The Endless Wait

[Hannah Schwartz]

Hannah sat at the bar at The Three Broomsticks, her legs crossed and her heeled shoes resting lightly on the wooden perch of the stool. Her father had insisted on setting her up with a successful investment banker, who had unceremoniously stood her up and left her waiting alone at the bar, listlessly tracing the outline of her glass with one finger. Annoyed by the stuffy heat caught in the pub's air, Hannah pulled her hair back messily and squirmed out of the modest cardigan she'd worn over her dress (and spent hours agonizing in front of the mirror over, endlessly buttoning and un-buttoning the very top button to determine if a centimetre of collarbone qualified as "too much skin"). She'd had an enormously stressful day at work and hadn't had a decent sleep in a few days, which only exacerbated her poor mood.

She'd very nearly drunk-dialed Jason out of desperation, but luckily her phone went dead before she could find his number. She banged the phone against the edge of the bar (more for therapeutic reasons than any delusional hope that that might cause it to work again). Rolling the cardigan up in a ball, she rested her head on it like a pillow and tried to ignore the clamor of other people coming up to the bar and the beer that had just been spilled on her person.

(ooc: Aaaanyone! I thought I ought to actually, you know, start playing Hannah, ha.)

[Thomas Campbell]

The life of a parchment salesman was exactly as people envisioned it, an endless stream of boredom and many people telling you exactly where to stick your parchment & special welcoming deals. Thomas had had a particularly long day of rude people, all of whom he'd added to the "no great deals for them" list so for this reason alone he had decided to drown his sorrows at The Three Broomsticks where he'd also try and find a few new leads and hopefully some drunk people who he'd trick into promising to buy from him.

At the bar, he'd been waiting for what seemed an eternity to get served and just as he had his cold beverage in his hand just millimetres from his lips, the rowdy man next to him fell and caused Thomas to drop the glass. Trying to save the drink was one of his more stupid ideas as it only made him hit the glass all over a hopefully sleeping and not passed out drunk girl.
Standing with his hand over his mouth in complete shock, Thomas stared at the wet puddle before grabbing a handful of napkins and begun dabbing the wet girl, not realising this was an extreme case of space invasion.

(ooc. Hope Thomas is ok? I just wanted to play him, lol)

[Hannah Schwartz]

Hannah felt the splash of beer against her skin, followed by someone frantically patting her with napkins. She gasped and bolted upwards in alarm, returning the man's shocked look with an identical one of her own. "Excuse me... I believe I'm going to have to kindly request that you not dab at me like a... like a greasy pizza!" she squeaked. She probably looked a mess: her hair sticking up at all angles, her eyes watery and mascara smeared down her cheeks, the straps of her outfit askew and one napkin printed with the words The Three Broomsticks hanging sadly from her left shoulder. The liquid seeping through her new cardigan was just the final straw that pushed her over the edge. If Hannah were the sort of person to use "rough language", she'd be doing a fine bit of it right now!

She pressed her face against her hands, hating herself for having her weekly neurotic tipsy breakdown in front of this total stranger. "I'm sorry... I shouldn't even be... I have a freaking hearing tomorrow..." she sputtered a little incoherently, avoiding eye contact with the man, wondering if she even had enough Floo Powder to make it home safely and half-wanting to just roll under the bar and stay there forever.

(ooc: Thomas is perfect! And uh... sorry Tom, haha)

[Thomas Campbell]

Looking at the lady with a blank look before his eyes grew wide, Tom immediately stopped his dabbing and pointed towards the burly man who'd banged into him and leant in close to her and spoke in a low undertone, "He did it. He pushed me, he made me dab you" he nodded his head slowly, eyeing the man to make sure he hadnt heard him.

Gasping as she mentioned her hearing tomorrow, Tom took a step back and put his hand over his pocket as if to protect his wallet from this highly dangerous, slightly crazy looking criminal lady. "Hearing? That...hmm, lovely" he nodded his head as he tried to check to see if his watch was still on his wrist without arising too much suspicion.

"You'll probably need to write a lot of letters where you're going, I could do you a good deal on parchment? Are you ok? You look upset, lovely but upset" he nodded his head, pulling a small business card from his pocket and slid it towards her.

[Hannah Schwartz]

Hannah sniffed and wiped her runny nose with the back of her hand. "Sorry, what? I'm certainly not going anywhere," she insisted emphatically, flipping her glass over and slamming it against the bar. Taking his card she flipped it between her fingers, vaguely making out the name "Thomas" through her bleary eyes. She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and looked up at him. "We use a tonne of parchment at work... it's a law office, you see... it's not really my area, though I suppose I could refer you to someone..." Hannah hastily dug around in her purse for her own business card, sending tubes of lipstick and tampons spilling everywhere.

