To New Friends

In the dark bar, Adam downed his whiskey sour to the cheer of his friends. His 34th year had been a disaster, punctuated by divorce and the passing of an excellent job opportunity across the country that he had let slip through his fingers to fruitlessly try and salvage what was left of his doomed marriage. Tired of feeling sorry for himself, Adam had promised himself a happy birthday to ring in a new, happier chapter of his life. He felt he had succeeded immensely. He'd started the Wednesday night celebrations at a trendy sushi bar with his close friends, and by 9.30pm, they'd moved to Morrison's, the hipster whiskey bar down the road. As it was the middle of the week, the drinking was relatively modest, but everyone was having a great time. Although enjoying a buzz, Adam was sure to watch himself with the drinks - he wanted to enjoy himself, but he did have work tomorrow.

Standing on the red vinyl booth seat that would look tacky anywhere else, but suited the retro decor of Morrison's perfectly, Adam ordered another round for his slightly cramped table. Lori, the short, feisty bar owner who Adam had known for years, shook her head in mock disapproval. She rang the oversized bell that hung above the bar. "This one's on the house!" She cried over the whoops of the small crowd - the only group in the bar. Despite it being a quiet affair, she had planned on ensuring Adam had an excellent night. They had attended the same high school and their friendship strengthened when Lori bought Morrison's, bringing her back to Sydney after living in Germany for a few years.

As Lori oversaw her new bartender pouring the drinks, Adam climbed back down from the bench seat. At 6"1, tipsy, and crowded into a booth, Adam had no chance of accomplishing this with any sort of grace. He stepped down, missed his footing, and fell backwards, bouncing into the back of the booth. As he laughingly sorted himself out, he felt the arms of a woman sitting behind him drape over his shoulders.

"So, I take it you are having a great night."

Adam smiled broadly and spun around as much as he was able to in such cramped quarters.

"Anja! You made it! When did you get here?" Adam kissed the cheek of the brunette whose dark jeans, short sleeve blouse and boots were a refreshing change from the skirts and heels that usually tottered around the bar.

"I just arrived, and just in time for a free drink! Happy birthday, gorgeous!" Leaning over the back of the booth that separated their seats, Anja kissed Adam chastely on the cheek. Patting her hand enthusiastically, he rose and struggled past his mates. As she had been sitting at a far less populated booth with a handful of mutual friends, Anja was already standing at the end of the seats by the time he had climbed free. She threw her arms around him in a bear hug, which was warmly returned. "I thought you wouldn't be coming, I'm so glad you're here."

"I know, I got stuck at a meeting at work, there was no way I was going to make it into the city for dinner. I figured I'd go get changed, grab a bite to eat, and jump on a train to help celebrate your shitty year away."

As Anja spoke, Adam was gently pulling her to an empty table around the corner, where they could talk briefly without being drowned out by the sound of their friends. Adam was delighted that she made it tonight, and was eager to catch up. Anja was a former colleague; They'd started their teaching careers together about ten years ago. While Adam had decided that teaching wasn't for him, and moved to a career in IT, Anja moved from strength to strength and now lectured in the Education faculty of a university about an hour from Sydney. They caught up every couple of months, but maintained regular contact, usually via texts and ridiculous meme wars.

As Adam sank into the padded seating, sighing in relief at the comfort and relative quiet, Anja grinned at him.

"This place is amazing! Why haven't we gone here before? They're playing the Beatles!" Anja's eyes flashed with approval. She was a huge fan of 60's rock.

"I knew you'd love it, you greasy hipster. How the hell have you been?"

As they chatted, they relaxed and enjoyed the music that filtered through the speakers, occasionally singing along to iconic lines. They were so engrossed in their contentedness that Adam was startled when Lori appeared.

"There you are! Your friends are wondering what happened to you! Apparently they're heading back to someone's house soon."

Adam checked his watch. "Shit, it's 11 o'clock. Alright, I guess we'd better head back to the others. Lori, have you met Anja? We used to work together in a past life."

Anja rose and the two women shook hands. "Nice to meet you, Anja," smiled the raven haired bar owner. Anja felt drawn towards Lori. Anja towered over Lori's 5"1 frame, but there was nothing diminutive about her. She was short and solid, and very sure of herself. With her short pixie cut highlighted with purple, and her vivid, artistic tattoos, Lori was the picture of urban sexiness. Anja, on the other hand, was tall and curvy, with a far less dramatic look about her. If anything, she looked more like one of her undergrad students.

