2020-03-06 - You need a wingman.

Justin shows up at the appointed time in the hired car, apparently having a driver and a vehicle for these purposes so he doesn't have to drive his own. They pick up Easton and then head out toward Hoquiam. Justin's dressed in a pair of charcoal grey trousers with a matching jacket and a dark blue very lightweight sweater, something where he can shed the jacket and be comfortable easily enough. "So, what prompted this?" he asks with a chuckle once Easton is in the car. "And when you /were/ single? Take it that situation is no longer the case anymore?" His grin is easy, relaxed.

Easton is relieved to have Justin offer to get a car. Of course in his mind he was thinking an uber, it's been awhile since he's been chauffered anywhere. But he's certainly not arguing when he gets into the car he's dressed in a pair of dark jeans cuffed over a pair of boots and a white dress shirt untucked. "What prompted this was I'm an ass and we haven't seen each other in weeks." That part is true enough, if only a minor portion of the story. He fiddles with the buttons on his shirt, "Straight bar?" He buttons up all but one, "Or gay bar?" he undoes two more. "Where we headed?"

"I was breifly single when Bennie and I split for a bit around the holidays. It sucked and it was my fault.. but I'm not gonna lie, drunken makeouts with college boys was not the worst way to forget about it for a night."

So that's a pretty big change for Easton who has not said much to anyone about guys. Sure he's always been supportive of Justin being bi, but this is new.

Not that Justin's above taking an uber, but he has a service that he trusts, and so he tends to use that, particularly if he plans to go out drinking. "Well you've always been an ass and that's never stopped us from being friends," Justin points out with a broad grin, clearly teasing. Then he chuckles and shrugs his shoulders, "I have no idea what's even in Hoquiam. You pick a place. It really doesn't matter to me where." Then he smiles at the answer to his question, "So you two are back together?" That seems to please him. "Did I tell you she and I rescued some giant kittens over the holidays? Some.. yule cat. Trippy." He does smile crookedly though and says, "There are definitely worse ways to forget things. Not that I've drunkenly made out with a college boy in a while." It is new, and while it may surprise Justin just a little bit, he doesn't outright comment on it.

"That is true. You need better friends." Easton is sorry to inform Justin. "Oh, fuck, I think I only know the one place so it's us and bunch of co-eds." He gives a modest half-shrug and says, "Yea, Bennie and I are together. She did mention the Yule cats, but not who was involved."

"Oh fuck, before I forget. Hya?" He looks at Justin expectantly as if that were enough of a question. He realizes that wasn't entirely clear and tries again with "She said she's moving in? Redecorating? Pulling your strings like a puppet master." He pauses just a second before admitting, "Ok, maybe I added that last part. She's a little" he makes a marionette motion here "though, right?"

"I like the ones I've got," Justin assures him with a laugh. "That's fine. Maybe I can make up for my woeful lack of making out with college boys." He's mostly kidding, but he certainly doesn't seem to be against the choice of destination. Once they've chosen, he leans forward and lets the driver know where they're going before settling back into his seat. "Good," he says when Easton confirms that he and Bennie are back together. "I like her."

He does chuckle a little bit when Easton mentions Hyacinth. "I wasn't aware that she's moving in.. not that I'd mind if she did, what with Stefano gone and Dahlia moving in with Declan. The place is kind of empty. I miss the company, to be honest. She is, however, helping me renovate the place. It was fully furnished and decorated when I bought it, but it's not.. me. And since that's her gig, you know, I figured who better than to help me do it? I've been trying to convince her to go into business for herself and say fuck it to the Addingtons and do her own thing. Though I think now she's inherited the Sawmill and so that's a whole thing." He shrugs his shoulders. He laughs at the marionette motion and says, "Yes, she is. Though, not with me, no. Though she did propose to me at her birthday party." He shakes his head slowly. "That was.. a thing."

Reaching out Easton slaps Justin on the shoulder with mock seriousness, "I believe in you." in regards to Justin's ability to makeout with college boys. In regards to Bennie he grins, "Yea, I like her too."

The news about Hyacinth just decorating his apartment causes Easton to relax a little bit. He pulls out a cigarette and lights up, rolling down his window just a bit. "Yea, she mentioned the sawmill, that's ... fucked up even for this town. That's like me driving around town in a Humvee." Referencing of course the accidents that took their legs. But then Justin drops the fact that she proposed and he starts coughing. "Proposed? Proposed... a threesome?"

