Awesome! 

At some point it will get very very late. 

At some point Fayna will go home, then. She'll leave a mildly ridiculous tip, though, and write on the receipt: "get yourself something nice! you deserve it =)"

Awww. 

He keeps working until the end of his shift, at which point the bar is closing and he actually can't take another shift, so he pockets Fayna's mildly ridiculous tip and goes home with a cute orange guy. 

And a week later she will be back!

So she will! 

Marlo's not here tonight; Sasha's making eyes at a pretty green when Fayna walks in, but he turns to wave at her. 

Fayna waves back. "Hello again! I'll try the green-but-technically-blue cherry this time."

Sasha was really not kidding when he said this drink was blue. 

It is sweet in a way that you wouldn't usually expect from something cherry-flavored and very very good. 

"...Wow, that sure is very blue, huh. I wonder why they call it green cherry." She takes a sip. "It's good, though!"

"I've never been able to tell, everyone you ask has a different answer - my personal favorite is that the person who named it was blind but who knows, really." 

"Huh, weird." Fayna sounds genuinely fascinated.

The green he was making eyes with grins sideways at Sasha from a few feet away and says, "I heard she was synesthetic and thought it tasted green." Sasha laughs and turns back to Fayna. 

"...I think I like the blind story better." Fayna shifts uncomfortably in her seat and takes a big gulp of not-actually-green cherry.

"There's dozens of them, you'll hear a few more if you keep asking. You doing okay?" 

"Yeah, I'm. Fine, yeah." She bites her lip and pushes her drink away. "Can I have some of the honey beer after all? I think I liked it a bit better." She didn't, actually. It's just the first distraction that pops into her mind.

"Yeah, sure." Lanhi opens his mouth to apologize; Sasha's pretty sure that wouldn't help so he makes an abortive gesture with his hand. Lanhi says nothing.

Sasha pours Fayna a honey beer. 

"...Thanks," Fayna says, and takes a drink of it. Her mouth still tastes like green cherry, so the honey beer tastes a little weird, but it's still good. "Sorry."

"It's not a problem." 

Fayna shrugs and gives a small, tentative smile. "Well, I appreciate it anyway."

He smiles at Fayna as reassuringly as he can manage and turns to other customers. 

Lanhi is his best bet to take him home, of course — they have an arrangement one or two nights a week — but he pays attention to everyone.

Eventually it will be time for Fayna to go!

Once again, she leaves an exorbitant tip. This time, there’s something scribbled on the back of the receipt: her name and the contact number for her pocket everything. Below it, in smaller letters, it says:  

please don’t feel pressured or anything, you just seemed cool so i thought i’d give you my info. feel free to hit me up if you ever need anything :) 

Aww. 

He pockets the exorbitant tip and puts her number into his everything. (He doesn't usually go home with girls but hey, an option is an option.) 

(At the end of the night Lanhi takes him home, as expected, and Sasha loves him up and then falls asleep in his really very nice bed and leaves wordlessly in the morning, as always.) 

If he doesn’t send her a message first, she’ll be back in a week. She’s starting to get used to the routine. 

Marlo's in again; he's leaving around when Fayna walks in. She's just in time to hear him say "Your shift ends at midnight again, right?" 

Sasha nods and smiles. "Am I gonna see you then?" 

"Sure are," Marlo says, and smiles back before he ducks out the door. 

Fayna immediately resolved to stay until midnight. She’s not sure what else she can do to help—if she can even do anything—but she can do that much. 

She sits at the bar and gives an almost-entirely-genuine smile. “Hello again! Honey beer please?”

He doesn't know her well enough to tell the difference between almost genuine and actually genuine. "Hello!" 

Fayna gets a honey beer.