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Under the flashing lights and saccharine-sweet smoke-machine mist of a club dance floor, it's easy to hide things. Your name, your emotions, hell, even your wedding ring, if you have one.So why was it all too obvious to the cute woman behind the bar that Patterson was bored.Tasha had all but begged her to go with her to the new gay club that had opened up in central New York. "Come on, Patterson. Please. For me?", accompanied with Tasha's finest puppy eyes had won Patterson over almost immediately. god, she hated how easily she gave in to her friend's bad ideas. And so, in her 'trashiest clothes' (so poetically put by her best friend), Patterson found herself weaving between sweaty body after sweaty body, desperately trying to make her way to the bar. The only indication that she was going in the right direction was the angry red glow of a neon sign that read 'BAR'— it got brighter and brighter the closer she got, and the smell of stale beer got stronger. Finally reaching the bar, she glanced down at her phone, finding a notification from one Tasha Zapata
"PORNSTAR MARTINI- NO GARNISH"
Patterson scoffed, typing back a grumpy "GET IT YOURSELF", and shoving her phone back into the pocket of her shorts. "Gee, Patterson, thanks so much for coming with me to this club that I know you didn't wanna go to in the first place, i really appreciate you accompanying me to the one place in New York you don't wanna be, just so I can abandon you on the dancefloor and then demand a drink when I see you heading to the bar. It truly reminds me just how special our friendship is,"Looking up from her shoes, Patterson locked eyes with the bartender — a tall, slender woman, with sharp cheekbones and tattoos stretching from her neck to well beyond the waistband of her jeans. Her angular face was marred- crinkled at the forehead- and it was then that Patterson realised she wasn't talking to herself as quietly as she originally thought."uh- hi there," Patterson uttered, sheepish. "Can I get a vodka lemonade with a lime wedge, please?"The barkeep placed a tall glass on top of a napkin, filling it almost exactly two inches high with a clear liquid( the smell of which stinging at Patterson's sinuses). Topping it up with lemonade, ice, and a single, neatly sliced lime wedge, she slid the glass over the bar, dropping a straw into the glass with a perfectly manicured hand.Patterson shot her a grateful smile, and pulled a $10 bill out of her purse, but the woman behind the bar shook her head. "It's on the house," she said with a smile—god she was pretty—"You look like you could use a drink,"Tucking the bill back into her purse, Patterson chugged her drink, swallowing it and placing her now empty glass back on the bar. "Damn that's good," she muttered, before sending a grateful smile towards the (really, quite unfairly pretty) bartender. "Thank you, I really needed that,""I can tell," she said in retort, one eyebrow raised at the glass that was full mere seconds ago.Patterson flushed, suddenly embarrased. "I'm- you see, I'm not really one for clubbing, and—""And you thought this place was a great place to sit and read a book instead?"Patterson laughed - it wasn't all that hearty, more like the breathy half-laugh you give to people you don't know all that well when you want to acknowledge their witty remark, but it wasn't funny enough to full on belly-laugh and you don't want to seem like you're ignoring their comedic contribution. "Well, no. But my friend Tasha, she dragged me out with her, and she's somewhere on the dancefloor with some girl she just met, and like nothing against the girl, she was hot, and Tash is a catch, but I didn't wanna be here in the first place, and now I'm here, essentially on my own, and I don't really have anything else to do except drink, and I can't just up and leave because what kind of person would I be if I abandoned my best friend, drunk and alone in a club several blocks from her apartment, yknow?"The woman behind the bar had fallen silent, looking at Patterson with an expression she couldn't quite read."Sorry. That was... a lot."Wordlessly, the bartender poured a second dirnk into Patterson's glass, and then filled another glass with the same concoction, pushing one over to patterson, and downing about half of her own. She put the glass down on the bar with a resounding thunk, and then stuck out her hand."The name's Jane. Jane Doe."Patterson smiled, and shook the hand that was presented to her. "Patterson, it's nice to meet you."She took a sip of her drink, significantly more controlled than the last one, and watched as a couple of bubbles whizzed to the top when her glass impacted with the surface of the bar. "Can I ask about the name?"Jane raised her neatly shaped brow once