Felix tugged on his coat, wishing that he had brought something heavier with him. It wasn't snowing – it never snowed in West City – but it was a biting kind of cold that persisted for hours, even after you went inside. Why did Harper have to work in such a remote part of the city?
He stumbled through an unassuming door to a relatively well-known bar on this side of town. Many of the city's politicians wound up here at some point or another, and businessmen comprised the rest of the establishment's patrons. Felix felt completely out of place, but he had promised Harper to meet her here.
"Felix!" Harper called out, barely louder than the raucous men and women already a few glasses into their drinks.
Smiling, Felix navigated through a veritable sea of people, dodging elbows and the occasional fist. Briefly, he wondered how all these people would make it home, but then he decided that he didn't really care. They'd figure it out.
Once he got to Harper, he made to give her a kiss, but she shook her head slightly. Upon seeing his confused and saddened expression, she quickly pointed to the clock that sat above the bar she worked at. She was on the clock. At least, that's what Felix made of the impromptu charades.
Harper was wearing some kind of weird cross between modern day businessperson and some kind of early 20th century bank teller. The vest really threw him off, though. All she was missing was a monocle and she'd fit the bill for some kind of cartoonishly evil villain.
"A water," Felix ordered, to which Harper responded with a wink. She quickly brought a glass and whizzed away to deal with someone who was ordering something much, much more expensive. Like, almost as expensive as Felix's tuition expensive.
With an hour to wait before Harper's shift ended, Felix took in the scene unfolding in front of him. The city's most powerful men and women were gathered in the small premises of the bar, and none of them were possessed of any of their typical decorum. He thought he even recognized one or two of them from the news.
They swayed with the alcohol rather than the music, and the low lighting of the room made people tripping over each other an inevitability. Felix was surprised that this particular group of people didn't sue the bar owner to the ground for sustaining injuries while on the premises, but then he realized that none of them would remember anything in the morning.
A little screen in the corner played some bits of news that the network had decided to air overnight. It was impossible to hear the woman sitting at the desk, but the captions made it easy to understand. It was something about unrest among superhumans, dissatisfied as they were with the government's desire to control them. There was some protest going on. That made it what, the fifth time this December? He shook his head and turned away from the TV.
He sighed. This really wasn't his scene. Pulling out some math homework and a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, Felix got to work solving problems. It was significantly harder than in the comfort of his own room or the library, but he made progress. And, for the first time in a while, he wasn't procrastinating!
Halfway through a particularly difficult question, someone tapped him on the shoulder. It was an obviously tipsy lady, her blouse having more than a single wine stain on it. He could smell the booze on her breath, and he fought the need to turn away from her.
"How may I help you?" Felix asked, channeling his inner retail worker. It wasn't hard; he had numbered among their ranks when he was younger and in high school.
She licked her lips and got pretty close, about to whisper something. It was then that Harper made her timely appearance, bottle of wine in hand. "Can I interest you in another glass?" she asked the woman, who eagerly took her up on the offer.
The lady whispered "next time" as she moved past him and back to the more lively parts of the bar. Felix let go of a breath he didn't know he was holding, for multiple reasons. Strange people approaching him unnerved him, and doubly so when their breath really, really stunk.
"You might want to exercise the 'ignore people until they ignore you' policy," Harper said, hands on her hips. Felix laughed and nodded. It would definitely solve the problem of needing to stop working on his math. Glancing at the clock, he had time for a couple more before Harper was free.
As luck would have it, Harper was wiping glasses with a rag before Felix even noticed. Felix looked up to see most of the patrons gone, the remaining few staggering slowly to the door, guided by a few more of the bar's staff. Taking off his headphones, he interrogated Harper.
"How in the world did you ever get involved with this place? Seems like a pretty terrible place to work," Felix whispered so that the other workers didn't hear. He thought they'd probably agree with him, but it was never a bad idea to avoid potentially offending someone.
"Actually, it's usually more tame and interesting than just now. I think one of the regulars just got a big promotion and was treating everyone. Or maybe it was a bonus?" Harper put a finger to her lip as she thought. "Either way, it's fun to brush shoulders with people that you'd otherwise only see on TV, you know?"
Felix could see the draw in it, but he didn't really think much about it, one way or another. As they had just evidenced, these people were just as prone to bluster as every average person. "I guess," he offered.
Harper rolled her eyes. "Okay Mr. Genius Astronaut. Don't tell me you weren't stoked to meet all those bigwigs before your mission."
"Oh, I'm hardly a genius. Maybe if getting extremely lucky was genius, but only then. I swear most of the stuff I'm supposed to be learning is hieroglyphics to me. And to be honest with you, I was nervous out of my mind before launch. I literally don't remember anything prior to it."
"I call bull."
"Call bull all you want, it's the truth. Now, are you ready to go catch that movie you've been dying to see?"
"Give me a second."
Felix sighed. This would take a while. He checked his phone, seeing a text from Kyle that he'd missed completely. It said simply: "They're done. Come pick them up whenever."
"Harper, I think we've got a detour to make."