XANDER

"Is that all?" The cute brunette smiled at Xander so widely her dimples showed.

"Yes, that is all." Zora answered loudly, eying them smugly. The waitress smiled nervously and skipped away with their order. Xander almost laughed out loud.

"Man, you broke up with Annie like a week ago." Tony smiled shaking his head.

"It's not fair," George shook his head for different reasons, "when I break up with girlfriends, nobody pays attention to me so soon."

"Girlfriends! It's important to have dreams, George." Zora laughed out loud, making everyone chuckle. George shot her a mean look.

The four of them sat at the wooden, cosy bar. Xander has done so much work in the past week, he was pretty satisfied with himself. His mind had a sole purpose and that was convincing his boss that he could work from home, therefore freeing his hours to do whatever he pleased.

"So, wait, you haven't been to work in how long?" Tony asked, his Italian accent somehow bouncing off the walls. Tony was usually loud even louder in confined spaces.

"Three weeks. Well, I stopped by the firm every now and then, but I mostly worked from the comfort of my bedroom." Xander said proudly. He was proud, the amount of time he managed to save was incredible. And he actually liked the job more.

"What does Rob say to that?" George asked. Rob was Xander's boss, an older gentleman that had a sharp mind when it came to business, but not when it came to technology.

"I think Rob's in shock." Xander admitted. "I made sure I worked harder than ever. It's amazing how much time we spend on work not working. I wrap up the work in four to five hours tops. The rest of the day I'm mostly free to do whatever I want."

"Xander is gonna try to convince his boss to let him go to Europe for three months." Zora interrupted, excited by the news. Zora was easily impressed by wild ideas.

"Everyone should start doing that." George nodded. "The work place takes up a lot of time, from getting ready in the morning, driving to the building, getting home. Not to mention the utter dissatisfaction that emerges on the ride through the crowded city. Some might experience suicidal thoughts. Or at least, homicidal." He fixed his glasses and cleared his throat.

"True." Tony nodded.

"The only problem is that Rob is the old-fashioned type boss, but he's pretty gullible. And if he sees the results, he's ready to change his opinion." Xander shrugged his shoulder.

"Which means you would be travelling to Europe, earning money there and earning money from your regular job. Without using your days off. Good idea." Tony nodded again.

"What's the plan if it doesn't work?" George asked.

"Let them fire me. I've enough money saved to start something on my own, especially with the job in Europe. Plus, Mr O'Hara seems to really want to work with me." Xander was pretty confident that his boss was going to be up for the deal, though. And if he pulled that off, he would actually have the time and money to start something anyway.

"Look at you, guys!" Zora grinned. "Your lives are actually settled. Xander is scamming his boss into paying him for working less, George is paid to make love to a computer and Tony married into wealth!" She laughed so hard at her own joke that she hit the table with her hand.

"Yes, my wife is a beautiful life-saving creature, but I didn't marry into wealth." Tony said.

"She's a gynaecologist." Zora squinted.

"Yes, why did she chose gynaecology?" George asked.

"Because she can easily hold a private practice, the patients rarely have anything severe so it's not so stressful, yet she gets to perform smaller surgeries." Tony explained.

"And it's not like someone's gonna call her in the middle of the night, "quick, doctor, I have herpes," it can all wait." Zora added.

"Exactly. She gets to enjoy her vacation like a normal person and her life isn't completely overridden by her job." Everyone nodded in unison.

"Not a bad deal." Xander commented.

"Your new girlfriend surely takes her sweet, sweet time." Zora nodded towards the waitress, who slowly and clumsily made her way to their table with beer on the platter. Xander eyed Zora as the woman approached.

"Sorry for the delay, it's my second day." She smiled sweetly and shakily put the beer on the table.

"It's fine, we were planning on staying here for a while, anyway." Xander didn't mean to sound like he was flirting but the waitress looked at him and barely visibly blush appearing on her cheeks. She probably thought they would stay because of her.

"Let me know if you need me." She told Xander.

"I will." He said and smiled, highlighting that blush in the waitress's cheeks. She hopped away and Xander turned to his friends, all of them grinning.

