itinere | open || at a honky-tonk where their boots stomp all night

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open || at a honky-tonk where their boots stomp all night

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Ask and you shall receive. The Houndstooth Grill and Tavern now broadcasts all sporting events on a ton of TV's. I think I kind of love whoever runs this place. For now.
Grand opening this Saturday.
Are you ready for some football? Hope y'all come by. And Roll Tide!

The Houndstooth, while it's been open for business for awhile, now has sporting broadcasts from every world and every time. Of course, the default on the many screens is American football since Jill is such a football fan. But she's willing to search the channels to get at least one or two TV's onto whatever someone wants to watch. The Pub and Grill has a homey atmosphere and serves classic Americana foods like burgers and steaks, every kind of fried foods you can imagine, frito pies, chili cheese dogs, etc. Some nights there's even live music playing at the top floor and a dance floor to get your groove thing on.

While she's finagled Lucy into helping her out on this one day, Jill is sometimes at the bar serving drinks. Sometimes she's behind the piano playing and singing some of that afore mentioned live music. Sometimes she's out on the patio smoking a cigarette. Sometimes she's walking around serving, making sure everyone has what they need. All the time she's watching some football game or another. She's thrilled to have the place here in its entirety.

Stop on by. Bring a date. Have a few drinks and laughs and fun.

ooc: The official grand opening of The Houndstooth. Forward dated for this weekend (October 10th). Treat this as a mingle for Saturday, tag around and have fun.
Get an idea of what The Houndstooth looks like at the Residences and Businesses page.

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It's on the tip of Noah's tongue to observe aloud that Jill is pretty hard on herself. But then, he can be accused of the same thing, so he keeps his mouth shut, at least about that. "Well, I think you're really cool, if that makes any difference." Not that it should, necessarily, but it's how Noah feels. So.

A wavering, tentative smile starts on Jill's lips, only becoming something full and real after several moments of trying not to smile so completely. She isn't really used to smiling like that and she dips her head so that some of her hair covers her face.

But really, Noah caught her off guard and made her feel silly and girly for a moment. "It makes a difference." She says quietly. "You're really cool too."

Noah's grin is crooked, but sincere, leaving one dimple in his cheek. "Thanks." The girls both make him feel cool. It's like ... something new and unique and different.

He's not a hanger-on or just Noah the smudgy guy that is always around. He's ... well, he's a little more real, he supposes.

"When do you get off? Maybe I can wait around and we can do something," he offers.

Jill arches a brow as if to say 'really?' and 'just me?'. She won't argue with it. She's just surprised. Noah's so nice and cute and she isn't used to being asked to go do things with cute boys unless they're asking Lucy and Jill tags along.

"Yeah, I can... I mean I can leave now. There are other people here." And Noah is worth leaving for, she thinks. "Just let me get my purse?"

"Yeah, okay," Noah says, grinning outright. Hey, look at that. This will be great, won't it? He stands up, brushing his palms on his jeans as he prepares to follow her back into the bar.

Back into the bar and Jill holds up a finger to tell him just a second. She goes behind the bar to talk to the other tender working. Then she changes from her flats to some pretty heels that match her outfit and grabs her purse. It all happens in less than five minutes and then she's back around the bar and ready to go.

They walk outside of The Hounstooth and Jill takes Noah's hand. "Where to?" Really, this place has everything there is to offer. Sky's the limit.

"Uh ... " That's a good question, isn't it? "There's a ... " he's already speaking when he realizes how stupid what he's going to say is - don't you hate when that happens? - "There's a playground, not far from here? Do you wanna go hang out there?"

Because he kind of thinks he'd love to see Jill on the swings or on the slide or something. Something fun and innocent.

There's nothing stupid about the playground idea. Jill thinks she likes it. She's passed by that park several times, but never thought to go into it to play. There was a playground at school when she was little, but the parks in her neighborhood were too dangerous for her to be in. Even as a young kid she was astute enough to know when something was dangerous.

They start walking down the sidewalk together. "I've seen that park. I've never gone in though. Have you?"

"Yeah. My friend Adam, he takes care of it, I guess." In a way. Noah smiles a little, liking how her fingers feel with his. "It's across from where he works."

And it's not far, just a few blocks. There, they can see the slide and swings and merry-go-round as they get closer.

