Playing For Keeps (Closed for hells_fury)

Ben Williams idly traced a finger through the circle of beer slowly seeping in to join the dozens of it's brothers staining the cheap plywood tabletop. It seemed to him that if he came in here and replaced every table with something gleaming and new, the owner would come through that night and painstakingly replicate every stain and every carved initial. Some towns wouldn't change for anything, but this one couldn't if it wanted to.

Maybe you didn't see it until you looked at if from outside, or maybe you just didn't let yourself look at it from too close. Either way, seeing it was easily the best thing that had ever happened to him. Well worth the trip back.

And speaking of things worth the trip, she should be arriving soon. He frowned slightly as he sorted through the complex tangle of thoughts and feelings that came with that. He'd had a good amount of time to think about how things had worked out before, and he had an idea or two as to why, but there was only one way to find out and it didn't involve chasing it in circles until he couldn't think straight. It wasn't too hard to set it aside and wait, to ignore the anticipatory tingle in his gut. Life had taught him patience, and life had taught him that you couldn't solve the puzzle without looking at the pieces.

Sipping his beer, he leaned back and waited.

Lynn was running a little late. Of course there had been an emergency at the hospital that she had to take care of. Finally being able to leave she headed off to the bar. Still wearing her scrubs she parked and changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt pulling on her leather jacket. How she wished she had her bike, but a new paint job took time. Walking inside her eyes found him.

In that moment all the emotions hit her like a brick wall. Standing there she suck in a quick breath and pushed everything aside. She could not believe he was here, and how he had changed. Walking over she bit her lip before finally gaining her courage back once more.

"Hey mind if I join you..."

She asked in a kind and flirtatious voice as she stood there looking down at him.

Outwardly, she'd barely changed at all. The differences were slight, and for the most part insignificant. A shade taller, a bit more filled out. The same coy, teasing voice, Like she's about to start laughing at you any second now.

Ben had expected her entrance to be something like this. Brash and flirty. Lynn had always been good at that, even in high school, and he'd figured a few years practice would only hone what had come naturally to her. He was surprised to find that he didn't quite buy it, but perhaps not as surprised as he thought he should be. Outwardly, she'd barely changed. Inwardly, might be another matter entirely. Something to think about later.

For now, he smiled up at her, and shoved the chair across from him back from the table with the toe of his boot. Waving her towards it, he sipped his beer.

“ Be a helluva trip to make if I did mind. What are you drinkin', Lynn?”

Lynn smiled and took a seat. A waiter came by taking her order, she kept it simple ordering whatever he had. Looking back to him she smiled softly and took a deep breath. She was still so shocked to see him here, to be this close to him again, to be able to reach out and touch him if she wanted.

One of her hands rested on the table the other on her thigh that she fidgeted with nervously. It was so hard to be calm around him, it always had been, and she knew he could read her like a book. Swallowing hard she smiled again clearing her throat.

"So how are things, whats new?"

She said to him, she had so much that she wanted to ask, but she knew she needed to take her time with it.

'What's new?' was exactly what Ben was wondering. He looked at her over the rim of his glass as he took a drink. He tried to fit the woman sitting across from him, with her quick smile and twitchy hands, into the same picture as the brazen world beater of a girl he'd left behind years ago. He could do it, but just barely.

As he talked a bit about the jobs he'd worked, where he'd worked them, and the girls he'd occupied himself with, all he could see was what she wanted. It was in every curve and line of her. Couldn't be clearer if she'd had it printed on a T-Shirt. Again, he could only wonder if it had always been this way, and if so how he could have missed it back then.

Allowing his smile to turn into a bit of a smirk, he interrupted himself. “Shit, girl. Do you have a husband I should be watching out for? You look like you're about to dive for the window.”

Hearing his question and seeing his expression, she couldn't help the chuckle the came from her. Shaking her head she rolled her eyes, a smirk coming over her face as she looked at him.

"You always were good at breaking the ice weren't you.."

She said as she sat there. The waiter finally returning with her drink in hand. Taking the glass she took a swig and swallowed hard as she sat there staring at him.

"No, you have no one to worry about. It's just me, been that way for a while now."

She said to him a little cautiously before taking another drink.