"I'll try and make sure that your faith is not misplaced," Justin laughs though his expression says, no guarantees there. He runs his fingers through his hair, brushing it back a bit and then gestures a little bit with a shrug, "But that's Hyacinth. She's all about the fuck-you in that sense. So it doesn't surprise me at all." He laughs when Easton starts coughing, knowing dropping that one would likely get him. He reaches over and gives his back a pat or two. "No, like actually proposed. It was a weird Veil thing. Apparently it infected a bunch of single women at the party. Eleanor proposed to August, though that one actually made sense. One of the other Addingtons I think proposed to the pianist. A waitress proposed to one of the waiters." His lips twitch in amusement. "It's funny now, but trying to figure out how not to flat out turn her down at her own fucking birthday party was.. uh.. a challenge? Thanks, Gray Harbor."

The car has thankfully pulled up to the bar, which is a very standard small town college bar. It's not terribly big, but it's lively and relatively clean. Easton and Justin are both /slightly/ over dressed for the bar. Easton is still laughing about Hyacinth proposing but then he shakes his head, but he stops at talk of Eleanor. "Wait. Are Eleanor and August actually engaged though? Cause Rosencratz is basically trying on on tuxes to stand up there with him already. Was that not real?" Easton manages to flag down the bartender and order three fingers of whiskey for himself. Apparently he's not sticking to beer tonight. He's telling himself that this is because he hasn't seen Justin in a long time. And it has nothing to do with the fact that Justin probably doesn't know that he's trying to cut back on the drinking. No, that's totally unrelated.

Justin leaves the jacket in the car, which makes him a little less overdressed, but not by much. The sweater is warm enough for the short jaunt in, and light enough so as not to be uncomfortable inside. "No, I think they genuinely are going to go through with it. I mean, they've actually been a thing for a while, haven't they? I think it just uh, sped up the process, a bit. Hya and I.. I mean, let's face it, if I were ever going to actually marry a woman, it would probably be Hyacinth. But our thing is.. more of an arrangement of convenience for both of us. We're best friends, but there's nothing romantic about it really." He knows nothing about Easton trying to cut back on the drinking, not at all. Justin orders himself a bourbon, and leans up against the bar to let his attention drift over the room, taking in the crowd which is, in fact, largely made up of co-eds. "I feel old," he laughs, which, at 28, he really is not.

Easton actually smells his drink for just a moment before taking a sip. He is going to go slow and be responsible though! (no, not really). He laughs and says, "Yea, I'm pretty sure they are? But a Dream seems like a weird thing to prompt a wedding?" Yes, he would likely never say this to August or Eleanor or any of their closer friends but it still sounds a little horrifying to him. Sure he married Geoff but that's not exactly the same thing. "Yea, I think one marriage is enough for me. Geoff and I are happy" He grins over his glass before taking another sip. Looking around the bar Easton has to agree, "Shit yeah. I feel bad, I was just telling someone the other day that I'm officially kind of creepy to college girls? Like I'm not into being their 'daddy'" He shudders a little when he says it. Something Bennie would mock him for mercilessly if she were here, just how unsexy he finds that word.

Justin takes a sip from his bourbon and leans against the bar. "And here I didn't even get you a gift," Justin says when he mentions his marriage to Geoff. "I'll be honest, the closest I got to getting married was to a guy, and he was fantastic, talented, gorgeous, and could not at all handle all of the bullshit of L.A. and the life I lead there, and the cameras and lack of privacy. I half wonder sometimes, if we'd just moved here then? Maybe I'd be married now. Or, maybe this place would have made him just as crazy in a whole other way and he'd still have left." Justin smiles a little ruefully and then tries to shake that off, by giving his shoulders a bit of a roll, shrugging off that idea. "It's alright. We didn't really come out to hook me up with someone anyway, did we?" he asks, raising a brow and looking over at Easton.

"That's alright, we eloped in Vegas. He's the best damn man I've ever-" Easton pauses for just a second, "He's great" It's obvious something tripped him up during cracking that joke, but he tries to move past it. "Really? I'm surprised, I guess I thought there were so many people there who were into that, of course you find the one guy who isn't." He shrugs and says, "Katherine was obviously the closest, I actually came. Which..." That's his ex-fiance from out east. His college sweetheart. "I fucked up and wanted out of because I couldn't handle... fuck anything after the accident." He shakes his head and admits, "She's here now. So yay, both are exes are in town. Except if Katherine redecorated my apartment I'd bet it would be with gas and matches and preferably me in it."

Downing his drink and ordering another one, he looks offended, "What? Of course we did. Because somehow despite the fact that you look like that and are a literal fucking movie star, you aren't drowning people throwing themselves at you. And we need to fix that." He takes a sip of his drink and says, "Aaand.. I maybe needed to get out Gray Harbor for a night?"

