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“… You are aware that there’s a meeting tomorrow at 9am, aren’t you?”
It was loud in the pub and Jodie hadn’t shouted exactly, but she had leaned forward and spoken the words right next to his ear, so it was rather unlikely that he hadn’t heard her. Still, Shuichi didn’t look up, seemingly still intently focused on the coasters in front of him, appearing completely insensible to the noise – and her voice – around him.
“Shuichi!”
Shuichi jumped in his seat and whirled around, destroying his pitiful attempt at building a card house – honestly, this was just pathetic – and knocking over his glass in the process. The content spilled over the coasters and the table and dripped onto his pants.
He cursed.
Loudly.
And colourfully.
Jodie had the benefit of standing just out of reach of the splashes when the glass fell over, and quickly reached for some napkins. Pressing some of them into his hands, she used the others to clean up the mess on the bar table and gratefully handed over the wet and sticky bundle to the barkeeper who had been drawn to them by the noise of the commotion. The young woman blushed slightly at Jodie’s bright smile and quickly moved her eyes away, settling on the still bumbling and muttering cause of the commotion.
“Colleagues,” said Jodie and rolled her eyes exaggeratedly, making the other woman laugh as she left to deal with the used napkins.
Jodie turned back to Shuichi to assess the situation.
“Had a bit too much to drink, don’t you think?”
He looked up from his rather ineffective attempt at drying his pants with the napkins, and for the first time Jodie noticed the dark circles under his eyes. She was rather certain they mirrored hers.
“What do you want?” His voice was rough, and Jodie wondered how much of it could be attributed to the alcohol.
“Take you home, for starters.”
He jerked back, so violently that he almost knocked into the person behind him, if they hadn’t been fortunate enough to be leaning towards their own companion on their other side at that moment.
“I have a girlfriend!”
Jodie raised an eyebrow. “Okay?”
“I can’t go home with someone else!”
Her eyebrow rose higher.
“I’m not unfaithful!”
Her other eyebrow was now itching to go up as well. “Right. That’s great.”
He didn’t answer, just kept staring at her, simultaneously looking both wary and indignant. If it hadn’t been such a shitty day, she might have laughed at his expression.
She pressed three fingers of her hand against the side of her forehead, before facing him again. “Honestly, Shu, what the fuck are you doing?”
Now his expression turned decidedly outraged.
“Why do you call me ‘Shu’? You mustn’t call me that! That’s what my girlfriend calls me!”
Jodie felt the urge to punch him, but was kept from acting on it because the barkeeper had returned, placing a glass of water in front of them and smiling at Jodie. Jodie looked at the glass, then at Shuichi, who was still looking at her with indignation and yet, somehow, seemed to have trouble focusing on her. She turned back to the barkeeper. “How much did he drink?”
“A lot.”
“Great. Shu, drink that.” With a sigh, she pressed the glass into his hand and ignored his protests at her calling him ‘Shu’ again. “I’ll pay his bill. The idiot can pay me back once he’s sober.”
The barkeeper laughed at her probably extremely annoyed expression and left for the cash register, returning after a few minutes with the bill. Jodie paid and gave her a large tip, before turning her attention back to Shuichi. At least he had already finished most of the water.
She took the barstool next to him and waited until he was done and had placed the glass back on the bar. “Can you walk?”
“… Where?”
“Home.” Seeing the appalled look on his face, she added, “to your girlfriend.”
He looked at her with his head slightly tilted to the side. “Do you know where she lives?”
“I’m pretty sure I can find the way.”
To her surprise, he seemed to deflate at that, looking utterly dejected.
“What is it?”
He didn’t answer, just looked at the floor in front of him. “Shu? -ichi?” she added, hastily, when his eyes snapped back up to glare at her. “Sorry.”
He looked back down where his fingers were playing with the now empty glass, pushing it from one hand into the other, tapping his fingertips in irregular patterns against it. Then, in an extremely unhappy voice, he said:
“She is angry at me.”
Oh, god.
“Wh-Why is that- I mean-.” Surely she shouldn’t pry while he thought she was someone else? That couldn’t be right, morally, could it? Cautiously, she said, “Don’t you think she would rather you came back home instead of getting drunk in a bar?”
“But she was so angry.”
Yes, yes, she had been, but she hadn’t thought she’d drive him into trying to drown his sorrows in alcohol.
“Because I hurt her. I didn’t want to hurt her.”
Jodie’s heart clenched painfully.
“Have you- … Did you tell her that?”
He looked up at her, almost thoughtfully.
“No..? She just left, and then I left, and then I landed here.” There was a pause. “I think.”
They were idiots, the two of them. Two utterly idiotic idiots.
Jodie got up from her stool and took his wrist. “Come on,” she said, pulling slightly. With less resistance than she had expected he got up, only to look at her utterly confused. Jodie sighed.
“I’ll take you home to your girlfriend, and then you two can talk, and then everything will be alright again.”
He looked at her, with an expression that seemed to scream his reluctance to give in to his hope, and she felt her heart clench again. “You think so?”
“I know so.” And she let her hand slip from his wrist into his hand and pulled him behind her out of the bar.