It seemed it was his lucky night as he watched Alex’s smile stretch into a grin at his suggestion. Her reaction earned a more genuine smile from Daniel, finding himself a bit charmed by her reaction as well as how smoothly things seemed to be going. As she reminded him to close his tab, he chuckled and gave a small nod. “Right. Just give me a moment.” he told her with a small smirk of amusement at her words before turning to flag down the bartender. Turning away from Alex, he leaned casually against the counter as he waited for the other man to step over to him.

Luckily it didn’t take long and the other man stepped over to him. “I just wanted to close out my tab. For Daniel Shen.” he informed the bartender who gave a brief nod before setting out on the task. He soon returned with the card as well as a receipt for him to sign. Finishing up the process, he stuck the card and his receipt into his wallet before tucking that away into his back pocket. With his business at the bar taken care of, he turned back to Alex. Interesting flickered into his gaze as he noticed her shaking her head amusedly. 

His eyebrow quirked upward in question but he didn’t get the chance to ask before she spoke and brought his attention over to Eric and the ginger. Daniel smirked at the sight. It was rather typical of Eric to speed things along with any woman who was willing—which was very different than Daniel who preferred to at least hold some type of conversation before rushing into anything—but somehow the former frat boy managed to be even more shameless that usual. “Yeah, I’d rather not stick around for that either.” he mused wrinkling his nose at the thought. He turned his head to look down at Alex, shooting her a smile. “Come on, let’s go.” Daniel placed a hand on her back to help guide her with him through the crowd at the bar. 

As they stepped towards the door, his gaze wandered over towards where the rest of his friends were. It was easy to catch a glimpse of their familiar faces despite the many unknown that passed him by on their way out. As suspected, his and Eric’s absence seemingly went rather unnoticed. Well, perhaps not unnoticed, but at the very least, it didn’t seem to hinder any merriment amongst the group as he caught sight of intoxicated grins and mouths opened with laughter.[i] I’ll still text Trevor once I’m home… Last thing I need is for them to think I completely disappeared…[/i] he thought to himself as he turned his attention away. 

Ever true to acting chivalrous, Daniel was quick to step forward to hold open the door for Alex once they reached the exit. Allowing her to step out first, he followed her out into the crisp night air. The enclosed and fairly packed bar had made him forget the slight chill outside.  He looked down at Alex and smiled. “So, I was thinking, we could either having a sobering trek there since it’s not too far or we could hail a taxi.  What do you want to do?” he asked.