Nexus- A Favor Owed
CE Savage
Nexus- A Favor Owed
Saturday night
The Dispensary
Harborton Washington
The second they stepped into the village watering hole Ben could smell trouble. He, in fact, had known this whole date thing was a bad idea from the get go. He just didn’t realize how fast it was going to go sideways. Multiple pairs of eyes were staring a hole in him and the young appearing woman clutching his old ass arm as they made their way to the dimly lit tavern.
His earlier misgivings had nothing to do with her and It wasn’t that she was unattractive. In fact she was gorgeous as hell. Ben knew from gorgeous. He lived with five women that were off the chart in hotness and he was totally in love with each of them. So why in the plu perfect hell was he going on a date with yet another?
It came down to returning a big favor that he owed this special woman and her sisters, one that his own girls insisted that he was obligated to return, no matter what it required, even though he was unconscious when the debt was incurred.
“Hey Doc. Interesting set of customers you have in tonight,” said Ben with a wave as they approached the bar
“Hey Skipper! Yeah, apparently these frat dingleberries decided that this was their new hangout,” said Doc.
Ben did a quick survey of the customers in question and wondered briefly if it were possible to get a contact high from all the testosterone in the air. Between that, the steroids, and the beer there probably was a severe dearth of active brain cells among the dozen or so jockstraps trying to undress his date with their retinas.
“Yeah I don’t see any of your regulars,” said Ben. Ben didn’t make it in often but he usually enjoyed swapping tales with some of the vets that made this a regular stop. He had even gotten used to seeing some of the yuppies from Olympia that occasionally graced the ‘dive bar’ with their presence for its low class ambience. But these loud, obnoxious idiots were already giving him a headache.
“And who might this lovely young lady be?” asked Doc with a slightly raised skeptical eyebrow.
Ben knew that Doc was just giving him a hard time. Doc was well aware of how he felt about his girls.
“Ah sorry for my manners. Doc this is Eir, she’s from uh…Iceland.” said Ben as he and the tallish brunette with piercing blue eyes and straight shoulder length hair, sat at the bar.
“Nice to meet you Doc,” said Eir in a lightly accented voice as she extended a slender pale hand to Doc.
Ben could see Docs easy going grin change to an appraising look as he felt her strong, calloused hand and heard her rich, confident, contralto voice. Ben also knew Doc would notice her corded forearms and the small subtle scars from her weapons training. Ben could barely hold back a grin as Doc realized that Eir was probably not just the young ingenue that she appeared to be.
“Welcome to my bar Eir. I hope you won’t let these young idiots put you off. It’s usually a bit more relaxed in here .” said Doc.
“This is acceptable. I’m rather used to this sort of behavior. It’s kind of like home,” returned Eir with a blindingly white smile that showed her dimples to best advantage.
Ben could hear the slight hesitation in Doc’s voice. Doc was scrupulous about checking id’s and Eir looked barely old enough to drink. Ben was about to speak up when he could see Doc had made up his mind.
“Hmmm didn’t know Icelanders were such a rowdy lot. Well, what can I get you two?” said Doc.
“Usual for me, Doc. Eir?” said Ben
“A nice mead would be wonderful Doc,” she said
“Uh I don’t think we’ve had any of that since…uh ever,” said Doc abashedly.
“Any kind of ale would suffice then,” said Eir with another of those dimply smiles.
Much more of this and Doc would be smitten, Ben thought. Dang this girl was really pretty, and surprisingly innocent in some ways.
“That we have. Coming up.” said Doc as he turned to get their drinks.
Her order began to give Ben some ideas of the gaps in her cultural knowledge. She and her sisters were very up on some things and woefully ignorant of others. Helping them with this knowledge gap was part of the reason for their ‘date’. There was more to it than that, but as usual his girls weren’t talking about it and Ben by this time knew not to ask.
Eir turned on her stool to face Ben with a shy look.