“You folks go.” Maya, perhaps a little worse for wear, planted a kiss on the cheek of her old Hogwarts schoolmate. “She’s with my mum tonight so I am not going home before the sun comes up.” A broad grin stretched across the young girl’s face as she waved off her friend before sitting back at the bar.

Bug had been gone for months now. This was the first night out Maya had really had since he had vanished and she was bloody well going to make the most out of it regardless of her friends dumping her to go home and sleep for work the next day. Maya had few qualms about showing up hungover. It wasn’t as if her boss would really notice since he rarely took his head out of his own arse to show manners to those ‘beneath’ him.

Crossing her legs on the stool, Maya felt her skirt inch up his thighs. It was a slim leather one, complimented by the black heels and dark red blouse that dipped possibly a little lower than her mother would have approved. Not that that mattered, her mother was on babysitting duty until the morning. No doubt the husband would appreciate an early wake up call.

A weary look was cast at her from the bartender but Maya paid it no mind, simply smiling back.
“Cosmopolitan, please.” Her dark eyes scanned the bar until she spotted a wizard further down. “He’ll pay.”

A cosmopolitan. The customer seemed like the type of person who would order a cosmo.  It was a simple drink, but half the time young ladies who ordered them did not actually know what it was.  With triple sec, lime, vodka and cranberry juice, it was deceptively alcoholic despite the pinkness.

Emeline raised her dark brows at Maya, taken aback more at the manner in which the drink was ordered rather than the drink itself. She looked exhausted, worn down. But Emeline didn't care, she didn't want to throw a drink on some random wizard's tab. That would definitely cause trouble later and she was not fond of screaming customers. She gave Maya a sickly-sweet smile, though her icy blue eyes revealed that working in customer service was not unlike a dementor's kiss. In a few years, she'd be completely soulless, just like the more seasoned bartenders at Death & Co.

"Sir, sir?" The werewolf called out to the wizard until she got his attention, "Are you going to pay for her drink?" She motioned towards Maya as she threw the ingredients into the cocktail shaker.

Sylvain was the sort of wizard who could sit down at the bar for hours with one tankard of ale, or a good sipping whiskey. An old man's habit, for someone who looked like a boy in his khaki sweater and slim cut jeans. He did not like to be drunk but he liked to be in bars - especially ones owned by good friends. Even on a Saturday night. He puffed air out of his cheeks as he looked over the menu.

The din of night time revelry continued in the background. An expecto patronum would be welcomed when he was done with his ale. But not until Aisling had arrived.

The Frenchman glanced at his watch expectantly but it was still a quarter of an hour until the time they had agreed to meet. He'd come early to say hello to Margo but was now appreciating a bit of solitude.

          "Sir, sir?" Sylvain's bug eyes lifted in surprise, darting first to Emeline - Emeline de poissons - and then the strange woman. "Are you going to pay for her drink?"

Was he?? He gave a mildly panicked look at Maya, as if though he might have promised her a drink and somehow forgotten. Did he know her? She didn't look like someone he knew.

"Ah, oui?" he replied timidly to their bartender and then smiled at Maya. It was a nervous smile with more teeth than confidence. "You.. ah, bon soir. Do we--" how was he going to phrase this! "Do I know you?"

Maya wasn’t so sure she liked the way the bartender was looking at her, silently judging. She could judge all she wanted, she worked in a bar for Merlin’s sake. She certainly wasn’t in a position to judge others and the tall handsome looking wizard drinking alone a few seats down wasn’t exactly in a position to refuse.

The bartender asked him and Maya glanced back, offering a small smile, not too much, just friendly. His reaction wasn’t expected at all. It was less interested, more gnome about to be flung out of the garden. Maya bit the inside of her mouth to stop from making a comment in her tipsy state.

French and slightly scared. He was different and Maya had forgotten how to approach these sorts of situations. Or had she ever been in them? Throughout school she’d dated JJ and after school she’d dumped him for Bug. She’d had no practice whatsoever.

"Do I know you?"
That was why he’d agreed to the drink. If Maya hadn’t already drunk 4 cosmopolitans, she’d have been slightly embarrassed. As it was, she took this as a reason to get up from her stool and move along several to sit down next to the awkward stranger while she waited for the judging barmaid to make her drink.
“Not yet.” She said with a bright smile flashing her pearly whites. “I’m Maya.”

Sylvain assumed, as he watched the witch approach a closer bar stool, that she was in fact someone he was supposed to know.

          "Not yet." Her smile was alarming in the way especially vindictive cats were. "I’m Maya."

Ah, then... not an acquaintance after all. Maya. No surname so he couldn't tell if he would recognise her otherwise. He did not know if it would be rude to ask why she was speaking to him but, on pausing to consider, the situation came into perspective for him. They were in a bar. The clientele was drunk. She was a handsome witch and he was a tolerable wizard.

"Sylvain," he offered and swallowed. "It is, ah, nice to know you." His fingers were wrapped tightly around the handle of his tankard while he fought the instinct to instantly blurt out that he was waiting for his date. That would be... a rude way to turn down the lady's affections.

In times of need, smalltalk might rescue him. "You like cosmopolitans?" Sylvain asked, meaning the drink that was being served to Maya. "You must look at the other specialties also. They are very good."

He seemed awkward with bug like eyes. Bug like. Bug. Now that was awkward. Sylvain certainly wasn’t Bug. He didn’t look like the sort to just abandon a girlfriend and child. But who did? Was it just bad ass wizards with tattooed necks that did that? Why was she even considering such things when sat at the bar on her first night out in what felt like years? It was probably more like months. Sylvain was no doubt uninterested in buying drinks for a young mother who’d probably get very drunk after one more.

Did Maya care?
Very little.

Instead she took her drink form the barmaid and lifted it to her lips. “What would you recommend then, Sylvain? After another I might need carrying home.” No, that was too much Maya. she frowned and sat up straighter, shaking her head. “No, sorry. Thanks for the drink.” It was official; motherhood had ruined her.