbeat is not letting up.
“So you don’t need the ten bucks?”
Martha seems to scan her entire body before her gaze settles on Rachel’s mouth.
“I’m sure we could work something out.”
And of fucking course, ten minutes later, she’s outside of her favorite bar on Valentine’s day when Fatin ruins her make out session with a hot girl.