It was late. Well, not exactly late, but her meeting had run longer than she expected, and it was a little late for her to go home and eat there. So Jenni found a nearby place and walked in.

It was just a little pizzeria place, apparently with live music Jenni noticed as she walked in and made her way toward the bar. She didn't exactly need to sit at a table when she was just there for a quick bite of food by herself.

Sitting down, Jenni watched the guy with a guitar up on the stage as she waited for someone to come over to serve her. He wasn't half bad, either. Definitely made a nice change for the music they typically played over the sound system in places like this.

Glancing at her watch just before the woman behind the bar came over to her, Jenni realized that Andrew would already be in bed at that point. Or, at least he should be. No huge rush to get home to see her little man, so Jenni ordered a glass of red wine along with a personal sized pizza.

Sipping her wine while waiting for her food, Jenni pulled the pins from her hair and let it fall down, running a hand through it. It'd been a long day.

In the middle of his first set Quickdraw noticed a girl walk in with Brown hair that was pulled up in a bun. As he played he made eye contact with her a few times, he also realized that she was dressed real fancy. Luckily Quickdraw had set down his coat before he started playing, so he wouldn't look like he was a matrix man. He also watched as a waitress walked up to the girl and take her order. When he began to sing to the song he wrote, he closed his eyes and realized that this was one of his best performances so far.

As he finished the song he looked out to the crowd. She was watching him again while sipping red wine. ~ I wonder if she would talk to me?~ Quickdraw thought to himself. As he finished his first set he decided to take his chance and go talk with her. As he approached the bar stool that she was sitting in he kept thinking to himself ~Cmon Jake you can do this. You talk to girls all the time. But then again most of the girls that talk to him aren't this pretty either.~ as he looked at her again he had realized that she had put her hair down, and this made all the prettier. "Hi" he said as he stood behind her. He also flashed his dazzling smile, only hoping that this beautiful girl would talk to him.

The sent ended, and Jenni turned back to fully face the bar again. Her pizza must almost be ready by now. At least she hoped, as she took yet another sip of wine. If it didn't come soon, she was definitely going to need another glass.

At least Jenni had turned to face the bar until she heard a voice behind her. Confused, she turned to find the man who had been playing the guitar standing there.

Jenni could only wonder why he was standing there talking to her. She was only there getting a bit of dinner. She hadn't even lost all of her baby weight in the last year and a half yet.

"Hi," Jenni replied, giving the man a slight smile. Close up like they were now, she could see that his hair wasn't simply black like she had thought, but that the ends were orange. "You sounded really good up there."

"Thank you. I'm sorry but i couldn't help but notice you walk in." The bartender walked over with a small glass of scotch. Looking away from the bartender and back to the girl Quickdraw couldn't help but say "Hi, my name's Jake, I'd ask for your name but I have to get back to the stage. Oh and if I didn't mention before I just figured that I'd tell you that you are very pretty. Well I got to go back up and play the ending set, but if you stick around, I'd love to sit and talk a bit."

With this said, Quickdraw walked back towards the stage and sat preparing for the second set. ~ If i didn't mention before your really pretty. Yeah that was smooth Jake. Way to go, now she probably thinks your a nut job and a half.

He began to play again, but couldn't stop looking at the girl he had seen. He was so interested to get to know her that he almost forgot the words to his favorite song that he had written himself. He began to sing again and yet once agin closed his eyes, but this time he wasn't thinking how good performance was going he only thought of the girl sitting at the bar.

Without him even ordering, the bartender brought over a glass of what appeared to be scotch. The man, Jake he introduced himself as, must play here a lot for the bartender to know what he drank since he did not seem to be inebriated.

As Jake continued to speak, her head dipped slightly, the smile on her face growing slightly more shy than it had been. This was...Jenni didn't know exactly what it was. She hadn't exactly been out a lot in the last two years.

Before she was actually able to say anything, though, Jake was making his way back up to the stage, glass of scotch in hand, to get ready for the last set he was supposed to play. After he had said he would like to actually get the chance to talk after he finished.

