Talia grabbed the corkscrew out of Johnnys hand and just let the glass stay where he had placed it. She pulled the bottle of wine off the counter then worked her magic with the corkscrew. In no time the slight pop from the cork exiting the bottle sounded.

”Well you see, this isn’t the first time that this place has ran out of wine. The first time was terrible, I had to drink beer. So after the first time I learned. I made sure to keep a case of wine hidden in the back.”

”Wait, did you say a case?”

Talia nodded as she pulled the cork off the corkscrew, she gave it a slight squeeze then placed it on the bar top next to her.

”Yup, an entire case. Got 11 more back there if I need them.” 

”How... uh, where are you hiding an entire case back there.”

”That’s a secret, my secret.” 

Talia gave him a smirk as she reached for the bottle with one hand while pulling the glass towards her with the other. She poured a bit into the glass, gave it a swirl then set it back down. It needed to breathe, just for a little bit. in the meantime she gave a glance over her shoulder, making sure to keep tabs on Samantha. Whom was still at the pool tables. 

”Wonder how much she’s up.”

Johnny looked over to the pool table Samantha had been occupying as he refilled his mug at the tap. He looked over just on time to see the man she had been playing against sulking away towards the bar looking dejected and hanging his head in shame. Samantha of course was standing tall and proud with a big smile towards Talia as she chalked up her cue. 

"By the looks of things, I'd say she is doing pretty well. Hey, do you thing I get a cut of that now?"

Talia looked up from her wine and gave him a 'don't you dare' glare.

"I know I know, just kidding..."

With his mug now nice and topped up Johnny made his way over to the customer side of the bar, not wanting to be mistaken for the bartender, and plopped down on the stool beside Talia.

"So, how have you been lately? I know its been a hectic week around here..." 

Talia took in a deep breath, picked up her wine glass and took a rather large first sip. She then followed it with a smaller sip before turning herself about in her seat to face Johnny. It had been a rough week, very rough. 

”Well...” 

She went to speak but decided another sip of her wine was in order before continuing. Reaching to her right, Talia picked up the glass of the bar and brought it in front of her. She took a sip but kept the glass in hand.

“So, you are obviously well aware of all that went down. No need to rehash everything but to say it’s been a stressful week is a rather understatement. On a good note, you’re technically my boss now.” 

Talia chuckled softly before returning to her wine.

”Have things calmed down on your end at all?”

Johnny couldn't help but chuckle a bit when she mentioned he was her boss. Technically she was right, but it was a bit weird. He had spent such a long stretch working for her and Ood...

"Things are starting to settle down a bit yeah. I do miss ol' noodle face."

He paused for a minute when he mentioned Ood, the guy had done so much for Johnny and now he was just gone. He was starting to realize that sort of thing seemed to just happen in this life, but it still didn't make it suck any less. 

"Anyways... change of subject. You finally made it to the new HQ! What do you think?"

“Indeed, change of subject will be good.” 

Talia took another sip from her glass, was the final sip from the first pour. Noticing she was finishing the last bit in the glass, Johnny reached for the bottle of wine. He waited for her to finish and once the glass was steady in front of her, he poured more in. It was a heavy pour, he knew her all too well.

”The new headquarters is nice, you brought a bit of Hollywood into it I noticed.” 

Johnny nodded. “Yeah, needed to feel like home and what’s not better then posters of the movies I’ve been in all over the place?”

”Posters? I didn’t even notice.” Talia subtly rolled her eyes, she had seen them. How could you not, the only way you couldn’t see them is if you were blind. 

”Uh, yeah. There’s at least one for every movie I was in. There’s like five when you walk in, how in the hell haven’t you seen them? I know you’ve been in the headquarters. Many times in fact.”

Talia shrugged, pausing for a moment. This caused Johnny to slide his sunglasses down to the tip of his nose, making sure to give her a bit of a glare. 

”I’ve seen them, don’t get your panties in a bunch. Question though, why’d you but my office in the basement?”

