After the Show

As he entered the small pub, Eddus nodded to Shem, the barman and owner of the establishment, who pointed in the direction of the far corner of the barroom, past the pool players, to a table beside a large shop-style window that looked out onto the sidewalk outside. Around the table, sitting on barstools, were two young men and a young woman, Eddus's friends and housemates.

Steering himself towards them, Eddus avoided bumping into a pool player and slipped between two other tables before reaching them. At one end of the small table, the two men sat across from one another, while at the other, closest to him, a young lady sat gazing absently at the tabletop in front of her with a rather sour look on her face.

"Hey."

Walking up next to her, he gently jabbed the girl in the ribs with his thumb, causing her to jump and almost knock over her beer glass. She frantically scrambled to grab her drink and then glared at him.

"What the fuck, Ed! Are you trying to get killed?"

"How goes it?"

Eddus put his left arm around her shoulders, giving her a squeeze, and then stood next to her at the end of the table.

"You're late. Where have you been?" asked Mo, one of the young men at the end of the table, and Eddus's best friend of seven years. He looked at Eddus over the top of his black-framed glasses. "And I'd be careful if I were you, Ed. You're playing with fire there. She's a bit miff tonight."

"I had something I needed to take care of," Eddus told him. He then looked at the brooding girl sitting next to him. "What happened, Stiles? What's wrong?"

The young lady beside him grunted, rolling her eyes.

"What's wrong is that Jay's dumbass understudy fucked up a lift and dropped me this afternoon."

"She's acting as though I, personally, am responsible." Jay, the young man sitting opposite Mo, laughed, shaking his head.

"Well, you're my dance partner. If you'd done the lift, I wouldn't have a bruised hip right now."

"It's only until next week," Jay laughed, "the doc said no heavy lifting until my abdominal muscle mends."

"Are you saying I'm heavy?" Stiles shot him a look and then grinned at him.

"Best not to get involved in this one." Mo hopped off his stool to join Eddus. Stopping short as he rounded the table's corner, he raised one eyebrow, looking his friend up and down. "Ed..."

"Yes, Mo"

"Is there something we need to know? Have you decided to join us on the dark side?"

Eddus stared at Mo questioningly for a moment, then looked to Stiles.

"Do you have any idea what he's talking about?" he asked her.

"None whatsoever," Stiles said, nonchalantly, lifting her glass to her mouth.

"What's with the flats, there, Ed?" Mo looked down at Ed's hand, in which he still held the shoes he'd taken from the theatre. "They are lovely, but I think you got the wrong size."

"They're not mine." Eddus looked down at the shoes he held, then back at Mo.

"Are you sure?"

"Well, as you pointed out, they're not my size."

"Why the hell are you carrying around someone else's shoes?" Stiles' lip curled, and she gave Eddus a look of slight disgust. "Who do they belong to?"

"What's going on?" Leaving the end of the table, Jay joined the others, looking from Mo to Stiles questioningly.

"Nothing is going on." Rolling his eyes, Eddus set the shoes on the barstool he stood next to.

Jay nodded, eyeing the shoes.

"I found them in the theater," Eddus said.

"You should have left them there," Stiles snorted, putting her empty beer glass on the table, waving to a passing waitress. She drew a circle in the air with her finger, indicating that she was ordering a round. "Whoever they belong to could have gotten them tomorrow."

Jay nodded in agreement.

"She's right, you know. The theatre would have put them in the lost and found."

Eddus stopped Jay speaking with an apathetic stare.

"I saw the girl," he said. "I thought I could catch up with her. Do you think I just carried them out with me on a whim?"

"They are nice." Mo touched the side of one of the shoes.

"You're not trying them on," Jay told him, slapping his boyfriend's hand away from them.

"I only said that they're nice. I know the brand, and whoever owns them will be looking for them."

A server appeared carrying a tray with four glasses of beer on it. She placed them on the table and then collected the empty glasses.

"Who leaves their shoes at a theatre?" Stiles asked, picking up one of the glasses and sipping at the beer's frothy head.

"I would have left them there." Jay shrugged. He picked up two of the glasses and returned to his stool.

"Yes, I know." Eddus sighed. "That occurred to me about the time I tried to take them back in, when I couldn't find the girl outside. The doors were locked."

"So, what now?" Mo adjusted his glasses, turning his head towards Jay at the other end of the table.

"I guess I'll take them back to the theatre in the morning." Eddus shrugged. "No good deed goes unpunished, right?"

Stiles nodded blankly, turning her attention again to her drink.

Drumming his fingers on the table, Eddus gazed at the large window they sat next to. As his friends conversed and retorted to one another with witty comebacks, their banter merged with the other sounds within the pub. He absent-mindedly watched the people on the pavement outside the window.

Picking up the glass in front of him, he looked down at the liquid it held. Wondering if he was even in the mood to drink, a quick movement outside the window caught his attention.

Someone was weaving their way through the patrons milling around in small groups outside. Catching only a glimpse, he watched as the person skirted a smoker, passing between them and the glass for just a moment before ducking between two other people and disappearing. The person passing by was a short young lady. She wore a black dress, and her hair was tied back.

Eddus quickly put his drink down, some of its contents spilling onto the table. He looked at Stiles, who glanced up at him quizzically.

"I'll be right back," he told her. Picking up the shoes, Eddus made his way through the crowded pub, towards the door.