Tinder's Keepers (Hero x AmberLeaf)

[AmberLeaf]

Mulligan's Irish pub is situated on Ellis Avenue, between Moira's Bakery and a recently established bookies, and the rustic wooden sign that hangs above the door is just about legible from the old corner shop a door down from Moira's. Its gold etchings frequently catch the sunlight when the sun shines low at sunset, and did so one Wednesday evening as Anna Smeets exited through the rear passenger-side door of a taxi, and turned towards the pub. Outside the first of two of two entrances stood a middle-aged man of Greek descent, a fat cigar between his lips breathing rich, blue-grey smoke into the air. He glanced towards Anna as she approached, and from his vantage point the setting sun seemed to halo her long, tawny hair in a rich vermillion.

"Evening," he nodded, shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun, but Anna was past him before she even replied, already pulling open the rustic wooden door and stepping inside, her black satin booties falling silently on the rough-hewn mat just beyond the verge.

"Hey."

Within, Mulligan's was quiet, as it usually was mid-week. It was an old-fashioned pub, at that time recently renovated to appeal to a younger, trendier crowd, but its dim lighting also created a safe haven for certain of its clientele who wanted nothing more than a quiet room in which to drown their sorrows, or to at least provide a little flavour to a life long gone stale. They were the last of the old guard, soon to be ousted by the growing influx of university students and young, working adults, drawn by rave reviews of its home-brew beers and eclectic nightly music.

Presently, a doe-eyed couple sat laughing at a table just inside the front door, and at the near end of the bar – itself set into the wall in such a way that it created a front and rear bar, each accessible through different of the dual entrances out front, and connected by a large, open room at the rear of the pub – an elderly man in a worn, pin-stripe suit was perched so precariously on a tall barstool that Anna felt he must have been attached to it somehow, else he would surely have toppled off already. Still others were sat at small, faux-ceramic tables set along the wall opposite the bar, each supported by black-painted metal legs, and flanked by matching chairs. Further on, beyond the bar and through the always-open double doors that led to the rear of the pub and back around to the other side of the bar, the chaotic humdrum of mingling voices could be heard.

Scanning her surroundings with steel-blue eyes, Anna found no sign of her date for the evening. The larger, open room to the pub's rear yielded no sign of him either, and so she turned left and rounded the bar to see if he'd entered via the other of the pub's entrances—the one on the bookies' side.​

 

[Hero]

Mulligan's may not have been the most ideal place for a date. The neighborhood was in a downturn but still well enough off that the bakery next door was doing fine and continued to flood the place with the scent of constantly baking pastries. Even so it was close to where Isaac Owens lived, and his favorite place to meet Tinder dates. If things didn't go well he could have a drink and a short walk back to his apartment a few blocks over. If they did go well the very same applied.

Isaac entered from the side opposite the bakery having walked there from home. The cool weather outside warranted the light brown leather jacket that hugged his torso. His eyes, a pleasant shade of pale green, scanned around the bar when he entered not quite seeing the lovely guest he was expecting. His first thought was hoping he wasn't being stood up, it had happened before as was the nature of seeking people through a dating app. He pulled a stocking cap from his head, the woolen cloth quickly revealing his own obsidian shaded hair, kept in a mussed and moderately messy look that could either be taken as a lack of caring or far too much. Either way, he ran a hand through it to get it back to place after being covered by a cap and shoved the garment back into his jacket pocket.

That side of the bar actually appeared to be moderately busy for 8 o'clock on a Wednesday night. Usually people didn't start to really cram into the place until nine or ten and rarely were there more than a few in the middle of the week. But tonight there seemed to be a nice mingling of folks, a couple of the table were taken up by what appeared to be a group of college friends, just one or two people sipping alone sitting at the bar as well.

Isaac was trying to figure out the best place to sit and wait for his date when she caught his eye rounding the corner of the bar from the opposite end.

"Anna?" He called out, his voice a question if only because he'd never met her save for their interaction through the App. He raised a hand to wave her over, the gesture accentuating his physique even under the layered clothing. His jeans hugged his hips a little close, giving way to the muscular form of his legs and showing off a butt he was quite proud of. Under the jacket he had a simple gray collared shirt on, the buttons undone just below his collar bones to give the slightest hint of the athletic physique below. He wasn't the typical gym rat, instead his body was lean and tall, like that of a swimmer.

He took a few steps toward her a polite smile upon his lips as he approached the rather lovely woman he was intending to meet.