Nothing Takes the Edge Off Like a Pint, tag: marley

[Josh Brewer]

{{continued from Nothing Like a Good Jerk}}

Being stuck in an elevator for the afternoon had not been at all what Josh had in mind, and practically the second he had gotten free he, along with Marley, had made a beeline for the Three Crowns. He frequented all of the local watering holes as equally as possible to keep from letting any one establishment know just how frequently he drank, but even rotating venues was starting to get people wondering about just how much he really was drinking - still, his business was good, as was his tipping, so no one really had grounds to complain, and coming here for the night was the plan he had for the evening.

All that he wanted was some beer to calm his nerves. He had had a rough couple of hours, and being stuck in the elevator with a blind woman hadn't helped. Sure, it probably would have been worse if she weren't blind because then she would have seen the panicked state that he was in, but it still hadn't been fun for him and he was still a little bit terrified. Marley didn't know anything about his past, and she wasn't going to, but he had still freaked out, and she had seen that. HE was glad, though, that he had been able to chalk it up to intense claustrophobia...he just hoped that she wouldn't ask questions.

As soon as he got to the bar, he found a place, hopping up on a stool and waiting for Marley to join him. A gesture would have been lost, as she was blind, and he wasn't really sure how good of an idea consuming alcohol was with a blind woman. He wouldn't take advantage of her, because as skeevy as it sounded, taking advantage of a blind woman seemed wrong to him, even one as hot as Marley. "I'll have a pint of whatever lager you have on tap, and keep 'em coming." He put down his card to open up a tab. "Oh, and whatever the lady is having."

[Marley Grayson]

Marley sat down at the bar with Josh and slipped her cane into her bag before hooking it over the back of her chair.

"I'll have a pint of whatever lager you have on tap, and keep 'em coming." "Oh, and whatever the lady is having."

She had come to the Three Crowns intent on having a couple of pints, but as she sat there, she had the urge for a drink she hadn't had in a long while. Not since she fled to Europe after she escaped her stalker. Talking about her experience even just that little bit in that elevator had opened wounds she had taken quite a long while and a lot of effort to hide from everyone, including herself.

"I'll have a boilermaker," she stated matter-of-factly. The bartender asked her if she was sure. She snorted at him. "Of course I am sure."

She waited until she heard the sound of two glasses being placed in front of her. One was definitely a heavier sounding one and the other the clink of a shot glass. Slowly she reached out with both hands until she found the two items in front of her.

"You are supposed to drop in the shot glass directly into the beer, but I chipped a tooth once doing that, so I had to modify it a bit after that. It's not quite as dramatic, but it still works."

She slowly moved and poured the shot into the glass and set down the empty shot glass on the bar.

"Bottoms up!" she said and chugged the drink down like a pro. When she sat the pint glass down, she immediately spoke to the bartender. "Another one please."

[Josh Brewer]

Josh watched her order her drink and raised his eyebrow. He wasn't sure that he had ever seen a woman pound a boilermaker like that before, at least not a straight woman, and he was more than a little impressed. Sure, he didn't know if she was bisexual or not, they hadn't talked about it, nor did he intend on bringing it up. His plan was not to sleep with her, she had had a stalker, she didn't need someone like him entering her life only to leave it after one night of sex...hell, she would probably want to go back to her place, and he wasn't okay with that, it broke one of his eight rules for intercourse...well, seven considering she was a woman and not a man.

"You know what? I'll have what she's having," he stated, altering his drink order after downing the first pint. If she could go hard, so he could he. Hell, he drank almost every night and doing some shots with beer was not going to be a problem. He didn't usually like to make it seem like he was an alcoholic, but she wasn't going to be able to see anything anyways, she wouldn't have to know just how much of a dependency he had developed on the stuff, even though he was in denial about it. "and tooth chipping...that's no good." He wrinkled his nose as he did the traditional action, dropping the shot, glass and all, into the beer glass. He didn't care if he chipped a tooth, he could always pay to have it fixed anyways.

[Marley Grayson]

"You know what? I'll have what she's having," "and tooth chipping...that's no good."

