Party pooper
As Elizabeth accepted her defeat after Jenny's heroic defence of Jason's reputation as natural, masterful charmer, she said, "Yes, yes, there is no one more charming than our very own Mr. Jason Westwood. Even the sun pales in comparison to the light coming from your admirable self." At this point even Jason himself could no longer keep a straight expression as he let out an involuntary chuckle, while he sat down and took a sip of his drink and used his other hand to give Elizabeth a playful nudge to make her lose her balance.
After this initial round of back and forth teasing, the friends enjoyed themselves and their drinks as they waited for the others to arrive. The place where they had met up was a restaurant with a famous bar. One that made a personalized drink for you based on the bartender's image of you. All you were allowed to say was whether you wanted a drink with or without alcohol and if you had any allergies. The bar was called 'No order' and was a reference to you being unable to order a drink of choice and because of the chaos in their drink making process. Ingredients seemed to be added without a specific order and in no specific amounts. The taste fully relying on the instincts of the experienced bartenders. But the moment a customer took the first sip of their first drink, including this group of friends, they were immediately sold on their drink and were convinced of the skills of each of the three bartenders.
Elizabeth however seemed to be loving her drink a bit too much. Finishing drink after drink, she was already quite tipsy by the time their groups was complete. When Nick came over to greet his wife and give her kiss, he immediately noticed her flushed cheeks and her glazy eyes when she jumped up and threw her arms around his neck. The scent of the alcohol was masked by the sweet smells of the other ingredients but for Nick there was no denying it. Though slightly annoyed that Elizabeth had let matters get so far in such a short time, he just let out a small sigh before he returned her hug and helped her to their table. Luckily the food came soon after they ordered and it helped soak up some of the alcohol in Elizabeth's stomach. Sobering her up a bit, but unfortunately not for long. Because the food could only hold so much and Elizabeth was determined to enjoy as many of the delicious cocktails as she could.
When she was on drink number three, Nick pulled her aside for a bit after excusing the both of them towards their friends. "Lizzy, honey, I know you are having a good time but maybe you should ease up a little with the drinks. Your cheeks are flushed and you have already had quite a lot of them." Elizabeth quickly dismissed his words by saying, "I have only had a few. I am feeling fine. You know I have a great tolerance for alcohol. A few cocktails won't get me drunk. I will be pumping and dumping anyways. So, don't worry." Nick, who could tell that her tolerance had taken a hit after not being able to drink for almost a year, tried again to get her to stop drinking for the night. "I know you think you feel fine but I know you babe. I have seen you drunk plenty of times before and you are bordering on drunk at the moment. I know you wanted to blow off some steam tonight but before you do or say something you might regret tomorrow, you should switch to something else for the rest of the evening."
Disregarding Nick's words of concern and his requests for her to call it a night and switch to water or soft drinks, Elizabeth stubbornly replied, "We are finally out on a night with friends. I just want to enjoy myself and have a few drinks. Stop being such a party pooper." After that she turned away and walked back to the table where the rest was still eating, drinking and chatting. Seeing them arrive at the table separately and seeing Elizabeth's annoyed expression plus Nick's defeated one, Jenny could tell that their talk didn't go very well. One look at Elizabeth and she could imagine what the talk had been about, but Jenny knew just as well as Nick did, that her friend shared her stubbornness. If she thought there was no problem, there was no convincing her that there was one. Especially not when her stubbornness was being fuelled even further by the power of alcohol that made her unable to see the consequences of her words or actions. With a quest for vengeance and the need to prove Nick wrong, Elizabeth downed the drink that was on the table like it was lemonade before ordering another one.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Despite Nick's worries and Elizabeth's ever increasing state of tipsiness, the evening was going smoothly. But just when he thought that he might have been overly concerned and had overreacted to Elizabeth letting loose for a day, she did just what he had feared and embarrassed both him and herself with the aftermath of an overly excited cheer. In one way or another she had managed to lift her hand and glass in such a way that she tipped over the tray that the waiter behind her was holding, tipping the contents all over the poor guy and over both Julia and herself...