Clouds in my Coffee {Tess}

He watched with interest as Tessa participated in her own little wet t-shirt contest for the witch at the end of the bar. Her flustered display was endearing, and a bit encouraging if he were honest. His ego could use a little boost and being the reason a woman couldn’t think straight was quite the compliment. She slid a beer toward him and stood in wait, though not for what Alaric was going to offer. “You look good, Sweetness.” The mug was heavy with the full weight of its contents, just enough foam on the top to require him to wipe his upper lip off after taking his first drink. She held her hand out for payment, which she would get before he left, but he ignored her action. “You been keeping busy?” He didn’t see a ring on her finger, nor the tan lines of a recently removed ring, but he couldn’t picture Tessa being the sort to settle down, even in his absence. She was a wild one. He liked that about her. It was why he was here.

She was running the place now. Alaric was impressed, he honestly didn’t think her parents would have allowed that. The best he could remember of Tessa’s family, they weren’t completely enamored with their daughter’s choices in life, Ric being one of them, and he could recall no small number of times when Tessa would complain to him that her parents simply didn’t understand her. Perhaps they had changed. Or maybe they had died, but even then, she had siblings who would have inherited the place before her, he assumed. It was possible they had all died, what with the war and all, but rather than think on all that death Alaric preferred to assume someone had a change of heart somewhere. He couldn’t fathom Tess would have been the one to change, to settle down. She was too wild to be broken, it would have taken a miracle to tame her.

“Has it been that long?” he questioned, obviously skeptical of that duration. He’d been going through a rough patch the last time they got together, he remembered as much, but it wasn’t as though he kept a journal marking every time he got laid. Two years didn’t seem quite right to him, but unless Tess had her own diary full of their sexploits, he could chalk up her estimation as mere guesswork. “Can’t imagine I’d go that long without seeing you.”

Busy was one way of looking at it, though boring might be more apt. Alaric had since found steady work, something that was in question last time they’d been together, and he was working hard to keep his nose clean. Perhaps that counted towards busy but it was increasingly tedious and Ric was itching for a little change of pace. “Is that even possible?” he queried back, realizing only after he said it that she probably was the last good adventure he’d had. And if that had been two years ago, then fuck him he was a boring old sod. “Had a few jobs down in Wales recently,” he answered purposefully cryptic. “And some up north.” In the past his ‘jobs’ would have referred to various crimes he’d committed, with his mates when he was younger and then on his own after his stint in Azkaban showed him he couldn’t rely on anyone else not to cock it up for him. But these last few ‘jobs’ were actual gigs which didn’t last long. The ambiguity in his turn of phrase made him feel more adventurous like when they were kids. Things were a right bit easier when they were younger, though Tess seemed to be faring well as a proper adult. He took a swig of his beer before reciprocating the question. “What about you? How’d you manage all this then?” He gestured to the pub around them, the pub she apparently ran now instead of stealing booze from behind the bar and sneaking out into the Alley with him to drink.

Ric snorted into his beer. “You? Behave? Not a chance, love. Your parents don’t know the first thing about calming you down.” He flashed a seductive smile; the classic Alaric look. “I only ever managed to tire you out, but there was never any behaving.” He took a sip of his beer as he made eyes at her. Sure, he’d love a tumble with her and at any moment if he wanted to he could close his eyes and imagine her naked doing all sorts of activities from something as seductive as dancing on the bar to as mundane as washing a glass. And she looked damned good doing all of it and everything in between, at least in his mind, but he was here for something more exciting than just a shag. He was looking to recapture the excitement of their youth, anything that could make him feel relevant.