"No... No... It rather hurt a lot," she said as she laughed a bit. "My friend, Catherine..." *laugh* "everyone called her Smeggy, why I don't know..."

She laughed a little more.

"She had to drag me to the dentist to get it fixed the next morning. I didn't want to go, I had a smashing headache and I heard all the stories about dental work and the UK..."

Once the bartender brought her another Boilermaker and brought one for Josh too, she dumped the shot into the glass again and chugged it down. It made her quite dizzy, but the rush...

"Well, that's where I learned about Boilermakers. In the UK at this little pub in this tiny town..." her smile faltered and laugh faded. "Well... that's where I hid for a while... after."

She gripped the side of the bar for a second and then plastered the smile back on her face.

"But that was a while ago and I don't want to talk about it any more."

And she was serious. She didn't even want to think about it. It was a dark time and today, the darkness had crept its way into her head again. She slapped the bar with her hand.

"I'll have another one!"

She turned towards Josh's direction.

"And in case you are wondering? I haven't done this in a while and I have forgotten how it feels to do Boilermakers. It's quite... shiny."

[Josh Brewer]

"That...is a terrible nickname," Josh said, wrinkling his nose. Sure, he didn't much care what a woman was called, but he didn't like the idea of calling out "smeggy" in bed, it just wasn't sexy in the least, but still, that wasn't the point. He knew that he needed to work on that, on finding women as friends and not just objects, but he was always looking for people to sleep with, making it hard sometimes to see women in a different light. That was the way that he was, and he didn't see himself changing anytime soon. "Why not Kate or something like that? Aren't those normally the Catherine nicknames?"

He was glad when the drinks came and instantly pounded his back, gesturing at the bartender for another. He wasn't sure that shiny was the word that he would use, but he had gotten so used to drinking alcohol, to letting the drinks calm his senses and push away everything awful that he didn't really see anything as shiny. He didn't drink to get drunk because it was fun, he drank to get drunk because a part of him needed it, and while he refused to admit an alcohol dependency, one was lurking in his future. "To not chipping teeth!" he exclaimed, raising his new drink when the bartender brought it and dropping in the shot.

"I've never been to England, but I still know about boilermakers!" He was starting to feel a little less tense, starting to feel the alcohol doing it's job and taking effect, and that was really all that he needed it to do. He needed to feel okay, to feel normal and the beer plus the shots was just the way to do that. He didn't know why he hadn't thought of this right away, as getting spectacularly smashed seemed like the only option right now. "I learned about Boilermakers from a movie, two guys in a bar ordered them...and I was like 'that seems like a good idea!' so I ordered one...I mean it was in Thor, so technically that makes it the drink of the Gods!"

[Marley Grayson]

Josh had the same opinion of Catherine's nickname as Marley did. It was at least very odd but Catherine's whole family called her that.

"To not chipping teeth!"

Marley could tell by that exclamation that Josh had received his drink.

"I've never been to England, but I still know about boilermakers!"

Marley got her next drink, carefully poured the shot in and started chugging but stopped about a third the way through. God she was getting light headed. Josh must have been feeling better too, because he seemed much looser and a little more talktive.

"I learned about Boilermakers from a movie, two guys in a bar ordered them...and I was like 'that seems like a good idea!' so I ordered one...I mean it was in Thor, so technically that makes it the drink of the Gods!"

"Thor... That's a movie, right?" she asked. She drank a little more, just sips though. "I haven't been to a movie in a long time."

She thought a little more about his comment regarding the "Drink of the Gods."

"I don't know about it being the 'Drink of the Gods,' but it was sure useful for a time."

She couldn't believe it. Today was just a day that she couldn't get out from under the memory of it all. She had opened wounds to help someone else and now they weren't leaving.

She chugged down the rest of the drink and set the glass heavily on the bar.

That was SO not the smartest thing to do, she admonished herself.

Her head swam a little and she could feel that her balance was off.

"Dear God, it's been a while..." she said out loud. "Three boilermakers..."

The mathematical computations ran through her head. Or at least tried to. Something about her weight and number of drinks and the time between them...

She was drunk.

