Hot Coffee on a Cold Morning [Isabella/Gabe]

The grey tone of the sky and the puddles dotting the pavement here and there were signs of the rain that thankfully had passed by then. What hadn't passed though was the chill that had accompanied it.

The blonde was once again dressed in one of her long trench coats, seated upon a small bench, a lidded paper cup set down to her left, and a small umbrella to her right. In the crisp morning air, her exhales were just barely visible, as was the trail of water vapor rising from the hot coffee beside her.

Isabella wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings, her blue eyes instead focused onto the screen of the smartphone her right hand was tapping at every now and then. Her left hand she kept in the pocket of her coat.

Were one to look closer, they could see her expression tainted with what was most likely a look of annoyance, as though whatever she was seeing or reading off the small screen was not to her liking.

For whatever reason that Gabe found himself in susie Q, he was finishing up meeting with an old friend from the days that people started to put their lives back together from the great divide. Gabe owed a lot to the man, but things managed to lighten up a bit in the sense of what Gabe did for him in return. After he was done, he took his coffee to go. However, his phone was daying and Gabe wanted to save a little bit of battery until he either decided to head back to the casino or work from home today.

"Hm?"

From across from him, there seemed to be a woman in a trench coat that seemed to be pretty antisocial or probably minding her own business. It was the usual Susie Q surprise of how people of a higher status either treat or react to people in such a fashion. Nevertheless, Gabe decided to try his hand at her to find out the time.

"Excuse me, mind if i troubnle you for the time right now?"

She didn't pay much heed to the people that walked by, eyes staring sharply down at the little screen as her finger tapped at the little touch-keypad at the bottom. Letters stringed together into words, words into sentences. Sentences that in this case, expressed sentiments of rebellion toward her editor and her ridiculous demands of the blonde.

"And I thought asking me to-" The woman muttered to herself, more than a hint of frustration in her voice, only for her thought process to be interrupted by words from someone else. Isabella's eyes rose up from the screen to look at the source of these words. A young man, perhaps just a tad taller than her, with black hair.

He wished for a moment of her time it seemed. Her grip on the phone in her hand shifted slightly, her thumb flicking one of the buttons on the edge of the device, the screen going black. "I suppose that's not too much to ask. How can I help?" She would then ask the stranger, a hint of exasperation still dulling her voice.

"This wouldn't take long, all I really needed to know what time it was. I would have checked my cell phone myself, but the power is a bit low and I figured that the good Samaritans of Susie Q would be nice enough to humor me. But I do apologize if I was interrupting you initially, it wasn't my original intent. "


Though, the time of the person and the actual time seems to have gotten lost in translation, which meant that he could have messed up this first meet a little more than he intended.

"You did seem a bit troubled though. This is prying a bit, but even a passing samaritan like myself has some standards of being courteous to those he asks for help from in return. I hope everything is alright with you, if you don't mind me saying."

She'd wave her phone-holding hand in a somewhat dismissive manner."No need to apologize, it's not like you are asking much of me." She'd leave those words hanging for a moment, her gaze shifting back to the phone as her thumb flicked the button again, letting the screen come back to life.

She again turned her look toward the other. "It's about ten minutes past nine." The blonde then spoke, in response to his original request.

Isabella's expression shifted some, as the other continued though. Was that concern the other was showing? She couldn't really quite say. Well, it wouldn't hurt to give some kind of answer. "Just a higher up at work making unreasonable demands of me." Was all she would say to that.

"It happens to the best of us. Usually, whenever people think about the things that are happening to them, they either fantasize about being the one to call the shots or showing mercy to those while being in such a position of power. At times, i'd like to remember my own experiences and be on the more gentler side. "

Taking a seat across and sipping on the coffee he had in his hand, he wondered if this was a good time to make a possible connection with someone that would have liked to attend the casino.

"You know, there is an establishment for people of that status. It also allows for the momentary field of equality whenever one's met with the versatile art of luck and probability. If such a place does interest you, even if just to relax and unwind in the atmosphere...i know just the place."

Again she flicked the button, the screen on the phone going dark as the blonde offered the man a shrug. Had she thought about such things? Yes, but it's not like it really mattered. "Maybe that's something for me to keep in mind if I ever get further up the corporate ladder from where I am." The note was off-handed. Why was she even telling him this?

Isabella pocketed her phone, before reachign her right hand across her lap to grab her own cup of coffee, although her motions seemed to slow a bit as she offered a bit more attention to what the stranger had to say about. A place for people of her status? borderline talking in riddles really did not go together well with the early time of day and her complete lack of caffeine intake at this time. She raised her own cup, the fluid inside having had time to cool to the point of no longer being scalding to the touch, and took a long sip. The blonde grimaced briefly. Good god that was bitter.

Blue eyes drew down to the cup for a moment, before looking back up to the man. "Do a tired woman and just get to point. Excuse me if I seem to be in something of a foul mood, because I admittedly I am." She controlled the level of frustration that seeped into her tone, but it was still there. The way he'd seem to skirt around whatever it was he was trying to refer to seemed perhaps a bit.. Suspect.