"Well, everyone's winding up, it'd be a really quiet night without your shindig." Lori had not let go of Anja's hand after their handshake, and she guided them back to the occupied tables.

"Adam!" Mark, Adam's best friend called out, sauntering across the bar with a knowing look. "Where have you been, eh?" He stood between the two stools and winked at Anja. "Great to see you again." Mark turned to Adam. "The hangers on have cleared out, and the gang are coming back to mine. Are you guys in?"

Adam and Anja both shook their heads at the same time. Anja spoke first, "I'm heading home soon, I don't want to miss the last train back to the mountains." Adam also declined. "It's been a blast dude, but I think I'll pass. I don't want a huge hangover tomorrow."

Mark nodded in mock seriousness. "Sure," he drawled. "Last trains. No hangovers. Right."

Anja punched him playfully, but conceded that their friendship probably did look like more to others. She enjoyed flirting with Adam, and he was always very attentive, too. He'd even missed a portion of his own birthday to sit just with her. Even now, as they sat, their thighs were touching. But it was all innocent.

"Well, then, we're off. Nice seeing you again, Anja, for all 10 seconds you were around." Mark was smiling and touching her arm, but he was clearly miffed that his friend had ditched him. "Adam, come surfing with us in the morning?"

For the next fifteen minutes, the remaining patrons said their goodbyes to Adam and made their way into the cool night air. Anja turned her attention back to Lori.

"Great bar you've got here, Lori. I love everything! The music, the whiskey, the colour scheme! It's amazing."

Lori grinned over the bar, and pulled down a bottle of Yamazaki. "Thanks! I feel blessed that I could make a living out of the Doors and Whiskey. Two of my favourite things!" She moved across to the stool to Anja's right and slid a glass of the whiskey towards her new friend. "Bottoms up!"

Anja raised her glass. "The Doors and Whiskey - Amen, sister!"

Chatting amiably and drinking whiskey with her new friend, Anja took Lori in. Strong, confident, highly intelligent, and opinionated, Anja took an instant liking to her, and could see why she and Adam were friends. Likewise, Lori found Anja charming, and was impressed with her knowledge of music, food and liquor. As they discussed the merits of naming a whiskey bar after Jim Morrison, Adam returned and slid his arms around both women's waist.

"Ah, two sexy women and a bottle of whiskey. Looks like a happy birthday for Adam!" His cheekiness earned him a jab in the ribs from Lori.

"I'm going to send Jem home when he's finished cleaning up, and then I'll lock up. You guys can hang around, if you'd like. I'll be about 20 minutes."

As Lori busied herself, Adam leaned over to Anja. "You two really hit it off. Not surprised, you're so similar."

"Of course we are, she's awesome!" Anja laughed. "Why do you make me hang out with your boofhead mates, yet I've never met this one?"

"I've held back, because you two will gang up on me!"

Anja laughed. Adam was right. Their whole relationship was based on mutual respect and a healthy dose of putting shit on each other. She had a feeling that Lori had a similar sense of humour.

Lori had left the music playing while she closed up, and the pair couldn't help but hop up and cheesily belt out Bohemian Rhapsody when it came on. They fell back onto the stools, giggling like idiots.

"You're not really catching a train home, are you? You can stay in my guest room if you want. It's already late, and it's not safe on those shitty trains."

Anja nodded. "Yeah, I might take you up on that. If you're going surfing early in the morning, can you make sure I'm up? I need to be at work at 9." Louder, she called out, "How much do I owe you for the drink, Lori?"

Lori's head appeared from the doorway. "Nothing, hon, Adam had a tab open! He'll be sorry tomorrow!" The rest of her appeared as she made her way to the two friends sitting at the bar, looking suddenly exhausted. "I'm so sorry, though, I'm going to have to kick you guys out; I have a beast of a day tomorrow. A girl's got to have her beauty sleep!"

"Thanks for such a wonderful night, Lori! Everything's been excellent." As they left the bar, Anja felt compelled to give Lori a quick hug, which was unusual. She was usually rather reserved, especially around new people.

In the uber, Anja stretched sleepily and rested her head on Adam's arm. Adam was one person with whom she was not at all shy.

"Lori is fabulous. Are you guys seeing each other?"

Adam shook his head. He found Lori unbelievably sexy - most men and plenty of women did - however they had never pursued anything. It just wasn't that kind of friendship.

