Make mine a large one...

Posted on Fri 1st Mar, 2013 @ 4:33am by Lieutenant JG Xavier Lee

1,709 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: http://sb109.sim-station.net/index.php/sim/missions/id/3
Location: Orchids & Jazz

[Set straight after 'A Kiss Is Still A Kiss']

Xavier was still fuming from his double dinner date and was way too wired to go back to his quarters. All he wanted was a drink or two and to write the whole night off as a complete and utter waste of time. He found himself in O&J and his legs carried him swiftly to the bar without much persuasion.

Serena was on duty behind the beautiful wooden bar Jade had imported for Orchids & Jazz. The evening was relatively quiet and she was enjoying the music when an officer in gold uniform walked up. "Good evening," she smiled at him. "Welcome to Orchids & Jazz. What can I get for you?"

"Blackhole," Xavier answered sharply. "Make it a large one." He wasn't normally so discourteous and it made him feel a little guilty. She disappeared for a minute and then returned with his order. Xavier took the glass and swallowed its entire contents in one go.

Withdrawing down the bar slightly, Serena put away her smile. The lieutenant was obviously either angry or under stress, judging by his manner and the way he'd gulped his drink. Not many people ordered the Ferengi drink, and even fewer drank it in a gulp. Rather than stare at him, she turned slightly away, still able to see him out of the corner of her eye if he signaled her, and tried to concentrate on the music again. Jade was sitting in on the alto sax, and that woman could really blow a horn.

The drink hadn't even touched the sides and did nothing for Xavier's mood, in fact he was quite sure if he drank a whole bottle is mood would still be exactly the same. "I'll have another," he said as he held up his empty glass, "please," he added as an after thought. It wasn't her fault his boyfriend was a complete and utter tool, not to mention that boss of his.

"No problem," Serena said, and shortly placed another glass in front of him, removing the empty one. "Celebrating something?" she asked, though she was certain that was the furthest thing from the truth. Sometimes it got people talking, and that released tension and they calmed down instead of going out and punching someone.

Xavier picked up the glass and was just about to throw the dark liquid down his throat when the bartender's question stopped him mid-action. He slowly lowered the glass back to the bar as he arched an eyebrow. "Celebrating?" He repeated, "not exactly." He smiled and then downed his drink. "I just hate men, I mean are they all stupid or do I have some kind of talent of picking out the brainless ones?" He knew she wouldn't be able to give a great overview due to the fact that they had just met, but if felt good to get things off his chest and that's what bartenders were for, right?

"They're all stupid," Serena said, dead pan. "So you don't need a talent for picking out the brainless ones." She hoped she'd make him smile, if not laugh. Her personal opinion was that it was about 50-50. Half of all men were stupid, and some people had a real talent for finding them. She didn't know the man drinking like a Klingon warrior going into battle, but he was obviously upset. A laugh, even a bitter one, might help.

Xavier grinned at the woman. She seemed nice enough, willing to talk to the guy who wanted to drink his problems away. He knew she probably got paid to be nice, but the effects were the same. The big, black, cloud over Xavier's head was thinning, though that might be the effects of the alcohol. "And there was me thinking I was a rather talented person. Oh well, I suppose I'll have another and one for yourself too," he said sounding more polite than when he had first entered O&J.

Serena took his glass and soon replaced it with a fresh drink. "I think I'll avoid the Black Hole, and just have a lemon Coke," she told him, setting that up for herself. "You might be talented. You've just downed two knock-em-dead drinks, over a brainless man, I think you said?" Serena grinned.

"Mama would be ashamed of you. She'd say you seem smart enough, so you ought to know that 'the demand to be safe in relationship inevitably breeds sorrow and fear.' She'd be right, of course," the bartender nodded thoughtfully. "So tell me about this stupid man. What's so appealing about him?"