again. It was shaped to perfection, just like her nails, but black smudges sat just beneath them- probably eyeliner that had been rubbed by accident. "My parents decided that comedy was their passion." she said flatly, taking a sip of the drink she had made. With the glass halfway to her mouth, she eyed the glass in Patterson's hand. "That one's going on your tab, by the way.""Damn, should have given you Tasha's name,"Jane let out a laugh."And, for what it's worth," Patterson added, quickly draining her cup for the second time, "I probably would have done the same thing if I were in your parents' shoes," Patterson said, voice loud over the thumping music. It was some bass-heavy repetitive crap that had far too many high whiny noises in it, but it was irritatingly catchy.Jane shrugged. "Me too, I guess," Turning her gaze down to the watch on her wrist, she muttered something that Patterson nearly lost under the pounding music. "Hey, I'm almost done with my shift if you wanted to get out of here and go do something,"Blushing violently under the neon lights of the club, Patterson stared down at her lap-which had become so very interesting all of a sudden- fidgeting uncomfortably."I um, I'm sorry but I'm not really the sort of person who does... somethings, on a night out,"Jane's jaw went slack when she realised just how her comment had sounded. "Oh god no, I am so sorry, that is not what I meant- at all," she blurted, hands coming up to her face in mortification. "I mean, not that you're not... y'know- because you are- not that I've been talking to you just because you are- I just- I was wondering if you wanted to grab a bite to eat or something like that, get out of this place, I'm not that type of person either."Patterson's cheeks darkened considerably more, thankfully concealed by the red lights all around them. "Oh, right, yeah, of course, I didn't think you were, I just-" She sighed, exasperated with herself. "I would love to,"Jane's face lit up"But-"and promptly dropped again"-I can't. I came here with my friend, and she's totally wasted- I can't just leave her like that. I'm really sorry,"Jane nodded understandingly, turning to the man working the other side of the bar to her. "Roman! I'm clocking out. I'll see you tomorrow for set up! " she shouts, voice barely carrying across the heavy beat of the musicHe didn't look up from the drink he was mixing, smiling at her from the corner of his mouth. "Later Doe. Be safe, make good choices, don't do anything I wouldn't do,"She snorted. "What, like make good choices?""Touché."Jane turned back to where Patterson was sat, sending a text to someone in her contacts named "Trasha" - probably the friend she had come to the club with. "It was nice meeting you, Patterson. Maybe I'll see you around here again sometime," she beamed, grabbing a green leather bomber jacket from under the bar. She hopped overtop the counter, earning her a chorus of "Just lift up the hinged top, Doe," from - Roman, was it? Probably. As Jane made her way towards the exit, Patterson couldn't help but feel like she had just lost something important. She didn't know if she'd ever see Jane again- after all, she wasn't one for clubbing, and she didn't know Jane's hours! She might not even work there full time, so Patterson would just be wasting time and money at a club she didn't like all for a girl she wouldn't know was working there or not. If she wanted to see Jane again, she had to act then and there."Jane, wait!"The dark haired woman turned around, looking a little startled. Patterson had all but jumped from her place at the bar, rummaging in her purse for something. Her hand emerged, gripping a sharpie triumphantly in it's grasp, and she grinned. "I don't know if I'll ever see you again, but I'd like to. So-"She took Jane's hand, opening it so that it was palm-up, and scrawled some numbers onto the skin there, signing off with a wink emoticon and the letter P. "- Call me. And we can do something sometime."Jane smiled, nodding once, twice. "I'd like that. I guess I'll see you sometime then, Patterson," she said, walking out the door with a waggle of her fingers that somewhat resembled a wave. Patterson stood, still watching the empty that Jane had previously been inhabiting, when a loud, familiar voice bellowed in her right ear."PATTERSON-"Patterson flinched, and Tasha's holler dropped to an apologetic sotto voce. "Sorry, no volume control. Patterson, I met a pretty girl and she was very nice and wouldn't go home with me drunk but gave me her number and said to call her tomorrow when I'm sober so can we go home now so that tomorrow can come sooner so I can call her when I'm sober?"Patterson sighed, wrapping an arm around her best friend's waist to stabilise her, and nodded."Sure. Let's go home. We'll call a cab,"