But she didn't really care. She just wanted to forget a little. She turned to Josh and reached out to touch his arm. It was a good thing she actually caught it or she might have fallen right off her bar stool.

"I have a nickname too. My friends call me Mars..." she said to him. "You should call me Mars."

After all, he really was the only person in town that she had spent more than 30 minutes with.

[Josh Brewer]

Josh didn't spend too much time watching movies and whatnot, but when he did it was usually a big blockbuster, something that he could really just sit there and ignore with lots of actions and colors to distract him from the real world. Maybe it was childish, but he didn't like a plot that he really had to follow, at least not most of the time, and superhero movies were great. "Yeah, it's a movie, I think it's based on a comic, but I don't know, it's good, at least I think so. It was fun to watch...and Natalie Portman is hot, so at the very least, there's that." He shrugged.

"Do you want another one?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. He was going to have at least a couple more pints because he had more of a tolerance than most people, partially due to the fact that he drank so much and then there was also the fact that he was simply bigger than she was. "I'll have another pint, just the beer, no shot," he said to the tender, not wanting to end up floored while she was still trying to talk to him. He was feeling a little buzzed at the moment, but he wasn't drunk, not yet...and he wanted to be. He would get there, but in time.

"Mars?" He asked. It was short for her name, he got that, but he didn't really call people by nicknames because it implied that they were friends and, well, Josh didn't really do the whole friend thing. He had Sayra and that was weird, but it was nice, and he didn't really know that he needed more friends. "I guess...I could?" He didn't really know how to respond to that, since he hadn't really intended to call her much of anything shy of hey you. "You can call me Josh," he stated. He didn't have any nicknames, he had no friends to give him any, and he was alright with that.

[Marley Grayson]

She was glad that she had gotten the fact that 'Thor' was a movie correct. She did try to keep up with current events best as she could. She smiled at the notion that Natalie Portman was 'hot'. She really had no idea if she was or not.

When he asked her if she wanted another one and then ordered a straight beer for himself, she nodded affirmatively. She didn't know if she would drink it, she was already drunk, but she wanted it there like a crutch.

She wondered if he noticed that she still had a hold of his arm, but she was afraid that if she let go, she might topple right over.

He seemed a little uncomfortable about calling her by her nickname. She frowned a little. She just assumed he liked her. After all, he invited her out for a drink and she thought they had developed at least a little connection in the elevator.

For her that connection was very real. He was the first guy she had met in a long while that she didn't feel afraid around. She just trusted him somehow. Maybe he had the same issues about trusting folks.

"You can call me Josh,"

She smiled and gave his arm a squeeze born of sincerity.

"Of course!" she exclaimed. There is really no nickname that could be made from your name."

She heard the pint glasses being set in front of them and she found hers and took another could of sips. She had to be careful now. She wanted to maintain the buzz without passing out completely. getting home in that condition was slightly problematic.

"Don't worry, Josh," she told him hoping to alleviate any qualms he might have. "You can call me Marley if it makes you more comfortable."

She leaned in closer to him.

"I am quite flexible," she whispered.

She didn't know why she added the last part, but she didn't worry about how he would interpret her intention.

[Josh Brewer]

Josh was well aware of the hold that she had on his arm, but it wasn't too strong and honestly, he wasn't all that worried about somene like her trying to hurt him, about someone who was blind and someone who had been hurt themselves trying to cause him pain or damage, and with her size, he genuinely felt that, if need be, if she did attack him, he would be able to take her down almost effortlessly. She wasn't a lot of woman and he was strong now, prepared to fight for his life, if it was ever necessary and while he didn't think that he would have to, he was always on the ball about it, always ready at any cost to protect himself.

"Marley it is," he stated, deciding not to use the nickname. He didn't want them getting familiar, he didn't want her to think that it was alright for them to be friends when he hadn't decided yet whether or not he had room in his life for more than one friend. He was almost certain that he did not, certain that he wanted no one in his life that would push him the way that Sayra did, but he said nothing else to that effect, not wanting to hurt her feelings. "There are nicknames, I just don't like it when people use them," he stated firmly. He didn't like being called "Joshy" or really anything at all that wasn't "Josh."

