Monty has already had two cheap beers and is halfway through some bright green cocktail whipped up for him by a girl with the loveliest legs he's seen in a long time, and since he showed up to this party already tipsy, he's beginning to feel just wonderful. It's that fine line between drunk enough to dance with some varsity football player's girl, but not so drunk that he does it before the guy leaves to go buy more cheap beer.

But drunk enough to almost forget he invited Beth until he sees her. Suddenly she's there, catching his attention for all the same reasons she did when he first stopped by the coffee shop for hangover coffee. It's like she bleeds all her gentle, sunshiny roots into the air, and then reels you in with that lovely grin and those bright eyes, and seals the deal with a lulling accent.

He isn't in love by any means (he's only in love with Percy, who unknowingly has his heart despite being an ocean away. Monty could forgive his father for shipping him off to America for school, but he could never forgive him for not letting Percy come with him.) but he's quite enamored. The shop she works at is out of his way, but he still makes a point to stop by if he knows she's working. He stopped paying the scholarship kid from his American Lit class to do his homework so he could pay her for tutoring services. His flirting is absolutely relentless, though that's true for almost anyone he talks to.

Wherever he was going before has easily slipped from his mind in favor of joining Beth instead. The second he reaches her, he's reaching out to tuck a bit of her hair behind her ear.

"Well, I can promise I won't be losing you again. Finish that," he says, gesturing to her drink with his own. "We should dance."