Though she knew hiding from her work would get her fired, she was sure the idea would be tempting at times. She knew she needed to just relax and be herself, but that wasn't easy when she was in such a holy place, surrounded by such great minds of her age. The topic then moved towards Matt and James and their family. She could only imagine what kind of loss they had to endure and she hoped that their family knew, she and hers were around if they needed more comfort. Sasha gave herself a hard mental kick in the shin, since she still felt like a rubbish friend for not being more present for James and the others. She felt awful but hoped she could make it up somehow. And not because she felt she needed to, but because she wanted to.

"I feel old enough." She held up her glass as he did when they mentioned the song that was playing in the background.

It really took her back.

"Oh wow!" She exclaimed when he mentioned Mars. "It's about time we got something up there, America can't do everything for space exploration." She pointed out. "Oh, I am not introducing you to any of my friends!" She gasped and gave him a grin. She didn't think they'd really hit it off but it did conjure up some interesting scenes. Her friends were more of the artsy type who wrote or acted, she wasn't sure how well they'd get along with James and his own complicated field of study. It was great though, since they were both able to break off and find friends in their own interests but now, she wondered if they could somehow meet in the middle again, like when they first met and enjoyed the video game club at school.

She nodded when James mentioned the usual workload of engineers and how it wasn't easy to hold anyone down at the moment, even with a better use of his time. Part of her wanted to ask if he was playing Endless Realms, she assumed he was but figured it wouldn't be right to bring it up at the moment. After all, she wasn't sure how close they were anymore, or how close they may become. It was all up in air, despite her hope that they could go back to being the best of mates, close as thieves. "For the moment, yes." She replied when he asked about her own status. "I would rather settle down before I try to add a relationship to juggle." It would seem unfair to adjust to a job and university and try to get to know a new man. 

For now, she was positively happy being on her own.

Of course having friends and lovers were two different things. Sasha had plenty of fun online with her friends or offline with others from around school. She took another long drink and set her glass down, finishing her beer. A silence formed between them but for her, it didn't feel strained and heavy. She sat back in her chair and looked over her shoulder at the news. She looked back to James, her expression still soft. They could probably spend hours reminiscing but she didn't want to, getting stuck in the past just made things hard and brought up regrets. Sasha wanted to enjoy their present, right now. "I can't believe we're in our twenties, James. I mean, we're adults! When the hell did that happen?" She laughed and shook her head. It was so weird to be sitting with someone who she remembered as being a kid.

He was different though, and so was she.

"I don't wanna blink and find us in our fifties." She protested as the thought crossed her mind. So much had happened in the last five or so years and she couldn't imagine what the next five years would bring both of them. From the sounds of it, James was in a good place, all things considered, which did make her happy. James had so much potential back when they were younger and she was thrilled that he was finally able to tap into it and do something brilliant. "I'm hoping by the time I'm that old, we can upload ourselves into robots and live forever." She professed. "Then maybe we can just use our jet-packs to fly into space and explore with other robots." That sounded like a pretty fun idea for a short story. She quickly took out a small black notebook and quickly wrote down the idea.

She had about 22 other matching black notebooks back at her flat, all crammed with ideas.