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The Guy From The Bar

~Alex~

The next morning was kind of fuzzy. I woke up around noon with that light groggy feeling you get after a night of light drinking. After the initial feeling of groggy and haziness, I started feeling strangely good. I had that cute guy's number in my phone -which I planned on calling later this evening or tomorrow- and the whole day off to explore the city.

I couldn't say the same for my buddy Jason, who looks like he was hit by a bus when I knock on his door to see if he's awake.

The first thing I did, after getting dressed and brushing my teeth was to go out and get coffee. I got myself an espresso and I picked Jason up a caramel latte macchiato (he likes those sugary types of coffee).

When I return to the hotel and give Jason his coffee, we talk about our night.

"So who was that squirrel you were talking to at the bar last night?" He asks, eyes barely open and voice horse and harsh.

I tilt my head. "Squirrel?" as far as I knew, there were no rodents there save for that ermine.

"Yeah," he says after a quick sip of his coffee. "The white one in the beanie."

I laugh. "Oh! Him. He was an arctic fox."

"Explains the fur colour. Thought he was albino or something."

I go on. "And I don't know who he is. He didn't give me his name, just his number."

Now, the red fox looks at me with his unfocused eyes. "He gave you his number, but not his name?" I nod. "Sounds sketchy, dude."

I take a sip of my coffee, letting the nutty, hot flavour roll around my tongue before swallowing. "How do you mean?"

Jason yawn's and sets his coffee cup down before flopping back on the bed, which he immediately regrets because he clutches his head in pain a moment later. "I mean, like, who gives their number but not their name? Sounds to me like he really wants you to call him, or he really doesn't."

I chuckle. "If he didn't want me to call him, why would he give me his number?"

"Either because he's too nice to tell you no, or it's a fake number." he says, voice being slower and lower and I could tell he was starting to drift back to sleep.

"So I've got no chance with him?" I say jokingly, but inwardly I'm a little worried he might be right. I mean, I don't put myself out there or date a lot, hell, even the whole one-night-stand is kind of rare for me too. Jason knows way more about this than I do.

"Didn't say that, dude." he sighs. "I don't know man, no offense or anything but I really don't give a fuck right now."

I laugh and nod, standing up from my seat on the bed. "Well thanks for the advice, asshole." I chuckle as I walk towards the room door.

From the bed and without looking up, he waves at me. "Anytime, bro."

So the kid might not be interested after all. I mean, I'm not exactly surprised; he seemed awfully hesitant to converse with me last night, but it's still kind of disheartening to consider. He was really cute and something about him just seemed so alluring. It's rare enough for me to want someone this bad. I don't normally get turned down, but when I do, I just brush it off and move on with my life. Now, I feel... disappointed.

I shake my head and focus on the road. I had gone out for a drive around the city, stopping at several stores to get some souvenirs for some friends and family back at home while enjoying the scenery. It was around mid afternoon, on my way back to the hotel, when I saw a sign to the left of Acai St that had a list of stores down a dead end street. McDonald's, Gabe's, JoAnne Fabrics, Goodwill, Sam's Club, and so on. I didn't have anything better to do, so I turned down the street and drove in.

The first place I stop is Gabe's to see if I could find a few pairs of underwear (I'm embarrassed to say that I had forgotten to pack some for my trip). Afterwords, as I'm leaving the the store, I take a look down at the Sam's Club and see something, or rather, someone. The white fur stuck out like a sore thumb even all the way from over here, but I wasn't sure that it was the same white fur as the one I saw last night. There are a lot of white furred breeds around, especially this far north.

Before I know what I'm doing, I'm in my car and driving through the parking lot of Sam's Club looking for someone I saw once at a bar... God, I sounds crazy. What the hell am I even going to do if I find him? Walk up to him and say, 'Hi! I saw you from Gabe's and wanted to some see you! I'm totally not stalking you, by the way.'

I pull into a parking space and lean back in my seat, turning the engine off. What am I doing? C'mon Alex, this isn't like you. You just need to respect the kid's choice of not being interested. He may have given me his number, but I practically pressured him into giving it to me, if it really even is his number.

