Hard day's work {Alicia}

"Ooh, you're frisky, are you? Go figure." Her nose wrinked up slightly as held back a smile. He was funny, and able to take a joke and she admired the hell out of that. There weren't many men that wouldn't get offended by her insinuating that they'd try on women's clothing, or anything of the sort. The fact that he could make fun of himself was attractive, and she found herself admiring him even more. When had it started? She didn't understand when her scrutiny of him had become as dedicated as it was, but she was coming to terms with being attracted to him. It wasn't some infatuation, she just felt comfortable being around him, enough so that she could admit that she found him intriguing. That was good right?

"Ha. No. Me? Never. Leifr, you'll find I prefer my books with the covers off and the lights on so I can admire every detail of its craftsmanship. No judging over here." She looked at him directly in the eye, face straight before going back to doing what she was doing. Was there a blush on her face? She didn't feel like there was, but there was no way she could actually look at herself and see if the collapse of her mind was on her face. She felt oddly calm for stepping as far out of her comfort zone and actually saying something that was as direct as that had been, for all its indirectness. Bah, she was driving herself stupid. He was a man, and she was a girl. Flirting happened. That was all.

When he brought the subject back to her earlier statement, her questions about the girl, she was pretty sure he was trying to keep her face bright red for the rest of her life. Her lip slid between her teeth as she worked, listening to his voice. Cute? Pretty? EH?! He couldn't have been talking about her, that was ridiculous. She tried to rack her mind for some other girl she'd seen, but she couldn't think of one. Not a one. Logic told her that he was talking about her. Complimenting her. Her suddenly rapidly beating heart was thinking otherwise, and she bit the inside of her mouth before laughing at him softly. "Mah, Leifr. She sounds like a paragon of perfection. I wonder what she was doing in a place like this with a troublemaker like you." She quipped, poking him with a towel covered hand. "Did you get her floo? Cause its useless admiring someone that cute, smart and funny without asking them out. I'm sure she doesn't bite...unless you asked, and if you ask, that's kind of kinky. But you've already admitted to being frisky, so that isn't too far away. " She'd been watching him from under her eyelashes to gauge his reaction, before something caught her attention.

Miss? Her eyes shot up and she looked at the man walking towards her, his newspaper tucked under his arm. Letting a bright smile erupt on her cheeks, she chatted him up as he proceeded to pay for his meal. If he lingered a bit, it wasn't as if she really noticed because they were chatting about quidditch, which had been a conversation that they'd started up while she'd been serving him. When he left, she waved at his back and waited until he exited the door before dropping the change in the change jar. "Man, he spoke a lot." She remarked, shaking her head before walking over to the table. Flicking her wand, she stacked all the dirty dishes on the tray before cleaning the table. There was food everywhere, and she spent five minutes bent over the table in the empty pub, trying to get potatoes from where they'd been spread about. When she was done, she let out a soft sigh before carrying the dishes to the sink. This time, she'd wash them with magic, and it was only until she saw the process started that she walked back over to the bar.

Instead of going back around, she sat on the bar stool admiring him. Her cheek rested on her palm, and she sighed softly. "Leifr, can I have a tequila sunrise? Minus the tequila, extra orange juice and ice?" Tequila Sunrises were her favorite drinks, with or without alcohol. Something about how the orange juice and grenadine interacted tasted so good to her, and after hours of chatting, her throat was dry. "So. Leifr. Tell me you're not working the night shift. Cause that's ridiculous, and that much adult responsibility has got to be too much to bear." Her eyes were big and wide as she sort of teased him, poking at the work ethic of his that she both admired and worried about. He was always working when she stepped into the Stag & Hen. "You're doing something fun tonight, I hope." She was just curious. That was it.

Him, frisky? Absolutely. Shooting her a brief grin the wizard spoke “Bet your arse I’m frisky...” He was venturing into potentially dangerous territory, but it was so easy to come up with quips to poke back at her when she was teasing him that he couldn’t resist. But that was the problem when he tended to have the self control of a teenager when it came to humor, the jokes were of greater concern than their propriety. Shrugging it off, Leifr continued to pick up and clean around the bar. As much as he did enjoy it at the Stag & Hen, he liked his own free time that much more. Spending time with his brothers and family, and his friends was always the best thing that the wizard could think of doing to fill his time with.

Leifr wasn’t sure how Alicia managed to keep him on his toes as much as she did, but somehow he was never quite sure what to expect from her next, and considering the next thing to come out of her mouth in response to his earlier retort about judging a book by it’s cover."Ha. No. Me? Never. Leifr, you'll find I prefer my books with the covers off and the lights on so I can admire every detail of its craftsmanship. No judging over here." Wow. Blinking a few times at the directness, and the innuendo hidden within her response, the ex-Gryffindor swallowed hard before responding “Covers off and the lights on, huh? I wouldn’t have figured you to be such an avid appreciator of books and their minor details...” Trailing off Leifr found himself biting his lip, his gaze flicking up to meet hers. He couldn’t deny the fact that her boldness was attractive, but he was also surprised to see Alicia being that forward with him.

A paragon of perfection? Nobody was perfect, but Leifr was willing to bet that Alicia was pretty close to whatever ‘perfect’ really was. With his back still to her, the wizard was thankful that there was a little work to distract them both from whatever this was, flirting, or whatever. Laughing quietly as he waved his wand to bring in yet another set of clean mugs the man replied in an even tone “Perfection? Well, if she’d not perfect she’s close....Oh...I think she kind of got stuck with me before she knew what she was getting into. Quite the shame, you know?” Smirking a little, the wizard shot her a glance when he felt her hand poke his side lightly. Her floo. That was it! An idea popped into the twenty six year olds head. It was perfect. Shrugging lightly Leifr tried to appear as nonchalant as possible “You’re right, I should have totally gotten her floo. I’m going soft in the head. Losing my game or something like that, whatever am I going to do?” His teasing was cut short by the arrival of a customer. Going about his business, letting Alicia finish up with taking care of their customer, Leifr busied himself by polishing the bartop.