"Not fair at all." George murmured.

"You should ask for her number." Zora suggested.

"Whose side are you on, Z?"

"Uh, on the side of my brother getting some. Come on! You're single now, it's no harm." Zora ushered him and Xander simply shook his head smiling.

Xander looked at each of them and how thrilled they were by the fact he was finally single. No one ever liked Annie, Xander thought and sighed.

"Fine." He got up while Zora clapped. The waitress was pretty, in a perky, doll-like kind of way. There were definitely similarities between her and Annie, Xander realised, but it was merely an energy that a lot of young women possessed. She was inside the counter, messing with the coffee maker machine. Xander felt sorry for the girl, because she was obviously left alone to handle the entire bar and she had no idea what she was doing.

On impulse, Xander got inside the counter and took over the machine. He waited tables for a year during college, so he knew a thing or two about what could go wrong during a shift.

"You fixed it." The waitress's eyes went wide when they locked with Xander's. Her eyes were hazel and beautiful, but ruined by the multiple layers of mascara she had on.

"Yes, I did. You should be gentle with it." Xander smiled and the girl mimicked it, but much more nervously.

"Is there anything I can get you?" She asked.

"You can tell me your name." Xander suggested.

"Cindy." She offered a hand and Xander took it.

"Xander." His eyes drifted to the magazine on the counter, flipped to the page of a solved quiz that said 'which Kardashian are you?' Just like that, the girl was ten times less attractive.

With a smile, Xander returned to his table, knowing that he could ask for her number if he wanted to later, but somehow he didn't want to anymore.

"Dude." Zora looked at him disappointedly when he returned.

"She solved a quiz that answered the question of which Kardashian she is. I can't do it." He explained, feeling a bit disappointed himself.

"Well, you don't have to marry her." Zora insisted.

"There's plenty of waitresses, Zora." Xander insisted back, he thought it would be weird being single again after three and a half years, but it really wasn't. He easily fell back into the routine that he kept when he wasn't living with Annie. He felt the change in his schedule, though. Suddenly, he didn't have so many plans. Living with any was exhausting, every weekend something had to be happening, some social gathering or obligation.

"Have you talked to Annie after the breakup?" Tony asked.

"No. And I don't intend to, it's better if we don't talk for a while." Xander said.

"True." Zora nodded. "So, guys, guess who passed the entrance exam!" She waved with her hand and pointed towards herself. Xander already knew, yet he couldn't help but grin. He was so, so proud of her.

"Nice!" Tony said too loudly, attracting the attention of everyone in the bar.

"Good job." George patted her shoulder.

"As of this week, I am officially a college student." Zora said proudly.

"A few more years and then you get to hate your life!" Tony laughed out loud and earned angry glances thrown his way.

"Shut up, Tony!" Xander shook his head. "Like any of us hate our lives."

"Oh, I'm kidding, Zora's gonna be fine. She's got that laid back attitude that in no way screams 'I'm gonna kick your ass.'" Tony laughed out loud and Zora froze him with her icy stare.

"Do you want to fight me, Tony?" Zora shot back.

"Down, girl, I weigh more than you can lift." Tony still laughed while Zora began hitting him with her fists, which turned so tough that Xander actually had to intervene. He grabbed his sister's hands and she kicked him, too.

"That's the laid back attitude I was talking about. Don't give her an F because she'll beat up your wife!" Tony laughed at himself so hard it was almost inappropriate.

"You're an asshole, Tony." Zora made an angry grimace.

"I'm just messing with you, kid, I know you'll do great." Tony smiled, but Zora was still in the fight mode.

The group continued talking about Zora's future classes and both Tony and George, irrefutable experts in the area, told her which were going to be interesting and which not. Xander's mind escaped to Mia, involuntarily. He wondered how Jeff reacted, whether they broke up, whether she was okay.

But he wouldn't fall into that trap again, he was tired of the drama that came with Mia. So he smiled at the waitress across the room, thinking that maybe he could ask for her number. After all, Zora was right, he didn't have to marry her.