Drifting between toying with the phone, adding a pause brief enough to note the trio depart from the bar itself, Mercer couldn't help but feel a conflict of emotions - feelings as if to just call this meeting off, throwing it to when he wasn't more concerned with the booze or the cat, or if he was better off just taking the prying now. The contact would pry, no doubt about that. It wasn't in the slightest a matter of if, but when and how much... and given how easy to find Mercer was, often making one of a couple rounds to locales he frequented, they'd find him one way or another.

[i]Oh fuck this. I'll deal with it tomorrow.[/i] Mercer's thoughts wavered as he entered his reply, attempting his best to deflect their interest, at least for the time being.

Fingers to the screen, it was done in a heart beat.

There wasn't an immediate response. That's what drew the sigh of relief and eyes free of the phone; in that moment, Mercer caught the slight glimpse of movement. Not from the band who had just a few minutes before departed the stage, but instead from the last person he imagined to get up. Eyes tracking for the time being, he was curious as to where this was going, because the brief expression he caught? It wasn't matching the one she had before, but it certainly matched her actions as she whipped a chair about, sitting herself down and ordering another drink all in one fluid motion.

At first Mercer wasn't sure what he just witnessed; as if the incident but ten feet away was in a fog, but the more he thought about it as she finished her remark about the theremin, the more he realized she was serious.

Settling in, first checking the reaction of the two cowboy booted cohorts, then the waiter; he imagined, before checking back to his phone, they might prove a bit startled... or confused. Maybe both. Mercer certainly was, but all the same now he found himself feeling left out. These were [i]his[/i] grounds, he might as well be comfortable around these people - sure the air that followed with them struck him as a bit odd, but there was no harm in that, right?

Thinking as he was, his attention focused back to the screen in his palm.

No reply.

Not yet at least, which was all the more rationale and permission he needed to join in on whatever was about to happen. It didn't take him twice on the thought to stand, crossing the bar before kicking back the leg of a chair with a heel and proving to sit down. It was in that moment, slipping the phone away, he replied almost casually, to the woman - or rather on closer inspection what he'd almost consider a girl still - and her remark about the theremin.

"Heard of it - can't say I've ever seen one in person."

Mercer proved to nod in the direction of the man in the plaid shirt, keen to note the little, more than awkward moment they had between each other but a short time ago. Maybe now, he rationalized, things would settle down some; the atmosphere maybe left to calm, but it certainly didn't where he sat at the table's corner, maybe a foot away from the punk college student - or what Mercer assumed her to be. Before he could let go of the notion though, his mind toyed with the fact that the last thing he wanted was a reply now. What little interaction he had with anyone but his coworkers, even if this turned poorly, would be better than none at all.