A Discordant Melody

Five

Five

Why was I here again?  Didn’t I tell myself just an hour earlier that I didn’t need to be doing this as I walked down the street toward the club that Lee wanted me to meet him at?  That didn’t last for very long, especially when I was let in by the guy at the door.  

But now here I was, leaning against the bar as the base from the music pounding every cell in my body and vibrated the counter I was beside.  The conversations around me were too loud, mostly because everyone was shouting just so they could be heard.  The guy beside me was talking loudly into his cell phone, trying to give one of his friends directions to the club.  On his other side another guy was trying to pick up the girl who he’d been talking to for the past twenty minutes.  Even I could see that she was clearly bored with him.  On my other side, a girl sat with a drink in her hand.  Since I’d been there, she’d already gone through three.  I didn’t dare think about what would have her so upset that she needed that much alcohol. 

“Hey,” I heard from behind the bar.  I turned and saw the blond bartender setting a drink in front of me.  He nodded toward the end of the bar.  “This if from the guy at the end.”

I looked down at the drink and could smell the alcohol in it.  I wasn’t a drinker and I never had been.  “Thanks, but I…”

“Just take it,” the bartender said, and started walking off. 

I was a little taken back at the harshness in his voice as I watched him walk to the other end of the bar.  His back was tense one moment, but then he twitched slight and stood still.  Looking around for a moment, he shook his head and started walking again.

My eyes turned and went into the direction that he’d gestured.  The guy at the end of the bar, the one that had apparently ordered me the drink, was still looking at me.  He was a big, bulky guy, his shirt straining against his well-muscles chest and arms.  His light brown hair was cropped close to his head and I had to admit that he was pretty good-looking.  Several girls who were eyeing him, but his eyes were only on me. 

He lifted the drink in his hand at me and winked before taking a sip. 

“Hey, there,” a voice said close to my ear.  It wasn’t the bartender this time. 

A smile spread across my face as I turned and came face to face with Lee, who was smiling down at me just as brightly as I was. 

“Hi,” I laughed, just as someone bumped into him from behind, sending him straight into me.  He had to catch himself on the bar, his arms on either side of me. 

“You know, I seriously didn’t think that I would find you here.  I thought that luck wasn’t going to be on my side,” he said, again, right next to my ear.  “But here you are.”

“I told you that you might be seeing me, didn’t I?”  I grinned. 

“Yeah,” he said, nodding, and leaned back away from me.  He looked behind him, trying to search through the crowd.  “My friends are here somewhere and I want you to meet them.  You know my friend Molly?  Yeah, she’s been dying to meet you.  I haven’t even told them your name because I was afraid she would try to look you up in every hotel in the city.”

I guess it was a good thing that I wasn’t officially staying in a hotel then.  She wouldn’t have been able to find me if she tried. 

But when I thought over what he’d just said, I realized that the word ‘friend’ was plural.  That could only mean one thing.

“Wait, you said friends, right?” I asked. 

He nodded, moving beside me so that he could lean beside me against the bar.  “Yeah, I did.  Molly and Persie went to the bathroom once we got here.  Do you care to explain to me just what the thing is with girls going to bathrooms in pairs or groups?”