I shake my head and am about to turn my engine back on when motion catches my eye in my rear-view mirrors. The first thing I recognize is the white fur and my heart skips a beat, but then I notice that the fur belongs to someone other than my fox. My fox is tall and thin with a long flowy tail. This white fur belonged to a short, stout, short tailed ermine...

Ermine?

I turn around in my seat and look at the ermine. Sure enough, and the same girl from last night, the one that tried to kiss the fox. What was her name? Allison? Alisha? Ashley? Fuck, I don't remember. But I definitely remember all of them seeming to work together, and if she's here, that probably means that fox is here too.

Ignoring my better judgment, I get out of he car and make my way to the store entrance. I'm practically jogging through the doors when I realize that I don't even know where to begin looking. This Sam's club was huge, containing several different departments, more than just the standard hardlines, grocery, produce and center. He could work in any of those departments. I know he told me what he did for a living and I remember being impressed, but I don't remember what it was.

Fuck, Alex, great idea drinking more after the kid left last night.

"Can I help you with something?" A light female voice says from my left, drawing my attention to a short, elderly bobcat. Her fur was peppered gray and her posture was hunched, making her seem even shorter.

"Uhm, maybe? I'm actually looking for someone. A fox."

The old lady, Jenny, her name tag reads, laughs. "We have a lot of those. Do they work here? Can you describe them?"

I rub my ears. I'm seriously doing this? "Yeah uh, I think he works here. He's an arctic fox, so white fur, about yea high-"

"Oh! I know who you're talking about! He's the only artic fox, probably in the whole city." She exclaims. "Yeah he's here. He just went to clock out, back there by the bathrooms." Jenny points a boney finger past the cashiers (some of which I recognize from last night and am amazed that their able to work after all that drinking) to the back wall where there's a door labeled employees only.

I say thank you and quickly make my way in that direction. I obviously can't just walk in there since I don't actually work here, but there's a bench I can wait on right next to the door, so I decide to do that.

It's now that logic finally catches up to me. I'm about to confront the guy I was hitting on last night, who I essentially stalked all the way to his workplace, and asked around to ensure that he was still here... seriously, what's wrong with me?

The door to the break room opens and out walks the arctic fox. He looks so different from last night; he wore red shorts and a plain black T-shirt and a black ball cap between his ears. He also wore a pair of thick rimmed spectacles which changed his looks too, but that bright white fur and his sparkling green eyes were all to familiar.

My tail is wagging and I take step forward, but the fox doesn't see me right away. He's looking to his right as he walks through the door, probably to someone who's in the break room. My words get caught in my throat and I can't warn him before -

*Thud*

Wow, he's so light, I hardly felt that. "Oh my God, I'm so sor-" He's eyes meet mine and he freezes. I'm frozen to. I can smell him now, his natural musky scent with the hint of strawberry that tingles my nose as I drink in his scent.

"Sorry about that..." He says slowly. "I didn't see you there."

"No, I'm sorry," I say. "I should have spoken up."

Real smooth Alex.

He doesn't move for a second and neither do I. I can see the wheel's turning behind his eyes as he tries to make sense of this encounter. I'm having a hard time myself trying to find the right words to tell him that I wasn't stalking him (even though it feels like I am) and that it was nice to see him again, which was true so I started with that. "You're from the bar right? I was hoping I'd run into you again."

He blinks at my words and snaps back to reality. Suddenly his body relaxes and expression shifts, pulling his lips up into a slight smile. "Ah, I thought I recognized you." His voice was light and relaxed, and if I hadn't seen him put this face on multiple times at the bar, I'd think he was being genuine. "Funny running into you here."

He straightened his back and put his hands into his pockets, leaning on one foot and just looking generally at ease. His tail, however, wouldn't stop twitching. Having been in the business industry for as many years as I have has conditioned me to identify body language, and this kid was really good at making himself seem comfortable in uncomfortable situations. He'd make a good salesman.

I return his smile. "Yeah, I just stopped in to grab a few things. I saw you walk in and thought I would say hi."

His ear twitched slightly, but enough for me to catch it. "Stalking me, are we? You must still be bored."

I chuckle. "What can I say? You're hard to resist."

The foxes smile wavers for a moment, but he composes himself and shifts his weight to lean on his other foot. "Charismatic while drunk and sober," His smile widens. "You must either be a personal assistant or a lawyer."

