I stare down into my glass in disgust “Why is my drink green?”

I’ve been sat on this bar-stool for hours now, trying each and every drink Jase, my easy-on-the-eyes bartender slides to me without question, I may be thoroughly drunk but even I have to draw a line somewhere.

I look up to see him rolling his eyes before responding “Grasshopper. Now drink up, I don’t often get the opportunity to try out my mixology skills in this place.” Reluctantly I take a sip, a light minty flavour bursting across my tongue and I can’t help but let out a small moan, causing Jase to snort “I’ve got your taste buds pegged at this point. Speaking of, you are aware you’ve been drinking an insane amount of cocktails, right? Hope you can pay off this tab, it’s my ass on the line here.”

After another sip I smirked at him again “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of your ass.” That got Jase laughing, the dude is 100% straight, but we’ve been bantering the last few hours, he knows it’s harmless, feels great not thinking or talking about my life has taken a sudden U-turn. Hallelujah for random strangers!

He rings the last orders bell behind the bar before fixing up two pints, sliding me one and taking a sip of the other, I quickly down my bug drink and take a grateful sip of the beer. “have you got anyone picking you up? You haven’t touched your phone since arriving here and you’ve drunk way more than what’s socially acceptable.”

Groaning I take another gulp of beer “Thanks for reminding me I’m completely alone man, appreciate it.” He shrugs but another customer calls his attention before he can say anything else, leaving me so my reality can slap me in the face again. Before Jase can ask me again about my designated sober person I leap up, only to slip and fall straight on my ass in front of the remaining customers and a slightly concerned looking bartender.

He quickly hands the change to the customer he was serving and leans over the bar “Look, we are closing in an hour anyway so just sit put, finish your beer and I’ll call a cab for you alright?” Mumbling I get up, dust myself off and sit back down in the recently vacated chair.

“How generous of you.” I bite at him.

He either doesn’t hear me or pretends I didn’t say anything as he slaps a receipt down in front of me nearly causing me to fall off my chair again.

“Almost a hundred quid are you SHITTING me?!” Just then a very grumpy looking woman appears from a door behind the bar with her arms crossed.

She looks me up and down before turning to Jase “We having any problems here Jason?”

Where the fuck have you been the last few hours? Fancy sitting in a nice cosy office on a Sunday night, I should sue her! Take her to court! Write a strongly worded letter to… her. Fuck

“No problems Ma’am. Just need to finish clearing up and these customers will be finished in no time.” His eyes met mine almost daring me to comment again, okay okay I get it. Quietly I pull out my card and place it on top of the receipt followed by a tenner which Jase raised his eyebrows at.

I make eye contact with the boss lady “This guy is a great cocktail person. Do you allow tips? Because he has a tip, nice bar you’ve got here!” There, was that pleasant enough?

The woman raised one eyebrow at me before silently turning and clicking away, how rude. It causes Jase to snigger which is always a nice sound, I quickly pay before downing the rest of my beer… followed by Jase’s.

The next 45 minutes pass relatively quickly and before I know it it’s 10.35 and I’m stood outside the bar waiting for Jase to get his things, the boss lives there so he doesn’t have to lock up. Why did I befriend the bartender? How cliché is that.

Jase finally emerges wearing a black trench coat and a grey scarf wrapped tightly around his neck and turns to me “So where do you live?”

I sigh at his concern “It’s only a few stops away on the Bakerloo line, I appreciate the concern but I am absolutely, one hundred percent…” And I burst into tears.

He rolls his eyes and wraps his scarf around my face “A drunk hipster walking around London at this hour crying their eyes out is just begging for a mugging. Come on, I’ll get you home.” He grabs onto my arm and begins to yank me towards the station, I quickly pull my arm out of his reach and almost topple over in the process before pointing an accusing finger at him.

“If you do that you will miss the last tube home, then where will you be? Lost that’s where!” Looking a little irritated now he grabs my arm again and continues to march me towards the station.

“If I miss the tube I will just walk, what is it with you Londoners and walking? It’s really not far at all.” Huffing I don’t say another word, he’s right after all, we are all allergic to walking. It’s a curse.

“You didn’t have to walk me inside you know, you ever heard of stranger danger? Now the stranger is in my house and I’m in danger!” I let out a giggle at my, frankly hilarious joke.

He ripped the scarf from around my neck with another eye-roll, he best be careful with that. Keep it up and those pretty brown things will fall straight out of his head! “You literally stood in front of the door knocking, do you want the rest of the building to complain? Now I’m going home before I really do miss the train.” He heads towards the door but spins at the last minute and grabs my phone, holding it out to me “Unlock it, I don’t know what’s going on but you look like you need a friend right now and I’ve only just moved here so I could do with one too.” I do as he says, touched by how easily he wants to befriend a drunk like me “You’re obviously going through some shit, that much I gathered from how you looked when you thought no one was looking. And the fact you were sat at a bar alone drinking and the bartender had to walk you home,” that got a very poor attempt of a glare from me “so drop me a message. Or don’t, just get some sleep and maybe set an alarm or two for work tomorrow, see you later Elliot nice meeting you.” And with that he slipped out of my door and was gone.

I threw myself onto the sofa with a grunt, he seems like a decent guy, from our conversations earlier I gathered his family live just outside Kent and he moved out on his own due to something sticky and awkward that I didn’t pry about a few months ago, it would certainly be nice to have a friend outside of work. I never really stayed in contact with my old friends from high school despite how supportive they were of me- all I needed was Scott… My eyes begin to sting again but nothing comes out- I’m not sure I have enough liquid in my body to produce tears anymore! I dragged myself to my room and got undressed and under the covers, remember to set six alarms for the morning, just in case.