After Hours

Reverse Psychology

Subconsciously, it did work at least one of them.

"I'm going to go get a drink, do either of you want anything?" Jane looked at Freddie and Denise, attempting to commit their orders to memory before going towards the direction of where Freddie said the alcohol was located.

It was relatively quiet near the bar area, which caused her to be startled by hearing that sweet voice in her right ear.

"Jane?"

She didn't need to turn around to know who it was, she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath to compose herself. When she turned around and opened her eyes, she found herself staring at his chest, his shirt unbuttoned with a simple necklace dangling from his neck. He was a bit taller than she remembered, so she had to tilt her head back to look into his eyes. His eyes were still the same, those sweet, gentle eyes that she remembered so fondly.

"Brian.." She was at a loss for words, she didn't know how to respond to him. She had no clue what his intentions were in coming over to talk to her. Hopefully he wouldn't berate her more in front of so many people, especially with most of them in earshot.

He took a deep breath, "I wanted to say I'm sorry for the way I talked to you last Friday, that was no way to talk to anyone."

She smiled at the fact that he was still the same sweetheart he always had been. Jane couldn't help but forgive him, guess they're even now.

"It's alright, Brian, I know it wasn't easy seeing me again after all of these years."

She didn't mean to touch a nerve with him, but it did string a little when she brought that up. He swallowed hard, "Yeah.. it was tough but I can see you're doing well for yourself."

Brian couldn't help but notice how grown up she looked too, she had grown into her height, very well. He couldn't help but let his eyes wander while her back was to him, it was a surprise for him to see she had blossomed into a beautiful young woman. He always thought she was beautiful, but it was more evident to him now. Past the heavy makeup and the fancy clothing, he could still see that girl he knew, the girl who used to laugh at his silly jokes and his cheesy, innocent flirtatious comments, the one he fell in love with all those years ago.

"Yeah.." She looked down, she couldn't believe how shy she was in front of him. It was so uncharacteristic of her, she never wanted to seem arrogant but she knew she had a certain effect on men. It was easy to wrap them around her finger while she never gave them a second thought, she never reacted this way when talking to a guy.

When Jane looked back up, he was smiling at her, seeing that smile felt like receiving a warm hug after being stuck in the cold for much too long. There was one smile that never failed to make her happy, and she was staring right at it.

"What do you do now?" Brian was desperate to make more conversation and tried out the easy questions on her to see how she reacted.

"I'm an English teacher, secondary school." Jane kept smiling at him, like a fool.

"I'm not surprised one bit, you always loved writing. Do you still write?" He took a swig of the beer he had in his hand, not sure what to do with his other hand. He awkwardly stuffed it into his pants pocket.

She couldn't believe he remembered something like that after all of this time but Brian was always the type to remembers details that may seem insignificant, "No, not as much as I'd like to." She couldn't look him in the eye for too long or she'd feel her cheeks get warmer, something that thankfully went unnoticed by Brian. "What do you do now? Y'know.. besides being a rock star?"

He chuckled softly, "I'm actually a few months into my PhD at Imperial."

She raised her eyebrows, smiling, "Don't tell me, Astronomy, right?" She was impressed, she always knew how intelligent he was but to see his appearance and know he was a PhD candidate didn't compute in her mind.