it takes about a week for chace to slowly resign to the fact that this is the way things were meant to be. work by day, reading in the late afternoon, and dinner at the bar during the early hours of the morning where everyone is both asleep and awake. around the same time he resigns to the fact that perhaps living a life of loneliness isn’t so bad. he enjoys being in his own head and whenever he wants to get out, he can always look around.

there is another woman in the bar. her dress and hair says that she’s older and classy but in the dark light of the bar chace can’t begin to count her age. she’s beautiful, he thinks, but he isn’t old enough to know just what it means to be the sort of woman who needs the chaos of a bar to clear her thoughts enough to read.

another before & after!

when night falls he heads to the bar again. neither of the girls from the night before are there so he takes a cautious seat and begins to twiddle his thumbs attempting to seem as though he isn’t waiting. the bartender comes over and asks if he wants a drink. he says he does and as he mixes he looks up at him and tries to think about a potential conversation starter. he could ask how his night is going but that seems like a question he’s bombarded with fourteen times a night. chace doesn’t want to be a number but he doesn’t know how to act like a regular.

he wakes up and eats breakfast alone before finishing off his book, also alone. he dabbles in menial tasks so he can keep his head clear during the day and doesn’t dwell on the resounding silence that thrums through his home. 

a before and after shot!