"So he has two jobs." Jill nods. She used to have several jobs too until Lucy had convinced her she didn't need them. Now it's just the Houndstooth. It's been just that for awhile. She's good with that. The Houndstooth is a fun place to work for the most part.

They walk together into the park and Jill pauses to take her heels off, her bare feet in the grass. "Do you work anywhere?"

To that, Noah shakes his head. No, he doesn't work. He didn't work before he died and he's still not working now. But he does say, "I want to go to the bookstore," he says, pointing in the general direction. "And see if they will let me work there."

This isn't Adam's official job, but Noah doesn't say that, either. He follows Jill on the grass, finally loping a few steps ahead to climb up the steps of the slide and stand on top, looking around.

"Subtext? That bookstore is huge. Have you been inside it? I kind of love it." Jill says with as much enthusiasm as Jill ever has without being overly caffeinated and emotionally sound. "They have a little coffee place inside too. And something about coffee and books intermingling is one of the best scents ever."

She looks up at Noah once he reaches the top of the slide, her head canted to the side and a small smile on her lips. She sets down her purse and her heels and then follows him up the ladder. She stays standing on the top step of the ladder in her bare feet still looking up at him.

"What are you looking for, captain?" She asks.

There's a moment when Noah laughs because this is kind of great and totally foreign all at once and he isn't sure how to answer her question. Finally, he says, "the edge of the world, I think." Because death isn't it, is it? So if that isn't it, what does that leave? Life and this and everything in between.

He turns to face her wearing another crooked smile. "Can I kiss you now?"

"If you fall off of the edge then I do too." She steps up to the top platform, a small space that the both of them barely fit in together. Without her heels (which she's rarely without) she's almost a head shorter than Noah.

She pushes her hair back behind her ears and gives him a small, mirrored crooked smile of her own. She nods. "I think I'd like that."

One hand firmly on the handle, Noah puts the other around her - she's so tiny it isn't hard - and he ducks down to kiss her. It's a gentle, tentative kiss; he can taste the smoke and he can taste Jill.

He really likes it - all of it.

The kiss is tentative and sweet. Jill likes that sweetness. She hasn't had a lot of it in her life. Now she tends to soak it up like a dry sponge does when submerged in a vat of water. She really likes it too.

Her arms wrap up around his shoulders and she leans into him. Yes, she should probably be more careful a they're up on a tiny space. But she trusts Noah not to let them fall.

Oh, man. He would feel so bad if he let her get hurt. Noah would probably never forgive himself. As it is now, he leans against the handle and she's leaning against him and that kiss gets deeper and it goes from being something he likes to something that is really, really great.

Wow. He can feel himself flushing a little when the kiss breaks and he stays close, smiling. "Wow."

The kiss does seem to go from something pleasant to something really, really good. It makes her insides tingle from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. And she does go up to the tops of her toes, arms wrapping tighter around his shoulders as the kiss grows to something deeper.

She likes Noah. She likes kissing him. She likes watching Lucy kiss him.

"Wow is good." She says, a small smile playing on her own lips as the top of the slide touches the heels of her feet again. "You're a good kisser. Has anyone ever told you that?"

"No," Noah says. And he's not begging for compliments, really. It's just the truth. Not that he's kissed a whole lot of people in his day, either, but "Maybe you're just that inspiring," he suggests, grinning crookedly. "Mind if I do it again?"

He's really getting into it, see, getting a little hard, but he'll be good. Besides, this isn't the time or place, really.

Jill's answer is to both smile and lean in to kiss at Noah's lips again. The kiss is still sweet and new and exciting and she likes all of those feelings combined. She likes Noah. She threads the fingers of one hand in his mussed up hair as they kiss.

Sometimes it's fun to just enjoy kissing for kissing's sake and nothing else, even as it does get a rise out of the both of them on the inside.

When the kiss breaks, she stares at him for a moment. "So are we gonna slide down this thing or not?"

Just a sec. Okay, Noah's good; it just takes a minute to take a deep breath and pull back from being a total horny boy.

"Yeah. I guess we are," he says and he smiles a little. "I'll go first in case it's weird or something." Then he can catch her when she's at the bottom.

He makes sure she's steady, then he sits at the top of the slide and pushes.

Down he goes. It's not super-fast or anything, but he gets to his feet and turns to smile at her. "Your turn."

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