Friday, August 3, 2012

The Reluctant

Here's the thing about being in a city like this. There isn't much to do. Sure, it isn't a small town by any means but it isn't exactly a metropolis either. We're in a weird transition phrase between small town and big city. I kind of like it to be totally honest.  So, really there's only two things to do after a certain hour: eat and drink--or in most people's cases: drink then eat.  So, there we were like any self-respecting twenty-some year olds with careers and no family: out at a bar in the middle of the week. Well, it was Thursday, so you can hardly blame us.  There's George, Pollo, and our two resident gays Jesus and Dhyago.   Everyone's there looking for....looking for...well, everyone's looking for something. Whether it's a one-night stand, the future wife or husband, or simply a good stiff drink. Everyone is at Hal's landing for a reason unique to that individual.  Personally, the reason our group was there is beyond us all. George had a live-in girlfriend much to his dismay. Pollo had one two--although she was scarcely seen and Jesus and Dhyago were together..so I guess that leaves us all with the sole purpose of people watching and drinking. It's like being an old folk at the mall except a bit more boozy. Which is right up this groups alley!  Today was better than the typical Thursday at Hal's landing. There were--for once--a lot of beautiful girls at the bar and they weren't out numbered by different grades of cheap Polo cologne hitching a ride on a ghetto,faded, dude with a straight-edged cap on.  There were classy girls for the most part but being the city that it is, there were some "ghetto" girls as well: but they were still attractive, oddly enough.  Everything was going as normal. One person would get a drink, someone would yell out "Shots!" and everyone would take their shot glass and gulp down whatever concoction it was that the bartender decided to mix down their throat and scream "woo!"   Today, was different though. Despite all the normal events happening and then night proceeding as usual, there seemed to be an air of uneasiness about the place--an almost permeable sensation that something, somewhere in the bar was different. It was necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it almost felt like it was quite a good thing but at the moment that one noticed the sensation one couldn't decipher it's message.  The feeling remained throughout the remainder of the night. It lingered in everyone's subconscious and the bar's patrons' heads were noticeably on swivels.  Maybe, it was the unease of having an increased military presence in our airspace as of late, or the recent UFO sightings paired along with unexpected thunderstorms, or maybe it was the drug-cartel violence across the border in our sister city that had recently escalated that had everyone else in the bar uneasy. But in this particular corner of the bar, in this group of people we knew that this sensation didn't come from any of those things.  But none of us were sure, until the smell hit us.  A mix of expensive designer cologne and pure human attraction enthralled our senses and the straight men in the group all looked up in unison at each other as if to acknowledge what was already known.  She was here. That unmistakable scent of perfume and passion that emanated only from one body had crossed our noses and vined istelef into our...into my mind.   Heart rate accelerates, adrenaline fills my body and primes it for anything, eyes widen.and I scan the room.   Left, right, left, forward, back and then when all seems to have been a mistake, there is the unmistakable facade of the woman that has such power over the mind and heart.  The almond eyes, perfect lashes with dark, smokey eye shadow the mole under her left eye just above her full, pout lips. Lips that are accented only by a subtle lip gloss rather than an offensive lip stick. She's just been handed a vodka cranberry.  She thanks the bartender and brings the glass close to her face, wraps her lips around the straw and takes a drink.  She blinks seductively and and turns this direction.  She notices. She puts her drink down, brushes her luscious brown hair to the side and says one simple word:  "Hi".