One brow ticks up just a little bit, "Now I'm curious how that sentence was about to end." Then he smiles wryly, "Right? Of all the people in Hollywood, I find the most private guy there is, and .. yeah." He shrugs his shoulders and takes another swallow of his drink. It's been a while, now, and it doesn't really weigh on him at this point, not like it used to. He nods about Katherine, remembering hearing about her, even if he'd never actually met her. Then his brows raise, "She's actually back in town now? Huh." He did not know that. He laughs and shakes his head, "Yeah, that's what I figured." The whole needing to get out of Gray Harbor for a night part. "I was drowning in people in L.A. That's sort of why I /came/ here, after all," he points out. "And as soon as I start filming in Seattle in the spring, I'm sure it'll start up again for a while. I don't know, I like it better in Gray Harbor. Nobody cares. If someone flirts with me there, it's usually not because they have any idea who I am, or want my money. Hell, Stefano had no idea who I was and had to google me." He grins a little.

Easton squints at him over his glass and says, "Geoff's my straight husband. He's fucking amazing." He hesitates before admitting reluctantly, "But I lost someone and I'm still fucked up about it. That's all. Nothing to do Geoff." He smirks whistfully thinking about how damn well Geoff and Tom would have gotten on, not for the first time. Mention of Katherine causes him to blow air out his mouth with an exaggerated 'wheew' "Yea. She's actually involved in the deal Byron and I are working on, so it's extra messed up. I mean she'll be professional, but still. It's awkward."

"Yes, but now you're here and look Stefano was stupid hot. I was not sad to have him for a massage therapist. But it's been a few months. Yer not seein' anyone?" Easton realizes that some people might be more choosy in partners and less apt to go in for casual hookups but months? That's a bit long in his estimation.

"Ah," Justin says at the explanation and lets it go at that, definitely not prying into that statement, at least not now in a bar filled with co-eds. Co-eds that he's only half looking at. Sure, there are one or two that seem to catch his interest, and he watches them for a moment or two from where he stands, but he makes absolutely no effort to move away from the bar and approach anyone. "That sounds awkward," he says, looking back over to Easton. "But I guess as long as she can manage being professional for it.. that's the best one can hope for, right?"

"Stefano was, in fact, stupid hot. And the fact that he was a massage therapist was only one of many many fantastic things about him," Justin chuckles, "But I'm not mourning over him or anything. It's not because of him that I haven't been seeing anyone. He and I were.. we barely had a chance to really get to know each other before he got that job offer. It was great, but I'm not pining or anything." He shakes his head though and says, "But no, I'm not seeing anyone."

Easton shrugs off the talk of Geoff and Tom and is more interested in getting another glass of whiskey than in noticing the co-eds in the bar. He does at least make a motion with his eyes and head pointing out a cute redhead to Justin. "You want me to ask what she's majoring in?" It seems like a ridiculous question to him now, even though college wasn't that long ago, it feels like it.

"Oh?" Easton's eyebrows raise when Justin brings up Stefano's fantastic qualities. "Well good, cause he was cute but, I didn't really see it." He makes a movement as if pointing between Justin and someone to indicate as a couple. "So come on, let's find some hotties of either or both genders and get some shots. Are you really not a casual sex person? Does that even exist anymore? I'll let mine down easy, I promise."

Only about six years ago, which isn't that long, really, but still, it makes him six to eight years older than most of the co-eds in the bar and with a company and an acting career on the side, a world removed in his stage in life from those just getting their degrees and dreaming of their first real jobs out of college. It's weird. He feels weird, thinking about it, and so he laughs at the question and shakes his head, "No, that's alright." Not that he doesn't look, and appreciate that she's pretty, in a fresh faced and cheerful sort of way.

"When I was in college, sure," Justin says, on the topic of casual sex. "But I haven't just hooked up with someone in a while." He then shakes his head and chuckles, "Fine. Find me a hot guy. And whoever else, and we'll do some shots." It seems that he's in, at any rate.

Easton grins and says "Yea, I never quite got the hang of giving that up." He ammends, "Well, I mean, I am now.." And truthfully he doesn't sound even the slightest sad about it. But when Justin says fine then his eyes light up and he gives Justin about two seconds of warning before downing his drink and standing up. His voice carries easily through the noise of the crowd, "Attention! Hey, I need you shut up and listen. We have a damn near tragedy on our hands! This man has not had sex in months! I need to fix that. I need your help to fix that. So I'ma need the hottest guys and maybe some lucky girls to help me down some shots and have a good time. Can we make this happen people?" He doesn't quite get the response he's looking for he says, "People. We are going to make this happen." There are at least a few in the crowd who are willing to be apart of the shots and it certainly got more than enough attention on the two men. Wrapping an arm around Justin's shoulder he pulls him away from the wall and right up to the bar. "Call 'em out J-money. What are we drinking?"