This time Xavier did laugh. "Mama was ashamed of me a long time ago." He accepted his drink and decided to take this one slowly. He was feeling calmer now, more like his normal self, instead of the angry hick that that stormed in the place. "We get on so well and he's sweet and kind, not to mention sexy as hell. He just pushes things too far, he can never just live in the moment. Plus I found out tonight he doesn't trust me around hot men," Xavier sighed and took a gulp of his drink. "But I'm sure you don't want to listen to my problems."

"Why not?" Serena shrugged. "I have none of my own."

After a moment of looking him over, she added, "You seem the kind of man who could hold his own. Tell me, why does it bother you that he's jealous? Isn't that a good thing? A sign that he finds you of worth to others, but doesn't want to share you? Is it really about trust?" Her questions came one after another, on top of each other, too fast to answer all at once, and she stopped suddenly. "I'm sorry if I'm being intrusive. I guess it rubs off working here. People come in with all kinds of emotions."

Xavier grinned, "it's no problem at all, after all I'm the one that brought my problems to you. If it was jealousy, I could deal with that, it would be stupid but at least I'd understand. But this was just a trust thing, like I have given him a reason to not trust me, which I haven't by the way," Xavier added quickly. "We argue a lot and normally I wouldn't think it was worth it, but I'm really starting to fall for this man and if these issues are present now, what's it going to be like in say a year's time?"

Serena nodded, not in agreement, necessarily, but in understanding the way he saw the issue. "I don't know the man, obviously, but is it possible that the 'trust thing' stems from the same issues jealously usually does? Insecurity?" She thought for a moment. "Okay, I'm not offering you advice, don't think I am. You don't need to answer my questions, because I'm merely speculating out loud, got it?"

She didn't wait for an answer, but went right on. "What are you doing to make this guy feel secure? You said you argue a lot. In my experience, arguments mean that the other person might step out the door at any moment, to use a figurative turn of phrase. Maybe it isn't you he doesn't trust. Maybe he doesn't think HE has the power to hold you, especially since you argue frequently. Maybe he thinks someone more exciting, more intelligent, more congenial will come along and snag your attention."

Serena paused and looked him in the eye. "Maybe it isn't about you as much as it is about him."

Xavier looked at the bartender for a long time, as if he was seeing her properly for the first time since he had entered the bar. She was right of course, to an extent. He had been so wrapped up in himself he hadn't really considered Giellun, and why he had reacted the way he had. Giellun was strong and confident, hell he was half-Romulan, he was born to be dominating and arrogant. But since the pair had started dating, Gil had become more submissive, almost alien. Xavier had never understood why until this woman lifted the blindfold from his eyes. Xavier was a telepath and yet this woman seemed to know more about what was happening in his relationship than he did. He was so careful to not pry into Giellun's thoughts, to give him the privacy that any sentient-being deserved and somehow he, Xavier, had managed to close himself off completely.

"You are wasted behind this bar," Xavier said awestruck.

Serena laughed. "Maybe. If I spent all my time behind it. If that means thank you, then you're welcome. Another drink, or do you have somewhere else to be?"

Xavier grinned a broad smile. "Yes I will have another drink and please have another one yourself. Your advice makes a lot of sense, I just don't really know what to do now."

Serena took the time to think while she prepared another Black Hole for the Lieutenant and, this time, a plain club soda for herself. She set his drink down in front of the man, tilted her glass toward him in salute, and drank a good swallow.

"I think I'm going to tell you what my Mama told me," she said. The fact that she didn't actually have a mother, or had never known the female who gave her birth, never kept her from dispensing the woman's knowledge. "The way to get along with anyone is to realize it doesn't matter who's wrong and who's right. Be the first to apologize, sincerely meaning it, and everything will come 'round."

Xavier thought about the bartender's words and smiled. He had come in here so full of anger and despair and now that had all dissipated, replaced instead by wisdom and serenity. Maybe it was this woman or maybe it was the alcohol but which ever had helped him most, Xavier felt a lot happier and ready to face Giellun, this time for all the right reasons.

Xavier held up his glass, tilted slightly to the bartender. "Here's to Mama's wisdom."

OOC: Unless there's anything else you would like to add I think that would be good place to end this.

 

RSS Feed