Reaching for her glass, Jenni took a deep breath. It had sounded like Jake had been flirting with her, at least a bit. It really was flattering, she was pretty sure he had to be at least a bit younger than she was, but Jenni knew she was far from ready to be able to do anything.

As the first song in that set ended, Jenni saw the waitress approaching with her pizza. Smiling in thanks, she requested a second glass of wine to drink while she was eating, and then started in, listening to the music as she ate. Jake really was pretty good on the guitar.

As he finished his last song "Ask for Heaven" He looked and saw that she was still sitting at the bar, but this time with a pizza.

He finished and set his guitar down and walked back towards the bar. On his way he was stopped by a few people telling him how good he did and how they loved it when they heard him perform. But eventually he reached the bar and luckily she was still there. He set the glass that once held scotch down on the bar and smiled again saying "Sorry it took me so long. Also I never got your name. What was it again?" He sat down on the empty bar stool next to her and beckoned to the bartender to get him another glass.

As he waited for his drink he asked her simple questions such as " Where are you from? How'd you like the show? How's the pizza? Are you married?" By the time he was done asking those question the bartender had come back with the glass of scotch. He sipped the scotch and watched the girl waiting for her answer. As he waited he sort of seemed to lose concentration and stare at the numerous collection that was behind the bar. It seemed like they had everything Merlot, Smooth Smerviot, and lots more types of wine, and they also had a great deal of liquor. He soon realized that she was about to talk, thus making his attention snap back to her. As she began to talk he flashed her his dazzling smile and awaited her answers.

Jenni was mostly finished her pizza by the time the final set ended. As she had grown more full, she had slowed down, simply nibbling on a slice of pizza as she sipped on the last of her wine. All the while casually glancing at Jake as he slowly made his way closer to the bar.

Finally, he reached the bar, setting the empty glass in his hand on the counter as he apologized for taking so long. "I had to eat dinner at some point tonight anyway," Jenni pointed out as she shook her head slightly. And it was true, she would have still been there, finishing up eating, even if Jake hadn't come over to talk to her between sets earlier.

And then he started on the questions. As he spoke, Jenni's eyes dropped to her almost empty wine glass. She had been write, he did seem fairly interested, and Jenni honestly wasn't sure what to do about it.

But at least his last question he shot out was whether she was married. At least that would make things easier, he had asked, so it wouldn't be quite as awkward telling him.

Jenni decided it was probably best to just start speaking and go from there. "Jenni," she introduced herself, extending her hand for a handshake. Blame it on living in a man's world of law and politics. "The show was great, I really liked it.

"And I'm from here," she continued. "Well, more or less. I grew up in Queens, went to NYU for school, and then moved back to Queens for work recently."

Pausing, Jenni finished the last of her wine and set the now empty glass on the bar as she looked back at Jake. "I was married," she continued, her tone quieter, almost sad.

~Jenni. What a beautiful name. She's from here, and she likes my music.~ But soon enough his attitude changed as soon as she said the word "was married"

Quickdraw knew that either they split up or something worse happened, and by the way she answered he knew it was the worse option he had been thinking of. "I'm terribly sorry, if I would have known I wouldn't have flirted with you so much.*mutters to himself* How did I know that this was to good to be true. For my apology let me buy you a drink."

With this said he looks over to the bartender and signaled for the bartender to go fetch more wine for Jenni. He tried to put out a convincing smile trying to reasure that he hadn't been hurt at all by this situation.

"Like I said before I am truly sorry about the whole flirting thing, I didn't know." he tried to change subject, but every time he began a sentence he cut himself off.

The Bartender walked over with the glass of wine and said "Enjoy miss." Quickdraw still hiding the inside frown gave a small attempt of another dazzling smile, but knew that it looked fake.

If he had known that she was widowed, he wouldn't have flirted as much? Jake hadn't said that he wouldn't have flirted with her, just that he wouldn't have flirted as much. If she already hadn't been unsure what to do about Jake's flirting with her, Jenni really wasn't sure what to do now.