Waiting until the anonymous man had left, Leifr couldn’t help but laugh when Alicia brought up how talkative their lone customer had been. Giving her a look the man gave her his opinion “Yeah, he was trying to chat you up..” In all honesty, Leifr wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about that, even if what they’d been doing was harmless flirting, it still irritated him just enough to get under his skin. He wasn’t stupid, he knew why the man was interested, Alicia was beautiful, but she was his friend, and his employee so in some ways he felt responsible for making sure she wasn’t harassed, and at the moment  he was likely a little jealous even if he refused to admit it.

Winking cheekily at her as she finally slid onto the stool next to him, resting her palm in her hand, he turned, giving her most of his attention. A tequila sunrise without the tequila? That was easy enough. Nodding softly the man quickly went about pulling the simple drink together before sliding it down so that it was in front of her “One Tequila Sunrise without the tequila and extra Orange juice and ice.” Days at the Stag and Hen could get long, and he knew what that felt like, so it wasn’t even a question of whether he would or wouldn’t make her what she’d wanted. She’d worked hard for it. Was he working tonight? The surprising answer was no. Barclay had begun refusing to let him work almost all the time, saying something about him needing to relax and enjoy himself. Compared to his efforts during the war, working at the Stag & Hen was relaxing, but trying to get Barclay to buy that was useless. He wasn’t sure what he’d do yet, but the night was still young.

Shaking his head he spoke softly “ Surprisingly, no I’m not actually working the night shift. Barclay wouldn’t let me. He’s kicked me out for awhile. And are you kidding me? My middle name is responsibility. Ol’ reliable thank you very much...and I’m trying to, I just need to figure out what. Might see if my brothers want to go out..How about you?” He finished playfully mocking her wide eyed stare. Then, after waiting a pause or two Leifr barely turned his attention away from scrubbing down the sink behind the bar, and barely changed the way he was speaking to the witch next to him “Oh...and by the way....before I go, could I get your floo?” Now it was just like waiting for the other shoe to drop. He could wait.

"I have to keep a few things under wraps if I want to surprise you sometimes." With a big grin, Alicia let her tongue trail over her bottom lip before shaking her head. "Besides, I like plot twists, insert more book/sex innuendo here...yadda yadda." She laughed, unable to keep it going. "That was my best line, Leifr. Don't expect much more out of me." Her fingernails tapped on the bar with her admission, going back to work. As clever as she'd been for the majority of the day, there was only so much flirting she could do before she started tripping over her words.

Stuck with him? Close to perfection? What...? Her hands stilled on the glass she was putting away, and she stared at his back. What was he doing? Was he still talking about her? Had he even been talking about her from the start? What the entire hell was going on? She darted her gaze away from his when he turned to look at her, and she shook her head so pink tipped ears were hidden. Was it hot in here? Was she going to faint? She didn't like being confused, and she wanted to ask so many questions.

After the customer, Leifr's instant rebuttal had her frowning. "Chat me up? Why?" Her nose wrinkled in confusion, and she met his gaze as she took the drink he handed to her. "Thank you...but I don't believe you. He was just being nice." If he'd been chatting her up, she'd know, right? Men were usually really obvious about it, and it was kind of disgusting sometimes. Especially when they were drunk. Stealing a stirrer, she used to gently twirl her drink into a bright pink-orange colour that she was quite fond of. Big eyes turned towards Leifr as she leaned forward, taking small sips of her drink. She closed her eyes as the flavour hit her taste buds, dancing on her stool. It was perfect, and she quite wanted another...even though she'd barely touched the one in the glass she currently had.

Alicia looked at him, watching as he continued to work. She felt like quite the lazy bum as he continued to work and she twiddled her toes, but her view was nice so it soothed her discontent quite a bit. "You, not working? GASP! Audible gasp." She drawled sarcastically, twiddling her fingers at him. "If your middle name is responsibility, your father did you no favors. Now you have to be responsible for the rest of your life. No fun ever." She tittered to herself. "I am...going to find myself the nearest shower, and stand under it for a good hour. After that, nothing. I hope you have fun though." She was smiling sunnily in his direction before she almost choked on the sip of her drink that she'd just taken.

What...?

WHAT?

OH F***. He'd been talking about her? He was asking her for her floo? Holy Merlin's saggy hairy nutsack. She rubbed at the ridge of her nose where of course, a blushed had settled. Her fingers darted out to grab a pen from her apron, and she reached for a napkin. Loopy handwriting curved over the white surface and she stood slowly, peering over his shoulder. Alicia waved the paper infront of his face, before reaching behind and slipping it in his back pocket. Leaning over to drop a soft kiss on his cheek, she then wiggled past him and around the corner. Peeking around the corner, she waved at him.

"I think I'm leaving. Otherwise, I'll embarrass the hell out of myself, and never be able to say anything to you without thinking about what an idiot I was. So. I'll see you next week. Have fun tonight..." She grabbed her coat and put it on. "...You can floo me whenever you'd like." She said blurting it out, before sneaking out the back door and letting it slam behind her. She was a horrible, horrible flirt. She chanted that mantra as she flopped face first into her pillow.