Preludium

We went inside. It was indeed like Gil has said, something inbetween bar and restaurant. The place itself was modern, neat, minimalisticly decorated, definitely from a mid-high shelf. I’ve never been going to such spots in my life and never really had any need to go there.

There always has to be first time for everything, right?

Besides us, in the room was only bartender. It was getting close to 5pm, so people was supposed to be gathering slowly. From one of the room came out a man. He noticed us and approached.

“Oh, Gilbert, you’re already here!” he said that while greeting him by a handshake. “You’re alright?”

“Yeah, we just got here to check everything.” Gil responded, seemed like they knew each other.

“Everything should be in place. James was already there with a booze. Everything’s already there. If you’ll need something, you have my number. I’ll be going now. Enjoy!”

“Thanks. Take care!”

“And you!” man waved and left.

“Who was it?” I asked with curiosity.

„The owner.”

„You mean owner of this?”

„Yeah? Who else he could be, huh?”

„I don’t know...”

I wasn’t an omniscient being. Yet, I was convinced he thought this way about me since we’ve met. Mainly through jokes, but sometimes it wasn’t obvious he was messing with me.

“I’ll check few more things. Make yourself comfortable, order drink or two, if you want.” and with that he went somewhere, I couldn’t even tell where as I just shrugged as an acknowledge to the situation he put me in and headed to the bar.

I’ve ordered something and sat on the couch as I didn’t know what else to do. Meanwhile people were starting to appear. I knew no one, I wasn’t really sure how I should behave. So I was just sitting casually and sipping my drink, minding my own business. They seemed to half-ignore me, as sometimes I noticed the glances coming from them.

Very shortly after Lord and Master came back. He noticed new guests, so naturally, he approached them. I haven’t heard what they were talking about, but at some point Gil was looking in my way, so it confirmed my suspicion of topic of their conversation.

“She’s my friend from high school. She came with me.” I heard what seemed to be an answer to the question.

“Ahh, friend, right.” some has responded this way.

Were we still in high school that they were acting this way? I just rolled my eyes as I thought it was ridiculous. I saw Gilbert did same thing. I wasn’t surprised, he wasn’t fond of this behaviour from primary school. He had an attitude himself, but not comparable to kid’s level.

He turned towards the couch I was sitting on and sat right next to me. I could hear a long, audibly annoyed sigh coming from his mouth, while taking more relaxed position, thus it got a bit tight. Damn, he did surely spread himself. It didn’t really bother me as he used to do same thing.

Other guests joined us. We started talking. At first it was awkward, but as time passed we broke the ice. Within 10-15 minutes in the room were more and more people. One of them strongly reminded me of someone. He, because that person was a man, looked like my classmate, who was also Gil’s pal at that time. When I thought about it more carefully, it actually could be him. It had sense for him to be here.

Gilbert was at the bar when the man entered. He approached him and greeted. Then I knew it was definitely Damien, his friend from high school.

‘Guess it would be nice to say hi in this situation?’ I asked myself.

Without thinking too much I went to them. I knew Damien since the three of us did hang out together after school from time to time. In this situation it would be appropiate to go there.

“Well, hello there.” I said to him.

He looked at me and didn’t recognize at first. When he did, his shocked face was a shining gold bar for me. I thought his eyes will launch themselves to the space and his jaw would drop to the ground.

“Holy shit! Deborah?!” I nodded with a satisfaction on my lips. “Girrrl... You look great! I didn’t recognize you at first.”

“I’ve thought that I didn’t change that much.”

“I mean, you look more... uh... mature? Anyway, I’m surprised to see you here. I’ve thought you ran from us as soon as you could?”

“Kind of. I had to come back for short amount of time to deal with something, but,” I glanced at Gil. “I got here somehow.”

“Oh?” he turned to the culprit, who pretend to not have anything in common with that situation. “That’s interesting. I want to hear more about it actually.”

I shortly presented situation how I ended up here. Damien was visibily curious after hearing whole story. I mean, the meeting itself was quite surprising as such things happens in fiction, rarely in real life. On the other hand, I saw so many unbelievable videos on the Internet that it shouldn’t be that surprising to me.

“Ohh, that’s so nice of you, Gil! To invite your old friend whom you haven’t seen for so long!” Gil just turned around and went somewhere, Damien just let him go. “Heh, he hasn’t changed at all. At least in that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh? He hasn’t told you yet?”

“It depends what you have in mind exactly.”

“Hmm... Maybe we should change the scene in this case. Let’s go to more quiet place.”

He did sound a bit serious. Maybe there was something more behind it? I didn’t want to worry over nothing since it was about Gil. Still, it was about Gil.

Yet, I did have a feeling that I was overthinking stuff.