I don't have it in me to turn this into a full fic, so here. We're gonna do this on a thread. Imagine, if you will, piano man Scott Moir, dicked over by his record label, lost everything, finally taking a job in a dive playing for tips. Which he gets, because he's GOOD.
A week into this regular gig the bar manager comes back from vacation. Tessa Virtue, who's caused a few too many fights over her amongst both bar staff and patrons, through no fault of her own of course but it's enough to get her labeled as trouble in the classier establishments.
She's a seasoned professional, who can tell exactly how many is gonna be too many for any customer that walks in, and she never dates the talent. So when Scott asks who the green-eyed beauty behind the bar is, everyone tells him to forget it.
(He does not forget it.)
(He does not forget it.)
They've got quite the good thing going. Dive bar though it may be, Tessa can the best cocktails in town - and they're cheap to boot. Scott can read a room like nobody's business and keeps the energy up and the mood high.
They don't even talk for the first month, he plays on Fridays and Saturdays and if he's looking right at her when he starts in on the love songs, Tessa's certainly not going to say anything about it.
When Scott offers to help her close up, all she says to him is that he can help, but she's not cutting him in on the bar tips. He laughs and rolls up his sleeves and gets to work. (She kicks him a few out of her share of the tips. It WAS really kind of him.)
Tessa starts sending over requests scribbled on napkins, delivered by one of the cocktail waitresses. This time when he looks at her as he's playing, she's looking right back.
She finds him sleeping in his car out back one morning when she comes in to do the books. He was renting a room under the table and the guy decided he'd rather have a home office. Scott's been living out of his car for two weeks. She tells him there's a room upstairs available.
The owner's good with keeping the rent low if he helps out. This temporary gig has become the center of Scott's life, and he and Tessa orbit the bar and each other. Maybe...just maybe...Scott's not the typical full-of-himself asshole she's assumed he was.
And if, one night after they close, Tessa stays with him to hear some of the new songs he's been writing...well, it would be rude of him not to invite her upstairs, wouldn't it?
They're up until sunrise, having amazing sex and talking and laughing and it hits both of them around the same time...finding each other in this dive bar has been the best time either of them can remember in a long, long while.
Of course, this is when things start to get...complicated. A buddy of Scott's out in New York calls him up, if he can get out there in two weeks there's a lucrative regular gig. He tells Tessa to come with him. But the owner has just offered to sell her the business.
This is her dream, and she's not about to ask him to give up his. She tells him to go. Says this was always only ever supposed to be temporary, for either of them, right? He tries harder. She yells.
He leaves without saying goodbye. It's a miserable time, for both of them. Scott hates New York. Tessa's just lost one of the biggest draws to the bar that now belongs to her. Neither of them want to admit they're wrong.
Tessa's hanging in there, but she can't keep a musician on the schedule to save her life. They're all flaky, and the ones that do show up aren't half as good as the last guy (or so the customers keep telling her). It's Saturday night and sure enough...no musician.
She sighs and goes back to bartending. Canned music will have to be enough tonight. She's in the middle of juggling a martini shaker when the recorded music cuts out and she hears familiar opening notes on the piano.
She keeps serving drinks until the song is over, then runs to the piano, hoping but hesitant. Scott is greeting regulars, and when he looks up to meet her gaze it's like the whole bar stands still and Tessa holds her breath.
He smiles at her. "New York was awful," he says. "Couldn't get a decent drink anywhere." It's too much. She launches herself into his arms to the cheering of both patrons and staff, because how could you not see they're perfect for each other?
After they've closed up and everyone else has left, Tessa asks him why he came back. "Because you told me to go after my dream," he says. "I'll always play music, but getting to play music, and be with you? That's the dream."
"By the way...is that room still available? I just got back in town today and haven't even looked for a place."
FIN
FIN
I'm gonna leave this here too, since people are still reading it: open.spotify.com/user/125118392…
And then @cyxlin made a thing so I am putting it here for posterity 💜💜💜
