15<\/p>\n
Gareth was in the bar that night for a particular reason. An old acquaintance from high school was dropping by and Gareth was steeling himself with a few pints to try and reduce the anxiety. High school hadn’t been his best couple of years and while he’d had a few close friends, most of the people from that period were more accurately counted as acquaintances.<\/p>\n
This particular acquaintance wasn’t close enough to be labeled friend, but it was a close call. Still, meetings and reunions contained many unknowns and were thus a major source of anxiety.<\/p>\n
It’s funny. Gareth had been lucky with his friends, but they still occupied a very precarious space for him. Rationally he knew none of the would ever reject him for things he said or did, especially if they were within that weird and quite broad range of things that were \u2019normal\u2019 to Gareth. But still they tended to provided as much stress as joy and the prospect of dealing with an \u2019almost friend\u2019 raised the risk level from manageable to insanely stupid.<\/p>\n
And yet here Gareth sat.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey,\u201d Gareth heard drifting from the direction of the vestibule. He couldn’t see much more than a shadowy figure against the light streaming in from the open door.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey,\u201d Gareth responded, adding what he hoped was a note of happiness to his voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeen here long?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNaw, just been here a few minutes,\u201d Gareth lied. And then immediately started to worry about how to deal with the pints that were already on the bill. And what if the waitress mentioned something to imply he’d been hanging out steeling himself before this encounter. Christ<\/em>, Gareth thought, what if it looks like we are being overcharged? Why do I lie like that when I get nervous? And why am I being such a wuss in the first place<\/em>? Gareth sighed quietly to himself and said \u201cHow\u2019s it been going, Rowan?\u201d<\/p>\n Rowan grabbed a stool, sat and replied, \u201cCome see, come saw,\u201d in an exaggerated drawl. Gareth knew Rowan spoke perfect French. Bilingual schooling, summers in France, educated parents who spoke multiple languages, the whole ball of wax. But for as long as he’d known Rowan, the drawl had been a standard part of the act.<\/p>\n \u201cHow about you?\u201d Rowan countered. \u201cHear you’ve been out on yer own for a bit now. How’s that wurkin\u2019 for ya?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly,\u201d Gareth replied \u201cit’s not such a big deal. There\u2019s perks and then there’s bills. Kinda evens out if you ask me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYup, sounds about right.\u201d Rowan smiled, which frankly, Gareth thought, lit up the room a bit and put him a bit more at ease.<\/p>\n \u201cUh, so, yah,\u201d he began awkwardly. \u201cI’ve actually been here a while. Just trying to sort out my thoughts, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n Rowan grinned a bit wider. \u201cYou always were a thinker. I kinda liked that about ya. What I need to do to get a beer around here. Seems I need to catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n Gareth\u2019s face cracked a tiny grin, and he raised his hand. \u201cHey, Tony!\u201d he yelled in the direction of the short woman by the till. This is going to work out<\/em>, he thought to himself, and ordered some drinks.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 15 Gareth was in the bar that night for a particular reason. An old acquaintance from high school was dropping by and Gareth was steeling himself with a few pints to try and reduce the anxiety. High school hadn’t been his best couple of years and while he’d had a few close friends, most of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3707"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}