Johnny paused for a few minutes, visibly confused and scratching his nose. He was almost positive he had put her office upstairs right beside his, Toms, and the Fish's aquarium. Come to think of it though he had never seen her use the office...

"Uhh, I am almost positive there is an office with your name on it upstairs near mine... who the hell sent you to the basement? Isn't that just like uh... storage? Not sure I have even been down there yet, to be honest."

Johnny gave up trying to remember what was in the basement and with a shrug he downed the rest of his beer. The tap for more beer was conveniently just across the counter and with a bit of a stretch he was able to refill his glass without even having to get up. 

"You know the whole free booze thing is pretty nice, we should hang out here more often."

Talia hmmed for a moment, she couldn’t remember who directed her downstairs but it was someone. Perhaps they mistook her for someone brand new? It was a rough time, normally she would have questioned it but at that moment it was the furthest thing on her mind. She had only been down there once, was a brief drop off a couple boxes worth of things and bounce. 

That was a couple days ago now, her stuff was probably in the same spot it was when she placed it down.

”I don’t remember who pointed me down there, it seemed a bit off but I was in no frame of mind to question it. Honestly, haven’t been back there since.”

She could feel Johnny glaring at her through his sunglasses.

”Sorry... just needed a little bit of time. I’ll get back into the rhythm of things soon, I promise.”

Talia could still feel the gaze upon her. She ignored it though, while taking another sip from her glass before placing it down. She turned about in her seat and pulled her bag from the ground to up in front of her. 

”In my own defense, you haven’t even given me shit to do yet.” She exclaimed while digging through her bag, stopping when she came upon what she was looking for . Which so happened to be her pack of Lucky Strike. Taking out a single cigarette, she placed it between her lips then took out a match and struck it. The flame danced on the top of the match stick as she brought it to the tip of the cigarette. Taking a puff as it lit, Talia exhaled a cloud of smoke. 

”Speaking of this place, guess it’s your now. Huh?”

"Hmm, well yeah you don't have to stay in the basement ya fool. In case you hadn't noticed I am quite fond of your company..."

Johnny reached over and pulled a cigarette out of the pack sitting in front of Talia as he paused for a sip of his beer. He placed the smoke between his lips and then plucked the lit smoke from Talia's mouth mid puff. 

"Thank you!" 

He said with a laugh as he used her smoke to light his before handing it back to her. 

"As for this place, uh... I guess so? Not really sure how that works but I have been in charge of the place for a while. Did Ood even have a will? Oh, and what do you mean I haven't given you anything to do? I told you there was good money to made at the graveyards around here didn't I?"

Talia gave him a bit of an evil glare, grave robbing wasn’t all what it was cracked up for. Sure it was easy money but there were some major downsides to it. The main issue being the dead person and then on top of it was the dirt. 

”Yeah you told me there was money it and there is but look.”

Talia placed both of her hand onto the counter in front of Johnny, palms down and finger nails towards him.

”Do you know how hard it is to get the dirt out from under your nails.”

She looked up at Johnny and smiled, he may actually know this.

”Actually...”

"Yes, the dirt can be really annoying I'll give you that. I was getting a manicure nearly every other day when we were working for FatherJack it was brutal."

Johnny paused as Talia began laughing at him, as soon as he began talking about getting a manicure she burst out laughing. He gave her a bit of a glare of his own over top of his glasses.

"Sorry... but... were your nails nice and pretty?" She asked between chuckles.

"Oh shut it. You know looking this good takes work. Well... actually you probably do know... the point is nobody wants to walk around with dirty ass gangly looking fingers. The money was almost worth it but eh. I am sure we can find a less dirty job if you want?"

Talia slowly stopped laughing, it did take a little while for it to come to a complete halt. It was a well needed chuckle. 

”Actually doesn’t take me too long to look like this, this is my casual look. Now if you wanted to see me fancy, now that would take a little bit of time.i tell you what though, I rock the fancy look.”

