Lucky Coincidence // Stuart Twombly

XIV

After a heavy workout on the dance floor, Lara and Stuart retreated to the bar, a few feet away from Lyle and a girl with dark brown hair. "God, if I knew you had those dance moves in you, I'd tag along more often when you're going out," She giggled. Stuart let out a laugh before he ordered a beer and a cocktail at the barman. 

"You're Biff, right? From Back To The Future?" The pair heard Lyle say to a tall, muscular man who was towering over him. Lara turned to them with a frown before she sent Stuart a wary glance. He replied with a shrug. 

"Why don't we take this outside, huh?" The man challenged, taking a step closer to Lyle. 

"No, I'd rather stay here and talk to the pretty girl," Lyle answered, not a single hint of hostility audible in his voice. 

"I should help-" Lara started but Stuart grabbed her arm and held her back, shaking his head. 

"That guy is at least foot taller than you. They'll be fine," He said, eyeing the man suspiciously. 

"You want some, huh?" The man sneered, stepping even closer. Lyle moved to step back from the tall man as he approached the short intern but the girl with whom Lyle had been talking held him back. 

"Stop it," She told him. Lara figured that they must know each other, the man was probably a regular at this place. 

"What seems to be the problem?" A deep voice said. Lara recognized it to belong to Billy McMahon. Nick joined his side as well.

The man chuckled. "It looks like someone needs their way older brothers to fight for them, huh?" Lara's brows etched together with anger and before Stuart could stop her, she stalked off and stood beside Nick, who had joined the conversation with Billy. 

Not even a few seconds later, Stuart, Yo-Yo, and Neha had also joined. 

"Oh, look, it's the united colors of Nerd," He chuckled mockingly. His eyes landed on Lara. "Except for you, do you work here perhaps? I know a really great place to get to know each other," He smirked at her and she sent him a disgusted frown. 

"She's with us, actually. She is our boss," Billy stated, folding his arms over his chest. 

"You go to a strip club with your boss? Where the hell do you work? Let me guess, it's a tech company. Bad coffee and ugly people," He shot back with a challenging grin. Lara wanted nothing more than to slap that grin off of his face. 

"Whoa, take it easy. Is this the Jets and the Sharks?" The only reason that Lara knew what those were is that Stuart talked about it sometimes. "Now why don't you guys head that way and we'll head this way. Never again we'll meet and we'll have a great night," Nick continued, wrapping his arms around both Billy's and Lyle's shoulders. 

In the meantime that they had been holding up this very hostile conversation, more guys had joined the unknown man's side. The man nodded. "Yeah, that's a good idea." He turned away and Lara let out a deep breath, dropping her forehead of Stuart's shoulder. 

"That was a close one," She breathed. 

Right as she looked up again, the man moved to land a hard punch on Billy's face, but he was quicker and grabbed the man's arm, taking a right hook and punching him in the face. 

"Oh my God, Billy!" Lara shrieked, moving to pull the men away from each other. 

Stuart grabbed her arm. "Stay back, they could hit you." He defensively placed her behind his own figure. He jumped on the back of one of the men and took him down with him. Lara gasped and placed her hands over her mouth. 

The girl with whom Lyle had been talking was shoved to the side and nearly tripped but Lara reached out to steady her. "Oh, I'm so sorry," The girl quickly rambled.