She did, however, have an idea when he offered to buy her another drink as an apology. "Oh no, I shouldn't," she said with another slight shake of her head. "I've already had two glasses." But the bartender was already pouring the glass of red wine.

"Don't worry too much about it," Jenni told Jake softly. "It's not exactly something people expect, a woman to be a widow at my age."

Ok, so maybe she did need the new glass of wine. Taking it once it was set in front of her, Jenni took a decent sized sip before turning back to Jake. "What about you?" She asked. "Where are you from?"

"Oh well I was born in Dublin Ireland, I moved to the U.S when I was four, my mother died on my seventh birthday on the way back to our house with all my presents, my dad killed himself when I was nine causing me to be an orphan till I was old enough i was forced to join the army, and I got out and moved to Chicago, then moved here recently for my music."

Realizing he had just told Jenni his whole life story he quickly apologized "I'm so sorry I didn't mean to give my whole life history, it's just I got carried away. The only thing i'm married to is my music. Like I said i'm so sorry about giving you my life story. If you don't mind could I possibly walk you home after your done with your wine?" He wasn't flirting with her any longer it's just he didn't want her to walk alone at a time like this in a city, and he definately didn't want her driving home after she had three glasses of wine. He gazed at her eyes for a long time waiting for her answer.

Jenni listened, shocked, as Jake told her what turned out to be his life story. Yes, she had had a bad couple of years, very hard to deal with for quite a while there, but it really was nothing compared to what Jake was telling her. Jordan was gone, that was true, but Jenni did have Andrew, and still had her family for support, and Jordan's family for that matter though they were out of state, and they all had their health.

"I'm so sorry," Jenni whispered. She really didn't know what else to say after hearing something like that. Even after all of the condolences she had been given after Jordan had been killed, she didn't know what to say. None of that had managed to make her feel even the least bit better, after all.

"Don't worry about feeling like you over shared," Jenni assured the man sitting beside her. "Often, it feels easier to just keep it all inside, but I know myself that there are times when you just have to let it out and tell someone."

But then Jake asked if he could walk her home when she finished her wine, and Jenni just looked at him for moment or two before she started laughing. "I'm not going to be walking home, regardless of who it's with," she told Jake. "I live in Queens, and I would like to be able to make sure my son is tucked into bed sometime before he's waking up in the morning."

Hearing her reply Quickdraw had to give a little chuckle. "I understand."

With this Quickdraw stood and sretched for a moment or two before sitting back down. "So, do you want to swap phone numbers? I'd love to see you again. Oh and if you have kids i'd love to meet them too. Sorry I probably sound like a nutjob ranting on and on. I'm sorry. It's your choice on everything i just said."

With this the bartender walked over and offered her another glass. Jake looker aroudn the bar once again giving Jenni some time to think about what he had said.

He eventually looked back a looked into her eyes.

(sorry about how short it is, this was a fairly difficult post to reply to, especially since i'm still sort of asleep. And if needed I will make it longer later.)

He wanted her phone number, and wanted to meet Andrew at some point? Jenni really wasn't sure what to think about that. Didn't even know what she thought or felt about the phone number request. She'd been in college the last time she dated. She'd gotten engaged 10 years earlier. Jenni had been off the market for a long time at that point, not that she was back in the market now...

Pushing the nearly empty pizza pan away from her, she was finished with it, Jenni drank the last of her wine in the glass to try and buy herself some thinking time. Which resulted in the bartender almost instantly appearing in front of her, asking if she'd like another.

As if she really needed another glass of wine, she'd already had three. So Jenni shook her head. "Could I just get my bill?" she asked, then reached for her wallet in her purse so she could pull her credit card out. And saw one of her business cards stuck there. Ah, that would work.

Pulling the business card out as well, Jenni slid it over to Jake. It was a simple white card with black writing, holding only the simplest of information, her name, phone and fax numbers, and her title as Borough President of Queens.

"That's my office number," Jenni explained to Jake just as the bartender returned with her cheque. She handed him her credit card without even looking at the total. "If I'm not there, they'll be able to get a hold of me fairly easily."