[b][center][h2]Joel Nicolosi[/h2][/center][/b]

Joel looked at the pint somewhat quizzically at first, but accepted it nonetheless. Perhaps she had tipped them off ahead of time, but she apparently didn’t know about liquor before beer. One wouldn’t hurt though, and in two healthy gulps he knocked down half the glass and motioned behind the counter. The barman looked confused at first and Joel pointed more firmly at a bottle of Jameson and another of Bailey’s. He stood up slightly in the barstool and glanced around the counter before retrieving two shot glasses. He poured the whiskey in one glass and the Irish cream in the second, being more liberal with the whiskey glass and not paying a lot of attention to the sound of heeled shoes clicking against the floor along with the rest of the background noise from the party setup. He dropped the pair into the pint glass and knocked the whole thing back about the time he noticed Marlin from the corner of his eye. 

“Like I said,” He smirked, “I don’t really [i]own[/i] this suit.” There was a part of him that wondered about the irreverence with which the drink he’d just concocted would have been received where she was from. Oh well. He thought with a light shrug and poured another shot for himself glancing her up and down briefly as he tipped the bottle. “You don’t clean up bad yourself,” He said, “I could’ve brought you a hoodie, though.” 

The barman seemed slightly apprehensive that the entire bottle had been commandeered as he served up Marlin’s cocktail, but he was instructed to give the fast-driving, bushy-haired American a wide berth for the party. As Joel finished another shot and collected his own glass of ice to refill again, he was beginning to feel a bit out of place behind his own counter. 

Joel turned round in the stool and leaned back slightly onto the bar to look at the party beginning to move into swing as guests entered into the main hall. He nodded slightly as Marlin spoke studying the entire assembly carefully and deciding what he preferred among the pictures of himself and the car. He liked the giant printed picture of the car flying the flag that they managed to print out so hastily and wondered what they would do with it afterward and where he could hang it back in his shop. “I’m just here,” He said. “I guess I don’t have any plans.” He gave her a playful, sarcastic smirk as he sipped on his drink and Vika arrived with some giant man in a white suit. He gave Victoria a wink and nodded at the Russian. It occurred to him that everyone in Marlin’s party had some sort of color coordination theme going and he was glad Tommy had hung on to the black suit. “I’m headed back to Tokyo in a couple days though,” He continued. “I’ve got a little business to take care of now that the race is over with.”

[@PrinceAlexus]