She didn’t do it often but when she did, she turned heads. Another story for another time though. Taking another drag from her cigarette, she held the smoke in her lungs an extra second before exhaling. She flicked off the tip of ash into the ash tray before laying it into the tray, in order to free up a hand for her wine glass. 

”Something less dirty would be great, what do you have in mind?” Talia asked before bring her glass of wine up to her lips. 

Johnny froze in response to the question. He hadn't actually given it much thought and wasn't expecting that response. 

"Put me on the spot huh... well umm..."

He picked up his beer and just started drinking it to buy some time, time ran out though when he reached the bottom of his glass.

"Whatever you want really? I mean..."

He paused again and looked around quickly trying to decide how much he should say here out in the open and in public like this. 

"You do have other tasks. You know uh... taking out the garbage? You're pretty damn good at that."

“Taking the garbage out...” Talia muttered in a soft grumble. 

”What? You told me once you enjoyed it, something about the adrenaline you get from doing it etc..” 

“From taking out the garbage? Why the hell would I get excited for taking out the trash?” Talia said while giving Johnny a rather curious glare. She didn’t get it, taking out the garbage wasn’t fun. The bigger question was why he didn’t have someone already doing it. 

The curious glare from Talia, prompted Johnny to get her a confused look back. You could see he wanted to say something but was having issues understanding why she didn’t like it. After a moment of silence, Johnny picked up his beer and proceeded to chug the entire thing. It seemed like the perfect time to chug a drink, so Talia did the same. They finished about the same time. 

”Seriously though, I’m not the garbage lady. You want someone to throw away your old muffins you need to find someone else.”

Johnny placed his face down straight into the palm of his hand and just sat there for a few moments. 

"Not literally taking out garbage you goof..." He mumbled as he reached across the counter to fill up his mug once more.

Talia looked a bit confused still, so Johnny picked up her bottle of wine to check how much she had drank. He figured she must be half-drunk or something but as he picked it up and held it up to the light he was surprised to see there was still a lot left. 

"Maybe you need more..." He said as he filled her glass back up to the brim.

"I still don't get the garbage thing... and I don't see what wine has to do with it. You just don't make sense." She responded as she crossed her arms and glared.

"Killing people... you're good at killing people..." Johnny said with his head back in his palm again.

“Oh...” 

It took her a moment to connect it all together but when it all connected she began laughing hysterically. It was a good couple minutes of laughing, to the point she had a series of tears rolling down her cheek.

”You ok?” Johnny asked in the midst of her laughter. 

”Yeah.. garbage... Ha!” 

”Yeah, so not what I meant. Duh.” 

”My bad, I thought you were suggestion some newbie hazing or something like that. Actually thought you expected me to take the garbage out. I get it now and yes I’m good at it. The other thing that is.” 

She wiped her face clear of the water then gave Johnny a wink. She reached for her glass, her empty glass, pushing it aside. At this point who needed a glass, instead she gripped up the bottle and took a sip from it.

”Ah, that glass was getting in the way.”

Johnny watched and laughed as Talia picked up the bottle and downed a good portion of it straight out of the bottle. 

”Ah, that glass was getting in the way.” She said as she put it back down. 

"Drinking Talia style huh?... Well, I guess I should keep up..."

Talia squinted at Johnny and grabbed her bottle back up off of the counter. "Na uh. Not with my wine you don't."

"Eh wine is gross, especially red." He said as he got up from his seat.

Johnny gave Talia a quick smirk and then like a scene from one of his action movies he lept over the counter, landing on the other side near the beer tap. He positioned himself with his back to the tap then leaned back until his mouth was underneath it As he pulled the handle beer started flowing down into his mouth. The beer was coming out much faster than he could swallow though and after just a few seconds his face and the top of his shirt were soaked... he continued anyways for another few seconds, figuring the damage was already done, before finally releasing the handle and standing back up straight. 

"Ta-da!" He said as he spun back around to face Talia, followed up by a burp. 