When she leaned over and whispered that she was flexible, he couldn't deny getting just a little bit hard - after all, he was a sexually driven male and, despite her blindness, she was an attractive woman, however, he wasn't going to go there...he didn't want to put things in that direction, to make his relationship with this woman anything more than a few beers. "That's good to know, but I am genuinely not at all interested. Sorry." He didn't have much practice in shooting people down, but he got the feeling that getting involved with Marley would be, well, more regret than he was used to, and he didn't want to feel regret...or sympathy.

[Marley Grayson]

She did feel a little disappointed when he stuck with the Marley version of her name. But she didn't push him. She didn't want to make him feel any more uncomfortable than he was.

He also admitted that he did have some nicknames, but that he didn't like them. Marley could figure out a couple of them and they were certainly meant more for a toddler or young child.

She took another drink of her beer.

"That's good to know, but I am genuinely not at all interested. Sorry."

She immediately choked on the beer and began coughing. She hadn't meant it that way. When she could breathe again, she clarified her statement.

"I wasn't coming on to you, Josh."

At least she didn't think so...

"I just meant that I didn't want to force you somewhere that you weren't comfortable with. You don't have to call me by my nickname. It's not a requirement."

She thought for a moment.

"I'm not sure I am ready for anything like that anyway," she said quietly.

Damn stalker... He still had a hold of her life.

She took a long draw on her drink.

[Josh Brewer]

Normally, Josh would have been embarrassed by the fact that he had misinterpreted her whispered words as a come on, but he was too tipsy to care and still working his way down drunk as fuck lane. He took another long swig of his beer, shaking of the slight humiliation. Plenty of people came on to him - one person saying that they had done no such thing was not likely to bruise his ego, meaning that he didn't care much. He let it slide off of his back and took it in stride the way he was able to do with almost nothing else - after all, in his life, sex was the one thing he could afford to be truly cavalier with because it was one of the things in life that just didn't matter who it was with. All that mattered was that he was getting and regularly at that, and he was, so all was well.

"Sorry," he said shortly, not really wanting her to think that he was the kind of person that mistook anything any woman said to him as a pick up. He used a lot of lines, and a lot of them were bad, designed solely to get a woman to follow him back to his place. He said things he didn't mean because he knew that it would get him what he wanted and it wasn't right, but he wasn't the kind of person that cared. This was his life, this was who he was and while he didn't show anyone the person that he really was on the inside, they seemed to deal just fine with the image of himself that he projected, and would have to continue to do so, because the real Josh Brewer did not come out to play very often.

[Marley Grayson]

"Sorry,"

That was all he said. And the apology seemed less than sincere.

Her head was feeling somewhat numb and she could feel a certain amount of "dizziness" deep inside her chest. She always did wonder what it was like to actually see a room spin, but was pretty sure it wouldn't be fun.

Anyway, she took all of her memory of Josh both from here and the elevator. And here is what she put together. If she wasn't quite as enibriated as she was, she was sure that she could have put more things together.

1) He was uptight as Hell.
2) He was a "player." After all, he admitted to club hopping and being "discreet" already.
3) He thought she was coming on to him.

He must think he was "all that."

But as much as he acted like a jerk, she found that she liked him.

Well... not like-liked...

Maybe she was just happy to be comfortable around someone of the opposite sex...

Maybe she was just happy not to be afraid of a guy...

A thought popped into her head and she was a little shocked that it did.

Maybe she was hitting on him. Was that possible? Was it so possible that she was just comfortable that she was unconsciously hitting on him?

Huh.

Or maybe was she drunk off her ass.

But she still had a hold of his arm and she'd given him a bit of a massage earlier. In that respect, he took care of himself. He was muscular.

He was probably a looker, not that it mattered to her.

Now she was getting a little miffed. She let go of her beer and turned in her seat to face him, glad that the bar itself was there to balance her on the other side.

"Even if I was hitting on you... What exactly makes me unaaceptable in your eyes?" she asked him directly. She always believed in the direct approach. "It's the blind thing, isn't it? Being blind doesn't make me less of a person. I am not a china doll, Josh. I am independent. I am a woman. Plus this would not be my first trip to the rodeo."

