Art strongly considered bolting when Ben went to get him a beer, but a side effect of picking somewhere in muggle London was that he couldn't flee as quickly as if they'd been in magical London, and apparating wasn't legal. Normally this would not have stopped him, but if he was arrested for breaking the Statute of Secrecy by apparating, they would presumably contact Desdemona. This was the last thing he needed to get caught doing if he wanted to go back to her, which — he did. He did want to go back to her. He just didn't know how. And he couldn't walk out without Ben noticing.

Ben came back before Art could come up with a third escape route, which meant that he would be staying here for at least a little longer. "Thanks," Art said, accepting the beer. He picked it up carefully and took a sip, and maybe Ben was right and it wasn't great beer, or maybe this tremulous feeling in his chest was keeping him from really tasting it. It didn't matter. The beer was at least partially because this was what you did, in a bar, this was what they did.

---