It was like a train wreck, something she just couldn't keep her eyes off of as Johnny did his little escapade underneath the bar tap. She wasn't sure why he ever thought it was gonna work out good, then again maybe that wasn't the point. Perhaps the point was to just let loose and have a bit of fun. It had been a little bit now since she had let loose, too long come to think of it.

"Ta-da!" He exclaimed as he spun around, which followed with a burp. A burp that echoed through the establishment but one that no one paid any mind too.

"Attractive..."

"Oh, so you enjoy a man that burps. Huh? Well then get ready for this one."

Johnny held his pointer finger in the air and did some kind of air summonsing thingy, she wasn't exactly sure what the hell it was. Though it looked like a combination of him drowning and having a seizure. For a brief moment she thought he was and was almost about to panic, that's when it happened. He stood up straight and let out one of the loudest burps she had ever heard.

The place went silent for a moment, you could hear a pin drop. That was until a random voice chimed up. "Yeah buddy! Now that's what I call a burp." The place erupted in laughter and the laughter was followed by random guys trying their hardest to match Johnny's burp. Now of which even came remotely close.

"HA! I win yet again!" Johnny said then gave Talia a glare. Was a glare that was met with a subtle eye roll. "Impressive and sexy, I know..."

"Yup, you got me. I can't even contain my excitement..." Talia said sarcastically while reaching for her bottle of wine. "Want to see impressive though?" Johnny nodded.

With a wink, Talia picked up the bottle of wine. She brought it to her lips, tilted her head back and began chugging. The nearly full bottle of wine was empty a mere minute later. She lifted the bottle off her lips but made sure to hold it in place over her mouth as the last few drops in the bottle fell out into her mouth. Satisfied the bottle was empty, Talia placed the bottle down in front of her and looked over at Johnny.

"Impressed?"

Johnny gave the wine bottle a bit of a sideways look before scooping it up off the counter. There was no way he believed that she drank all that wine that quickly. He pressed the bottle up close to his eye but he couldn't see any wine inside. Next, he held it upside down, but no wine poured out.

"Huh..." 

He placed the bottle back down where it was and just stared at it for a few moments before looking up at Talia. He gave her a skeptical looking squint but said nothing, instead, he just grabbed his mug up off of the counter and began filling it back up. The whole time the mug was filling Johnny was squinting at Talia, trying to figure out how she did that wine trick.

Finally, he made his way over to Talia'a side of the counter again and took a seat on the stool next to her with his mug in hand. 

"Alright yeah, that was impressive. How'd you do that?"

"I'm just talented, what can I say." Talia said while giving him a smile. "Though I do have a couple issues at hand right now."

"Issues?"Johnny inquired just before taking a sip from his beer.

"Yeah, well you see. Now I have no more wine in that bottle, which means I would need to go get another one. Then you have the second issue." Johnny raised an eyebrow waiting. "That was a lot of wine, I keep drinking like that you might have to carry me out of here."

Johnny gave her a bit of a smirk. "Pft, not like it would be the first time."

"Hey..." Talia blurted out before giving it any thought, he was right though. It wouldn't have been the first time if it had gotten to that point. Though it would have been the first time with Samantha about. "Ok, you've got a point but I do have the kid here. Kind of have an obligation to not get polluted. Right?"

Johnny looked over to the table Samantha was at before answering, she was in the middle of yet another game of pool against another complete stranger.

"Well... I think she can pretty well handle herself at this point by the looks of things? Besides I'd be willing to bet she has more than enough money by now to pay for a cab."

"Oh she can handle herself here, here people know better... I still wouldn't want her wandering home alone at this hour though." Talia responded.

Johnny hmm'd and haw'd as he finished off his mug of beer and pulled another cigarette from Talia's pack and lit it. 

"Well if you would like, we could take her home soon and head somewhere else? That way you won't have to worry about her. I don't know about you but it's been a long-ass week... I wouldn't mind continuing with the whole drinking thing..."