It's a little scary how close he is to guessing what my profession is with having only had one previous conversation with me, but then again, foxes always were sharp and this kid is no exception. "Not quite, but close. I'm actually closer to an accountant than anything else."

"Oh good," the fox laughs that adorably light laugh. "Numbers, my worst enemy."

"Don't like math?"

He shakes his head. "Never have, but I can appreciate it for what it is." He steps to the side to let an associate through the door, making me realize that we were standing in the way.

I turn my body while looking at him and he seems to get the message, following me out of the way. "Unfortunately for me, all the subjects in high school that interested me had a ridiculous reliance on math that I just didn't understand." He continues.

"So science then?" I ask and he nods. "What kind of science?"

"Astronomy, at the time, was my favourite. But I also really enjoyed the idea of physics and quantum mechanics."

We come to a more open part of the store, right next to the cafeteria. As I make my way to one of the table, I whistle. "Wow. Never studied those, except for physics, but I know that they aren't easy."

We take a seat at a table facing each other. After a little while of talking, the forced polite facade seemed to fade into sincerity and we actually enjoyed a nice little conversation. He asked me about my job and what college was like for me because he doesn't go to college and was curious. I ask him how he likes his job and what he likes to do in his free time, which I learn he doesn't have a lot of. He works three jobs and spends what little free time he has sleeping.

His first and most obvious job was lot attending here at Sam's Club, which he does the most; around four to five days a week. He second job was as a chef at a local dormitory for foreign exchange high school students, which he works three days a week. His last job, and probably the most impressive (to me) was that he works as a caterer's assistant. According to him, that was his least favourite job because of how unorganized his boss is and how the hours are always flakey.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, I love my boss and I actually consider her a friend of mine, I just hate working for her." he says, leaning on the table with his elbow and resting his chin in his palm.

"Sounds pretty bad," I say. "What are some of the things she has you do?"

He waves the air with his free hand. "Oh, the normal stuff you'd do in the kitchen like washing dishes, making certain foods, watching the stoves and ovens and such. But because I'm her assistant I have to take calls, write down reminders for her, make deliveries, shop for ingredients, yadda yadda." He shakes his head. "I honestly wouldn't mind the work if things were just a little more organized. Oh! Sorry! You don't want to hear me bitch about my life. What about you? What do you do in your free time?"

I smile at him. He was really cute while he was going on about his job, which he clearly does with a passion even though he doesn't enjoy it. Sounds like the Caterer who hired him hit the jackpot. I'd kill for a personal assistant like that.

"Free time? No, I'm a workaholic. I always find ways to be doing my job in one way or another. Honestly, the most freetime I have is when I go on trips like these. Usually my work only gets done when I do it, but because I'm here with a team, there are certain things I just can't do and have to wait for them to need me."

He smiles. "It sounds like you enjoy your job."

I nod and chuckle a little. "I suppose I do."

There was a brief lull in the conversation, giving me enough time to realize something. "Oh!" My ears shoot up and so does the fox's in curiosity. "You never told me your name!"

His ears go down a little and he looks away from me. "Yeah, uh, well... I didn't think it would really be necessary."

"Necessary? Of course it is, why wouldn't it be?"

His ears dip a little more. "I didn't think you'd actually be interested in talking to me. I mean, don't get me wrong, you seem like a nice guy and all, but your from out of town and I did meet you at a bar, so you can kind of see the conclusions I've drawn."

I nod. "Right, you mentioned that you weren't interested in one nighters." He shakes his head a little. "And I said that I wanted to get to know you more." I take a small leap of faith and reach my hand across the table to touch the back of his hand lightly.

The fox immediately stiffens and looks at me, but he doesn't withdraw his hand, so I keep mine on his. "And," I continued. "I also said that if you didn't like me, I'd leave you alone."

The fox chuckles nervously as his eye drop again. "Not as drunk as I was hoping you were last night, I guess."

I smile. "Hey, I know I just met you the other night, and I don't even know your name, but I think you're really cute and attractive and I like you. Even if its only temporary, let me take you out."

The fox's ears flick again. "Like, on a date?"

I laugh. "You don't get asked out very, much do you?"

He gives me a small smile. "Not by people I'm mutually interested in."

My heart skipped a beat. He likes me too. "I'm Alex." I say.

"Jaspyr."