Action

Roman briefly glances down at the boy, with a slight annoyance slipping onto his charming face.

She eagerly shakes her head. Roman turns, and rests his back against her front. She leans in, and places her chin atop his chiseled shoulder. After one of Roman’s handlers snaps a picture, he spins back around to face her.

As chants of ‘Roman! Roman!’ grow louder, Roman strikes a body-builder pose and flexes out one of his impressive biceps for the cheering crowd. Then he leaps off the stage, and comes to a stop on the inside edge of the crowd-control barriers. With smiles, handshakes and high-fives, he mingles with his adoring fans –

The man jerks a gloved hand towards her neck. Andrea grabs him by the wrist with one hand, while instinctively covering the base of her neck with her other. The man does not panic, even as she tightens her grip about his wrist.

Andrea turns her head, and coldly stares down the man sitting at the far end of the bar. His face is hidden by the brim of a baseball cap that protrudes out beneath a gray thick hoodie. She stomps over, and leans across the wooden bar top that separates them.

Andrea freezes when a familiar voice responds.

Andrea marches back to the bar and the lazy bartender, who shoots her a solid thumbs up. She rolls her eyes, grunts, and returns to serving the drunks bellied up to the bar.

When Andrea turns back to the other men, the fake smile melts off her face.

The man quickly reaches back into the wallet, removes the remainder of its monetary contents, and offering it all up to her. Andrea accepts, gently sliding it out from his fingers.

The man frantically reaches for a chain-wallet in his pocket, howling out in pain when he foolishly tries to use his newly deformed fingers to do so. Switching hands, he lifts up two twenty dollar bills between trembling digits.