Then she decided to be wicked.

"I am just very in tune with my sense of touch," she whispered. "Imagine all the things..."

Her voice trailed off, leaving what she meant to his own imagination.

[Josh Brewer]

He believed that she had not been coming on to him before, but now that she was asking why he didn't see her as viable, mentioning the whole heightened touch thing, that seemed like a come on to him. However, he wasn't going to go to the mat again and ask if that's what was going on. If she wanted to go home with him, she could ask and maybe he'd reconsider, but he wasn't going to put the moves on her, not when she was clearly sending him mixed signals that he did not understand in the slightest. He didn't like playing games with anyone of any sort, and this sort of felt like it was turning into exactly that.

"Maybe I'm just not in the mood right now," he snapped, taking another long gulp of beer. Of course that wasn't it, he was always in the mood, but he didn't want to admit to her that it was the blindness thing, that he would feel as though he were taking advantage of her, even if he wasn't, that he didn't want to deal with any backlash that he, personally, might feel over the issue of sleeping with someone who couldn't even see him...that and he was worried that, even with her heightened sense of touch,the sex might be bad and he didn't like bad sex.

"And for someone who isn't coming on to me, you sure as hell sound like you want me to take you home." He sighed, finishing off the beer and gesturing for another. This had been a long day, a tiring day and he didn't really care if he was being mean. He had been through shit and that shit had been brought up again today and he didn't want that, he didn't want to have to deal with the pain of his past, he just wanted to be so drunk that he didn't care, that he didn't feel anything and right now he wasn't quite there yet.

[Marley Grayson]

"Maybe I'm just not in the mood right now,"

She laughed at that one. He was a player, he fessed up to that one himself. Guys like that are always in the mood. It was the blind thing. It was always the blind thing. People just assume that you didn't have the same drive as anyone else. They almost treat you like an alien or a doll. Something that could be watched from afar, but never directly approached.

"Liar," she said softly.

"And for someone who isn't coming on to me, you sure as hell sound like you want me to take you home."

"Maybe," she retorted. "But you said you weren't in the mood."

She paused for a second and then called him on the carpet.

"Even if you were in the mood, I would be off limits to you anyway," she told him. "I get it. I'm blind. It freaks some people out. I just never figured you for that type."

She shrugged a little.

"Unless you're gay," She covered her hand over her mouth in surprise. "Oh my God! Is that it?"

She almost hoped that was the reason. It would explain a lot of things. Why he didn't think she was attractive or why he didn't even want to consider things.

But deep down she knew he wasn't gay.

It was the blind thing.

As usual.

[Josh Brewer]

A Liar. That was true, and she had called him out on his bluff instantly. He was in the mood, he was almost always in the mood, especially after a couple of beers. He knew how to kill his boner, of course, all he had to do was think about the pain of his past, but unless going flaccid was absolutely necessary, he tried really hard not to do that because, while it may kill awkward erection tension, it brought up a lot of things that he would really rather not deal with, things from his past that thinking about made worse, and he didn't have the emotional stability to deal with any of it.

She sounded as though her feelings were slightly hurt, as though the whole her being blind as a turn off was bad, and he knew that it wasn't great, that treating her differently because she couldn't see was wrong, but he couldn't help himself. He would feel differently sleeping with her than other people, and he didn't want that to happen, he didn't want to feel anything else, anything he wasn't used to...but at the same time, he didn't want to hurt her feelings. She had been nice to him and helped him in the elevator, even though he didn't want to admit that anything had been wrong, she had helped him through the panic.

When she asked if he was gay, he was about to say no, about to deny it when he realized that might be his out. If she thought he was gay then he would be able to reject her without making her feel bad! It wasn't a total lie, he had slept with guys, but that had been out of a desire for sex, not of bisexuality and he had absolutely always topped which, in his mind, made it a lot less gay. "I...I am," he said softly, lying through his teeth. Josh Brewer knew how to lie; he was damn good at it and he knew it, and getting people to believe him, well ,it had never really been hard for him...after all, everyone had assumed for the past 8 years that he was fine when really he was dying inside.