Something in the Dark

~Chapter 2~

NATALIA

     I made my way slowly across the bar to a face I hadn’t seen in over five years. He looked almost unrecognizable, but then he looked the same, you know? His blue eyes had gotten deeper, more intense. His face had become even more ruggedly handsome. His lips still made me want to melt at the thought of exploring my body. He looked angry and completely exhausted. I knew this man a little too well. For this was the man I had fallen madly in love with years ago.

     But I didn’t want him to know that I remembered him. I wanted to see if he would remember me first. I’d pretended to mistake him for his father and even flirted with him a bit. He was still the same, except his anger issues had seemed to have gotten worst. I wasn’t even surprised when I’d saw his bleeding hand. I had always wanted to be a nurse, but from all the injuries Alex had gotten when we were younger, I’d pushed myself harder. I’d always imagined being his personal doctor when we got older.

     I took him to the back room of the bar, where only employees were allowed. I’d cleaned his hands and even managed to tear the smile I’d missed so much from him. Then his eyes darkened and glistened with sinister thoughts. I could feel his anger feeling the room and it didn’t matter. He was up and moving me against the wall. I knew how bad Alex got when he became angered and I didn’t care. I didn’t care that he was angry all of a sudden when I hadn’t even said anything to even slightly piss him off.

     I was glad that he was up and moving slowly towards me. His eyes held anger but they also held lust. I’d always wanted so bad for him to change his look towards me from lust to love. As he inched closely, with sinister thoughts probably clouding his mind, I stood on my toes and kissed him. I almost melted at his soft lips. I wanted to pull him in deeper but he slowly staggered backwards. His face held confusion and then he slowly turned and fled.

     I had never seen alexander mason run from anything in his life, and to me, that was a glorious sight.

   “Natalia! What the hell are you doing back here smiling like a naughty school girl for?” My boss, Johnny, asked sternly.

   I just shrugged and smiled. “Just thinking.”

   “Huh.” He snorted. “Hey, did that boy look familiar to you?”

   “What boy?” I asked with fake confusion plastered on my face.

   “The one that just ran outta the bar?”

   “No.” I shook my head and then crept seductively closer to him, “I don’t see anyone but you, baby.”

   Johnny smiled and wrapped his arm around my waist. “So you wouldn’t mind seeing me later on tonight then?”

   Oh, barf, I thought but kept smiling. “I’m afraid I can’t, sugar. I have the late shift and by the time I get home I’ll just be plain old tired.” I answered sweetly.

   Johnny smiled an okay then kissed me hard on the lips. “Maybe later than.” He smiled and walked back out into the bar.

     When the door closed behind him, I nearly threw up. I turned the water on and waited for it to get painfully hot before I scrubbed my lips furiously with a napkin. EWWW. This was starting to get ridiculous. I needed this job so bad so that I could pay for college but Johnny was starting to make work hard.  He always hit on me but he just wasn’t my type. I didn’t date cavemen look-a-likes.

     This job paid amazingly well to be a small bar inside a small town in Texas. I guess the men just loved to come in and lose their sight staring at all the women waiters. Johnny only picked pretty waiters with ‘a nice rack’. His food was also the best served in town and he had a flat screen on the wall in the back for big games on Sundays. Everyone loved Johnny’s House but most of all, they loved me.

   I was the best looking girl in town and everyone wanted to get with me. Sure, I’d gotten with a few sexy customers, but  that was all going to stop now that Alex was back in town. He’d always been my love and I’d only tried to cope when he disappeared after high school. He was back and no one was going to take him away from me.

   “That guy you brought back here sure was cute.”

     I turned and saw Kayla, another waitress, watching me and I got mad. Did this bitch need me to repeat my game plan, this time out loud?

   “You saw that, huh?” I laughed, bitter soaking my usually angelic voice.

      She laughed harder and waved my tone off. “Oh? You like him don’t you?”

     I narrowed my eyes at the only competition I’d ever had in this town going up for Alex. Back in school, Kayla had thrown herself countless of times at Alex. She was the only woman in town that held a flame to my beauty, but of course, I didn’t look this good growing up.

   I was just Alex’s buddy. His best friend. We talked about everything and was unnaturally close, although we never crossed that line of our friendship. I had a little anger thing too. Though it was not as bad as Alex’s, we bonded because of it. I used to hate it when he talked about other girls; though my anger cleared when he never stayed with them.

     Now I was prettier than all those other girls he used to abandon our movie nights for. Plus, he probably didn’t remember me so I could use all those thing I knew about him to get closer to him.