"Not to be impolite, but do all parchment salesmen conduct their business at the bar? Oh God," her voice suddenly dropped and she clasped her hand over her mouth. "It's a euphemism, isn't it? Drugs? LSD? Oh no no no no no... I must insist you kindly take your business elsewhere! Drinking alone in... in this slag-dress is but one unfortunate misstep in a lifetime of respectable straight-and-narrow behavior!"

[Thomas Campbell]

"Ohh you're in law not against it! Thats better, you wont need it to write letters to your friends on the outside then, thats always good! Not that I have anything against the lawfully challenged patrons of the world, I do quite a good bit of business off of a few of the 'darker' families" he nodded his head knowledgably before smiling as she said she'd refer him to someone, a law office would be an excellent opportunity for him and would get his mother off his back, along with his ex wife who kept demanding more money for their daughter.

Taking her card and reading the name Hannah, he was about to comment on how lovely her name was when she started to act rather strange, "I dont have any drugs, no LSD or anything no! Im a father, I have a teenage daughter, drugs are bad!" his voice raised an octave and he shook his head furiously, "I came in to have a drink to cheer myself up after a bad day, I didnt make any sales today and I was told by no less than 14 people to 'get a real job'! Do I look like a drug dealer?!" he asked her with a worried expression, maybe his appearance was losing him sales, no one wanted to buy parchment from a drugs mule.

[Hannah Schwartz]

Hannah shrugged; how was she supposed to know what the average drug dealer looked like?! If those anti-drug films she'd watched in primary school growing up were to be believed, dealers were lurking discreetly in their midst at all times! Plus, she was distraught! She also sincerely doubted this man was old enough to have a teenage child, but held herself back from saying anything. "You thought I looked like a criminal!" she piped up, her voice cracking at a dangerously high register.

"I am a lawyer! Of course, you'd never know it by the way everyone treats me like his or her own personal secretary, even though I graduated top of my year, aced all my law exams and do twice as much work as anyone else!" Hannah waved her hands around madly as she spoke. Her competitive, one-upping streak was making an appearance, even though Who gets disrespected more at their job? wasn't exactly a competition anyone wanted to win.

[Thomas Campbell]

Giving a small huff, Thomas shook his head "You told me you had a hearing, I assumed you meant you were going inside for some reason. I couldnt think why you would, you dont look like the type to do anything too adventurous or unlawful" he shook his head, frowning slightly as he practically called her boring in a round about way, hoping she'd be too distraught to pick up on that.

"I went to work for my parents as a parchment salesman, I intended to stay there for a year so I could save up and get a position in the ministry. 17 years later and Im still there. I wanted to leave but I couldnt, Julia turned out to be very expensive" he gave a sigh before leaning over the bar and motioning for 2 drinks, he felt like they both needed to drown their sorrows.

[Hannah Schwartz]

Hannah closed her eyes and did several "calm breathing exercises" as recommended by her therapist, before looking at Thomas with a small, appreciative smile as the barman came back with their drinks. She arranged her cardigan neatly on the bar in front of her and began the process of systematically drying it with her wand.

"I'm sorry," she said, gazing down into her glass. Hannah didn't want to confess that she was upset because she got stood up, that she'd almost called some guy from work she had a pathetic crush on, it just felt so... ugh. It was stupid, really. "Julia, that's a pretty name, would I be correct in presuming she's your daughter? How old?'

[Thomas Campbell]

Taking a sip of his drink, Thomas eyed Hannah warily as she closed her eyes and started to breath funny. Oh goodness, she was one of those buddhists or something. She had hair though, werent all buddhists bald and orange wearing? He tilted his head to the side as he pondered this, casting her a glance before shaking his head.

"Whats your sob story then?" he asked her with a sympathetic smile, leaning forward onto his elbows as he cast a sidelong glance at her before smiling at her complimenting Julia's name. "She is my daughter, yes. She's 16 and she's....lovely. She's only just come to stay with me this year, I dont think she likes me" he shook his head with a sad frown, taking the picture of Julia he kept in his wallet and showing it to Hannah, frowning as the picture fixed a scowl on its face and crossed its arms over her chest defensively.

(ooc. Sorry for taking SO long, I completely didnt notice Hannah had posted)