Southern Comfort by the Bottle

Emmett hadn't expected his first excursion to the community center to end with him taking s pretty younger woman out for drinks. And even if the offer had partly been an excuse to get away from whatever sibling drama was boiling up between those two angels, he planned on enjoying himself.

The streets weren't terribly packed in the Strip yet. It wasn't quite late enough for all the nighttime partiers to come out. Which was just fine by Emmett. He had nothing against those people, but loud, densely packed crowds weren't his thing.

He let out a long, slow breath, blowing away the cold that was starting to bite at him. He gave Bai Xie a quick smile, "Yer not too cold, yeah? We can pick up the pace if'n ya want."

She was pretty. Unreasonably so. Emmett himself had had a few trysts in his younger days, but he was looking to settle down with some nice girl now because that was what Ma and Pa would want.
But there was something unnaturally alluring about Bai that made him want her. He was ignoring it for now; after all he wasn't some hormone riddled teenager. But it kept gnawing at him.

The bar he frequented was nearby, just at the corner. It was a small, quiet place. Not too fancy but by no means a dive either.
"We're here," he said as he held the door open for her. "Oh before I forget. What should I call you? I heard once that Eastern countries do their names reverse of the way we do."

"Oh yeah, Emmett is fine," he replied with a nod and a smile, taking the lead on to a booth near the bar. Leaving space for Bai to get into the booth, he looked around and waved over one of the girls behind the bar. They didn't normally come out to take orders, but Emmett was a regular and pretty well liked among the staff. And he had helped get more than one unruly customer out in his time without violence, so some rules were vent for him.

He took his seat, a little cramped but not looking terribly uncomfortable. He had to splay his legs out, one of them sticking almost comically oufrom under the table and into the room.
"Bai then. S'a pretty name."

Small talk was difficult at the moment. It was still there, that feeling of attraction. It was still poking at him, like a mosquito you just couldn't slap. So instead he started thinking about all the little home improvement projects he had going on. There was replacing the shower tiles, changing out the pipes in the kitchen sink, finishing that bookshelf.

The bartender came over, putting her hands on her hips and giving Emmett a cheeky grin. "Finally bagged yourself a girl, Em. Looks like I win that bet with Raul. Usual for you?"
Emmett grunted and gave a nod in response. He hated that nickname, but said nothing about it.

The bartender turned to Bai, seeming like she was sizing the girl up. "So what'll you have, sweetheart?"

The bartender shrugged and flashed another grin at Emmett before she headed back to the bar to get their drinks ready. While they waited, Emmett shifted in his seat. He found his eyes kept settling in Bai, and he forced himself to look anywhere else. Above her, at the top of the booth. That way he wasn't being rude and just... ignoring her.
"Ain't nothin' fancy, I can tell ya that. Just an Old Fashioned."

"So what y'all do?" He couldn't really tell super easily how old Bai was. But she looked like she could be a student, with how she dressed and carried herself. The bartender came back with the two glasses, each garnished with a cherry and an orange slice. The drinks also had a hint of peach added to them, for a bit of added sweetness.