“Sweet Lord,” said Robbie. “Will ya look at the dark goddess that just walked in?”
We all turned to stare at the woman in question. I let my eyes slide from her long raven-colored locks down her smiling face. Her creamy skin was the perfect middle ground between her white pearl necklace and the small patch of red fabric that passed for a dress. I stopped at the tall heels of her boots and slowly moved back up.
I had been in college long enough to know that my male gaze was oppressing this fine lady, but at that moment, I couldn’t have told you my name. There was some pure Darwin shit going way down.
“What the fuck is she doing with the corpse?” Robbie continued. “That her dad or her lawyer?”
The man’s face looked like it had started to wrinkle up before Lincoln got his third eye. His stark white hair was combed over his skull pink dome. The collared shirt he wore had the top three buttons undone, and a patch of salt and pepper fur stuck out the V.
He pointed his thumb and forefinger just under his nose and separated them down the wisp of a mustache that was planted there like a threat.
As the couple reached the bar, the man grabbed his lady’s free hand and spun her perfectly into an empty seat.
Her laugh hushed the bar.
“Skip it,” Gabriel said. “Plenty of singles in here.”
“Yeah,” Robbie said. “But none with a body like that.”
Robbie stood up. “Besides,” he said. “I don’t see any competition.”
“Only a few reasons a woman like that is with that man,” Dillon said.
“What ya’ll getten at?” asked Robbie. He gripped the table as if to hold himself back from heading over there and whisking the girl away.
“Well,” agreed Gabriel. “He ain’t rich.”
“Or at least he ain’t showing,” Dillon continued.
We all glanced toward the bar. The woman laughed again, soft and melodic. It was a giggle that made you want to lean in, breathe her air.
The man’s arm rested right at the line where her dress met the skin of her back.
She sipped a chocolate martini.
He had a whiskey straight, no chaser.
I looked down at the commercial brews littering our table. What the hell were we even doing there? We should have been over at the Blue Shamrock just off-campus.
Instead, we had let Robbie drag us to this “used to be a speakeasy” throwback of a hellhole where red-eyed work-a-days stared into their bourbons and slick-haired men wore matching suits in every shade of black.
Gabriel said, “How the fuck can that angel stand that decrepit hand on her back?”
At that moment, Angel turned her head toward us and brought her eyes to each man at the table. For a moment, time slowed as she reached up with the hand she had wrapped around that sack of shit old man to brush one lock of midnight black hair from in front of her baby blues.
Robbie pushed off the table and headed her way.
“He’s dangerous,” Dillon said.
I didn't know if he was talking about Robbie or the old man. I had known Robbie since high school, seen him in a fight or two. He was a brawler.
Then I caught it. The man’s gait, his confidence.
Robbie walked to the bar and smoothed his tiger-embossed button-down as he stepped up.
The couple were laughing again like they didn't notice him, but they did. They just didn’t care.
Robbie took another beat to gather it up.
That’s when Dillon and Gabriel stood and headed for the bar. I slipped out of my chair. My pulse started thrumming.
“Excuse me,” Robbie said.
The couple only laughed harder.
“Excuse me.”
The laughter stopped.
“We heard you, son,” the old man said. He didn’t even look Robbie’s way. “We’re not interested.”
Robbie said, “I thought I might ask the lady to have a drink with me.”
“She’s not interested,” His eyes never left the girl’s face. “Now, run along.”
Robbie noticed Dillon and Gabriel behind him; that was all the cowboy-up he needed.
“Why don’t you let the lady decide?”
“Well,” said the man. He slowly turned and took in the three. “I would hate to keep her away from you fine young gentlemen, if that’s what the lady wants.”
The beauty giggled a moment as she raised the back of her hand and gently caressed the old man’s cheek. Then, she shifted those beautiful eyes to Robbie.
She opened her mouth, and I barely heard the carnal whisper of her come-hither voice. "Blow," she said.
The couple turned inward, laughing again.
Robbie’s face shifted to anger as he reached out his hand and placed it on the man’s shoulder.
The man grabbed Robbie’s wrist and spun around. With his free hand, he drove Robbie face-first into the bar. Robbie’s head bounced back, and the man hammer-fisted him in the nose as he fell limply to the floor.
People cleared the bar as Dillon ran in. The man sidestepped and drove his left fist into Dillon’s solar plexus. He fell to his knees, and the man kicked him in the face, knocking him all the way to the ground.
I started closer as Gabriel grabbed the old man from behind. He put him in a bear hug and lifted him up.
I caught a glimpse of the woman, our Angel, still sitting on her bar stool. As the men fought, she was finishing her martini.
The old man jerked his head back and caught Gabriel’s nose. Blood gushed into white hair as Gabriel screamed and let go. The old man turned toward him and raised his fists up like a fighter in the ring. Two steps forward, and he sent two jabs into Gabriel’s stomach. When Gabriel’s hand came away from his nose, the old man delivered two more short jabs to his face, gold rings cutting skin.
My friend dropped to the floor just as I reached the fight. The old man pivoted toward me, bouncing from one foot to the other, hands up.
I quickly raised my hands above my head. “Wait! Wait!” I screamed. “I’m just here to pick up the mess.”
The old man lowered his fists and straightened his shirt. “You hear that, Barkeep?” he said as he held his hand out to the woman and led her past the bodies that littered the floor. “This fine young gentleman is picking up our tab.”
Photo by Chris F: https://www.pexels.com/photo/assorted-wine-bottles-1283219/
I liked it, good beginning, drew me in, and then piqued my curiosity on what was going to happen. The old man taking them out was perfect, and a surprise ending with a punk getting stuck with the check.