As the uber pulled in front of Adam's townhouse not far from the inner suburban bar, the pair had moved on to other topics of conversation, but Anja was finding it difficult to make much sense of anything. She hadn't had much to drink, but after a long day, it had been very successful in relaxing her. As they entered the front door, she yawned widely and laughed.

"I've been holding that in all night! I hope you don't mind, I'm going to hit the hay. What time are you up?"

"Eh, just before 5, I guess. We usually meet at Maroubra at 5.30 for a quick surf. I doubt I'll come home though, there are showers at the surf club."

Anja yawned again. "Great - can you make sure I'm up when you leave? I'll need to leave at 7 so I can grab something to wear to work from the 24 hour Target."

In the guest bedroom, Anja stripped off her jeans, flopped onto Adam's spare bed and promptly melted into a comfortable slumber.

At 4.55, Adam's knocking on the door didn't rouse the exhausted brunette, so he softly pushed the door open and tiptoed into the dark room. He'd turned the hall light on, but it didn't filter into the room as well as he'd hoped. He leaned over the bed and was just about to gently shake her on the shoulder, when her eyes flew open and she leapt up in a screaming flurry of limbs.

"What the fuck is going on?!" The fear and lack of comprehension of her surroundings in her jerky movements and sleep-tainted voice was almost palpable.

Adam slid to the doorway and turned on the light as Anja shielded her senses from yet another unexpected onslaught.

"Sorry, A. You asked me to wake you before I left."

Recognition of the world around her crept across her face, as did an embarrassed smile.

"Uh, yeah. I did." She checked her phone. "5am. Screw that! I can squeeze in another hour!" Anja lazily fiddled with her alarm as Adam filled her in on how to set the security system to the house. As she heard him close the door, she stretched across the length of the soft bed and settled back in for a sneaky snooze.

Anja stirred to what sounded like faint shouting in the distance. She decided to ignore it; There was still precious time left to sleep. After a while, though, it was clear that sleep was eluding her, too. Grumpily, she pulled her jeans back on and shuffled downstairs to Adam's kitchen, itching to find some coffee.

Blessedly, the coffee machine and pods were in plain sight. As the still-warm machine gurgled to life, Anja wandered into the adjacent loungeroom and opened the blinds to let in the soft summer dawn. Looking out the bay window, which faced the quiet avenue lined with symmetrical trees, she sighed. Adam was doing really well for himself; even with the divorce eating into his finances, he had been able to secure a beautiful home, while she lived within the far more modest means of a young lecturer.

Pull it together, you grumpy ass, Anja scolded herself, retrieving her coffee and returning to the lovely view. Normally, she was very content with her life - she rented a nice home,loved her job, was able to travel modestly, and never really wanted for much. Being jolted awake did not agree with her, clearly, as she really was out of sorts this morning. As she tried to reclaim her mindset, a flash of grey streaked past the glass, followed shortly by a harried looking human figure. After hearing the human calling out in increasingly frantic tones, Anja let herself out of the townhouse to see if she could help.

The regret tore into her immediately.

"Jesus, bindies!" She cried, cradling her ankle and pulling the sharp burrs from the ball of her foot. She called out to the figure trying to coax something out of the bushes a few houses down the road, "do you need a hand?"

The woman turned around, her blonde hair whipping her face as she alternated between looking at Anja and back at the bushes.

"Yes, please! My neighbour's dog got out, and we split up to find him. I saw him run down the street, and it looks like he's finally tuckered out. But he won't come to me."

Anja was already by her side by the time she'd finished speaking.

"Probably because you were chasing him. Maybe he's scared? Or thinks it's a game now?"

The woman nodded. "Probably a game. He's a sweetie, but so daft. Would you mind trying? I'll text my friend to let her know where he is."

Anja carefully and slowly made her way into her neighbour's yard with her hand stretched out. After a few minutes of letting the schnauzer sniff at her, she eventually scooped him up in her arms and brought him back over to the slim blonde woman.

"Got him. Have you got his lead?" The woman shook her head. "If you want, we can take him into the house and then we won't have to worry about him running off again. I'm Anja."

"Sarah. Would you mind? He's a bit heavy for me to carry home - I've been chasing him for at least a kilometre."

