home sweet home |open|

[phillyward]

my heart is beating from me
i am standing all alone

Philly wasn't drunk, and that was a pity. No, she was just tipsy enough to have plenty of ideas of what to do with her time, and not yet buzzed enough to be able to decide. She could listen to her body, head over to that lovely strip club where that kid Shai worked and find someone to take home. She could listen to her head, walk down to the subway station and see if the rosters had changed while she was away. Or she could sit on her stool and drink until she made up her mind.

It'd been three weeks since she was home last. Three weeks of chasing a murderer, exonerated by the law but not by his victim's family. She'd dropped him off that morning, still tucked up in the trunk of her rental car. She'd picked up the money an hour later, a whole duffel bag full of cash. Now she was here, happily enjoying the fruits of her labors. At least for now.

please call me only
if you are coming home

[miles avishai cohen flores]

It was a rare evening that found Miles out by himself. Usually busy with his husband and daughter or out with one of his buddies, most often Charlie, he rarely spent time alone. But Tony was out with a couple of his friends and Netanya was having a sleepover at her uncle's place so Miles was, for the first time in ages, on his own for the night. Charlie had planned to come to the bar with him, even made it so far as to pick up Miles and drive all the way to the bar with him on the back of her motorcycle before she'd gotten a call from Mikey and had to head home. Miles considered hailing a cab and heading right back home but... Well he might as well get a few drinks.

Strolling into the bar, Miles couldn't help but preen, just a bit, when he noticed a guy in the corner checking him out. He wasn't remotely interested but who didn't like to be appreciated? Pausing, he spared a grin the guy's direction, just acknowledging him before heading towards the bar. But a familiar figure there made him pause, laugh briefly and then shake his head before heading over to the empty seat next to her. A huge smile on his face, as was usually the case with Miles, he glanced at Philly. "Hey there stranger, fancy running into you here." He settled in the seat next to her, flagging down the bartender and ordering a rum and coke. "What brings you here tonight? I feel like I haven't seen you in ages."



[will be pretty laterrrr]

[phillyward]

Philly couldn't help a grin as Miles settled in beside her. His constant good humor never failed to infect her. If anyone ever made a drug that caused happiness and bubbly-ness, she'd bet it was distilled Miles. "Hey there yourself, pretty boy," she replied in her usual sardonic way. "I just now got back in town. Unless you've been stalking me all the way to Utah, you haven't seen me in ages. As for what I'm doing..." She paused to drink from her bottle of mid-grade beer; neither cheap shit nor fancy shit was her style. "At the moment, not much of anything. Later, who knows."

She shifted on her stool, crossing her legs and turning a bit more toward Miles. "So what have you been up to?" she asked, nudging the artist with a boot toe. "How's the fam? Made anything cool?"

[miles avishai cohen flores]

"Utah?" Miles' eyebrows raised in surprise. "Whatever were you doing there?" A beat before he raised a finger. "Wait, no, let me guess. Work?" He knew at least a little bit about what Philly did, enough to fret and remind her nearly every time he saw her that she needed to be careful out there. But she was a capable woman and he didn't worry too much, just as much as his inner Jewish mother required him to.

Questions about his family always got him ridiculously smiley and today was no exception. Miles glanced away for only a second, to thank the bartender who brought his drink, then he was looking at Philly again with that ridiculous besotted smile he got when he talked about Tony and Netanya. "Oh they're really good. Just amazing. Netanya just started at daycare, she and Oli, Charlie's kid, are going together, we figured it'd be nice for them to start together so they at least have each other. Not of course, that Tanya needed it, she's already the queen of the school." Miles picked up his drink, sipping it and then grinned. "And Tony is still as perfect as ever. You know he and I are coming up on three years? Married to the best man in the world for three whole years, I can't even believe it." A happy contented sigh. Three years of married life and Miles had loved every minute of it. "I'm just the same as ever, painting, taking care of my princess... Same old, same old." Miles paused, shrugged. "Well and I'm helping plan a wedding but that's not really all that interesting, just something to help out Charlie." Of course he knew that Charlie and Philly never had gotten along but... Charlie was still one of Miles' nearest and dearest friends and aside from painting and getting Tanya adjusted to school, that was the one big thing he was working on.

[phillyward]

"Yeah, work. Just the usual." Philly didn't elaborate, knowing tales of stuffing people in car trunks wasn't Miles' style, even when it was on the side of justice.

She returned his smile as Miles gushed about his family. "You guys are so lucky to have each other." She tried to make it sound like she was talking about Miles and Tony rather than Netanya. There were still days she would have given anything for a real family; maybe not a proper one but at least a happy, stable one. "Are you and Tony going to do anything for your anniversary?"

[miles avishai cohen flores]

Miles beamed. Couldn't help it and couldn't help the soft, affectionate smile that came over his face. "Yeah, I know it. I tell him that pretty much every day, I don't know how I managed to snag someone so amazing and then get to marry him and raise a kid with him. And it still feels like just yesterday he took me home that first night. Time just flies." He sighed contentedly, then shrugged slightly. "I don't know yet, I want to but I've been busy helping with wedding stuff and I don't know what we're going to do. Gotta figure it out." He tapped his fingers on the bar for a moment, lifting the glass to his lips with the other hand and sipping from it. "I mean, we're good about making sure we have date nights regularly and everything, so I just want to think of something really special." Another one of those long, happy sighs and the smile that practically split Miles' face in half. "God, I am so so lucky."

But then it occurred to him that maybe going on endlessly about his family would be not as fun for everyone else so, shaking his head, he smiled a bit bashfully. "Sorry, I got a little carried away, you know how I am about them." A bit of color came into his cheeks. "Plus we had one of our 'us' days a couple of days ago and I'm still feeling all sappy from that. But no more, really, I won't gush on all night." Which he easily could and surely had in the past, to virtually every single one of his friends. Impossible to befriend Miles and not hear how in love Miles still was with his husband and how much he adored his daughter. "So, what's going on in your life, now that you're back in town? Any exciting plans?"