"Oho~ I see you aren't one for the theatrics and things of the sort when it comes to a delectable presentation. Straight to the point huh?"

Pulling down his sleeve, Gabe flicked out a business card, seemingly out of nowhere. Using his sleight of hand skills for his parlor tricks was always fun, and it also tended to get an eyebrow to raise or someone to focus a higher percentage of their attention to something if he tried hard enough. However, this was simple, and it only served as the business card to the lucky clover.

"I am the current owner of the Lucky clover Casino branch in Endymion, Gabriel Gatsby. I figured that you might be a prospective guest that could appreciate the things that the casino has to offer.   We do appreciate new faces and make it our duty to exceed the expectations of our guests. "

She would merely nod to his question about theatrics and such. On a better day she might have cared for such word games and such, but today was not one of those days. Another sip of coffee elicited another grimace. But when he pulled out the card, he would see the blonde blinking twice, before letting out a small chuckle. "Cute."

She took the card, though the small bit of a smile that had accompanied the chcukle vanished as soon as she read the card, and he begun to speak. "I'll assume based on what you said before that you brought this up with intention of giving me some means to unwind or otherwise improving my mood. I'm sorry to disappoint, but I'm not a woman who is not into gambling." She'd pause briefly, before continuing. "No offense meant personally toward you, but there are certain aspects to most gambling dens that do not sit well with my world view." Her words were capped off with another sip of coffee. Good god this stuff was terrible.

"it's not just gambling, it's a social venue for people of our tastes and others to enjoy our time. There is also a food court on the third floor and a bit of a lounge on the second. We do have better tasting coffee as well, if you are more keen to looking for something that can fit your taste buds? You don't seem to be enjoying it much, even though taking it black gets the job done. However, you should have the say of how you want it while it does it's job, right?"

Taking a seat, Gabe would push up his glasses as he folded his arms.


"There is something for everybody in that sense, even if the visit is brief. I do take in a lot of pride in my work and i'm always looking to improve. With you being there, it'll be nice to learn more about what I can offer to those who don't like the games."

Not just gambling? Well, that's certainly something she had not been expecting. "So it seems I may have drawn some conclusions based on... Lacking information then, it seems." She'd chuckle a bit. before looking down to the liquid in her paper cup. "But you're quite perceptive. Frankly this stuff they had the audacity to market as coffee is simply put, quite dreadful." That said, she'd look over her shoulder briefly to see no one was there, before flicking her arm over the shoulder, letting the still-steaming content of the cup fly out behind her, leaving the empty container in her hand.

"Perhaps I'll try something different out and humor your request. I'm hardly in the mood to work at the moment, and I won't get anything done today if I can't get my morning coffee." She'd speak, offering the other glance and a small smile. That said, Isabella stood up, and walked a few steps over to a trash bin, and slipped the now empty cup inside.

"When you try to market yourself as a conglomerate, it's close to impossible if you only have one trick. It's like a game of cards, but you would have revealed your hand right off the bat with no sort of follow up, it's easy for people to play around it or completely expect what you have in store for them. It's not the way that I want to go through life, so adding new things to attract different kinds of people is what I like to do."

After she threw the coffee away, Gabe started to lead the way to the casino.

"We are actually open, so how about I get you a real cup of coffee and you can relax at the upper lounge?"

Never having been one for card games, the figure of speech was somewhat lost on her, but media exposure to such terminology meant that she could still glean the meaning the other tried to get across. Isabella would not necessarily agree with the mans chosen line of work, but she could understand that line of reasoning, from a business standpoint. But she'd little to actually offer in response to that, so she gave him a nod and a small hum of acknowledgement.

But the other would mention how his establishment was open, and even offered some personal service, which, given her current mental state, was a nice touch to soothe her ever so slightly. She would begin to follow him. "That sounds quite nice. And I think I can trust that there won't be any funny business with that." There was an obvious undertone to her voice that reveal the latter part of her words was intended to as humor. That said, as she walked with him, her attention once again turned to the male. "I don't thin I caught your name yet. Though I suppose it would be courteous of me to offer my own before asking yours. I'm Isabella."

"Funny business? No, nothing of the sort. The safety and the well being of the people that attend my establishment is important to me. Their security is also something that I like to keep in mind whenever they are around. However, such things as privacy is a request that would need to be asked of me if the content of such meetings are sensitive and require a more secure approach."


It also seemed that she forgot his name already.

"But I did introduce myself a few minutes ago. Did you forget? Gabriel Gatsby, the casino manager of the lucky clover..."

It was the first time that someone, even if unintentionally, made it seem like Gabe had somewhat of a forgettable presence.

"I was talking more along the lines of trying to weasel me into some manner of membership or the like. But I think that's something I won't need to worry about." She would explain her previous choice of words. "Though I must say, you're doing quite a good job at selling the idea of your establishment to me, even if there is an aspect to it that I disagree with."

Her face turned a little red, had she serously missed his name. "I- I'm terribly sorry, I must have been so caught up in the moment before that I somehow just completely missed you mentioning it." Isabella shook her head, an apologetic tone to her voice. "I'm just not my usual self without coffee, ever since I settled down here." Not that it was necessarily much of consolation to the other.