Still holding the ball of fur, Anja led Sarah to the house, confident that Adam wouldn't mind. Tired from his adventure, the large grey dog settled on a soft rug and curled up for a nap. For a third time that morning, the coffee machine whirled and delivered its bitter nectar, while Sarah called her friend and updated her on the situation.

Not ten minutes later, a knock on the door awoke the sleeping canine, and he flung himself to the entrance of the house. Anja rose to open the door, and instead dropped her mouth open in amazement.

"Lori? No way! Come in!"

Lori stepped into the threshold, looking adorable in Cookie Monster boxer shorts and a white singlet whose shelf bra didn't confidently contain what lay within, especially as she bent down to pat her beloved pup. She gave Anja a knowing smile.

"Anja, hi! I thought it was coincidence enough that Jagger here would end up near Adam's house, but I didn't expect to see you here!"

"No, it's not like that! I live in the mountains, so I just crashed in the spare room for the night." She gave an exaggerated shudder. "He's like a brother!"

Lori giggled. "I know exactly what you mean. Poor guy!" She clipped Jagger's lead onto his collar, as Anja offered her a coffee.

"I'd really love to, but I probably should go. Jagger needs to get home, the naughty little turd, and I've got so much to do today. It's already past 7 o'clock."

Anja started at that revelation. "Shit... I've got to be at work in less than 2 hours, and I still have to race to Target for some clothes!" She started to panic and clean up the coffee cups. Sarah and Lori helped her straighten up.

"I drove here, I can drop you off at the station," Lori began, "There's a Target at the shopping centre next to it."

Anja nodded gratefully. "That would save me so much time. My university is an hour away, and a bit of a trek from the station."

The women and Jagger piled into Lori's sporty silver Mazda. It turned out that Sarah was a PE teacher, and also anxious to get home so she could get to work at a reasonable time. For as stressful as the morning was, the 15 minute drive to Newtown Station was calm and amiable, and by the time Anja was dropped off, her day and mood seemed to have turned around.

At 1pm, after subsisting on two cups of coffee before her day exploded into a flurry, Anja was determined to relax for 20 minutes. As she ate her roast vegetable salad, she checked her phone. 4% battery and a text. Luckily, she had a charger at her desk. She smiled once the text opened, slightly yet maddeningly delayed by her battery saver function.

Hey Anja, this is Lori. Hope you don't mind, I got your number from Adam. Wanted to thank you for helping with Jagger today, and for keeping him safe.

Anja replied that it was her pleasure, and complimented Lori on the choice of her dog's name and breed. They texted back and forth, and just as her phone dinged to indicate another text, it powered down. Frustrated, but acknowledging that it was time to return to work, she plugged the phone in and settled back down to an afternoon of grading first year papers on the nature of teaching in the digital world.

At 6pm, as she was packing up for the evening, her phone, untouched since being put on charge, dinged again.

Anja looked down at her phone, confused for a moment before remembering that she never did read the text that had come through just before her phone died. Flicking through her messages, Anja realised that Lori had invited her out to dinner to thank her properly for rescuing Jagger.

Anja called Lori and apologised, explaining the situation and making plans to meet for dinner on the following Monday, when Morrison's was in the hands of the bar manager.

For the next four days, Anja was vaguely anxious about this dinner. She was attracted to Lori, that was for sure - the vision of Lori in Adam's lounge room, wearing short boxer shorts and a vaguely indecent white tank top danced in Anja's imagination. The juxtaposition of the cutesie Sesame Street pattern against her punk image was pretty delicious. Even so, this was two mates eating Mexican food, not a date. She had no idea if Lori was straight, gay, bi, ace even? She was happy just to meet a new friend. Anja texted with Adam throughout the weekend, and told him they were heading out for dinner, but decided against delving deeper into anything. She didn't have a clue how to explain her nerves, even to him.

It took Anja an hour to get ready on Monday morning, as opposed to her usual 15 minute dash out the door. Instead of her usual black pants or skirt and blouse, or shift dress, Anja opted for a vintage bottle green and black skirt, with a black ¾ sleeve top and boots. The skirt was new, but she told herself that as she'd had her eye on it for weeks, it wasn't bought especially for this particular night. Not only did she actually apply make up in the morning, she even packed it to freshen up before she left campus. Her hair was pulled into a fashionably high ponytail, and checked on hourly to ensure it stayed that way. After an interminable amount of time lecturing about pedagogy and grading papers on the same, it was finally 5pm. As she pulled her reliable Skoda out of the staff parking lot, Lori called.