[Open]

[pullmeapint]

Finn cleared the last of the dishes from the dinner rush and carted them into the kitchen for Tandy, laughing when she asked if he'd been demoted to busser.

That chore done, he headed back into the bar to do a walk around, checking with those in the game room and those at the tables and booths scattered around the bar area. He joked with a few of the regulars and greeted the faces he couldn't remember seeing before taking his position behind the bar again.

Leaning against the back counter, he surveyed his pub and couldn't help the smile that formed. For as much flak as he'd received from his family over his choosing such a small town when he finally struck out on his own, he really did love the town. The atmosphere was open, accepting, and the sheer fact that he could use his abilities without causing the National Enquirer to drop onto his head made it perfect.

He looked up when the door opened and called out a welcome to the newcomer.

"Welcome to the Pub."

Comments

[keirasullivan]

"Maybe I'm playing the long con with you, surprise I'm the evil twin. The one who shelves things out of sequence," Keira said. Though mentally she winced at that idea. Seriously someone put her Dewey out of order and she would dewey something to their face. Heh, library puns. "I just mean, when you know you feel ready and comfortable to progress and want some tips or advice then you know where I am. I'll be here sexually harassing that poor man until closing time."

[aoife_coombs]

"I know I should tell you something about your word choice but as long as you're not sexually harassing my man I don't care."

"Oh God, I called him my man, that's so embarrassing." Aoife pulled closer. "It's all so completely different this time, Keira."

[keirasullivan]

"Please, I don't steal men from other people." Keira replied, grinning as Aoife pulled her close. Draping an arm around her shoulder, she waggled her eyebrows at her suggestively as Aoife called him 'her man'. "Nope, it just means you're in love. It's ridiculous and for once, he's actually Keira approved."

[aoife_coombs]

"Am not. I wouldn't even be able to recognise how that's supposed to feel."

"Why is he approved?" So maybe Aoife liked to hear that she made good decisions for once. "Have you two been meeting up without me? How do you even come up with such a meeting?"

[keirasullivan]

"It's what happens when you call people you like "your man", that's what it is." Keira replied with a laugh. Shaking her head at the question, she just raised an eyebrow at Aoife. "Nope, I just know you. You seem happier. Anyone who actually makes you happy deserves Keira approval."

[aoife_coombs]

"I'm not happier! That implies that I wasn't happy before I met him."

"I know, I should do the introduction thing, it's only polite." She sighed. "But with him right now I can just be the person he wants. With others around I'll work myself into a headache because of too many people asking too many things of me. Not you, of course. You know there's nothing to me."

[keirasullivan]

"You can be happier than happy, you know that right? There isn't a set limit of happiness in a person's life," Keira replied, pressing her lips together. There were plenty of times Keira had been happy, possibly even happier than now but she didn't discount her single happiness because of it. "You really should, so I can question and scrutinise him. And I know there's everything to you, I just know that if you want space then I'll... not give it and harass you some more before maybe eventually giving you it."

[aoife_coombs]

"I do kind of th-" She wasn't going to finish that sentence, things would become too dramatic. Keira had known her through her good and her bad periods, but right now Aoife just wanted to be sweet about Isaiah, not look at how sad her life and thinking was.

"You're a wonderful person", she said instead.

[keirasullivan]

"I know, all my exes think so. Me with my trail of broken hearts," Keira said. Aoife knew about her non-commitment to people, preferring to flirt with them then actually commit to anything. She also knew about Keira's first ex-boyfriend 'Rusty' who Keira had broken up with before going to college. She just hadn't exactly told her best friend everything about him but then not even Kaitlin had known about him or how serious she'd felt for a guy once.

[aoife_coombs]

"Honestly, it makes it really tough to follow you around, with that trail. I don't want to make a bigger mess of it."

She smiled, because that was pretty quick on her feet thinking for Aoife. "But do you even want a boyfriend?"

[keirasullivan]

"You say that like I haven't had a boyfriend," Keira replied. She'd dated "Rusty" for two years before college, not one of her friends had met him though, not even her sister. Which was what happened when you were an alternative girl dating the school's top jock and no one knew. "I don't know maybe, I just have other things I need to take care of first."

[aoife_coombs]

"I don't. Or at least I don't intended to. I'm definitely not one of those people that think you can't have a happy life as long as you're single."

She toyed with her glass. "The only reason I know is that I'm not happier off without Isaiah is because the thought makes me chest hurt. Which annoys me, because I don't know if anyone should have such power over anyone."

[keirasullivan]

She does, she knows what it's like to let someone have that much power over her. She didn't like to think about it though, she certainly didn't let anyone close. Not since Roosevelt... since "Rusy" rather.

"No, they shouldn't. But that's what love is, taking that chance that the hurt is worth it. And sometimes it is," Keira replied with a small fond smile. Remembering all the times that- she couldn't think like that.

[aoife_coombs]

"But when will I know that?"

Honestly, it didn't even anger her anymore, just made her feel bad that she could never live up to what he would want from her. In any possible way. Aoife Coombs wasn't a good girlfriend, she'd just be a proper wife some day.

"He asked me if I heard about the Cabot masked ball. Isn't that adorable? If I heard about it."

[keirasullivan]

"When will you know it's love? I don't know, you just do." Keira replied with a smile of a woman who had in fact, despite all denying the knowledge of it, had been in love. Once. A long time ago. "You know what he meant, and what are you worried your current beau and your long term engagement beau are going to fight for you?"

[aoife_coombs]

"You're such a Buddha right now, stop it. You're supposed to make me uncomfortable and wonder if I finally turned from underwear to lingerie."

God, did Aoife love Keira. "Ed is not my long term engagement beau. And I'm pretty sure that both of them know better than to think I would appreciate them fighting over me. I just - it's just going to be worlds colliding, Keira."