Strings Attached (On-going)

7.COOL CIRCLES

My expectations came into fruition when Beth totally disagreed with Dr. Tonia. In fact, she said it was  a good thing I quit the job, "you'll get yourself another", she had said, "no firm can ever reject you", yet, here I was, not hearing from any of the other firms I applied to.

Honestly I wanted the job back..... without seeing Oscar, which was highly impossible. Dave advised I went back, except he didn't know my actual reason for quitting, just that I didn't like it anymore. He said it was not enough reason to quit a job like that, that I should give it another chance. So now I had to put ego aside and do what I had to do.

It was almost weekend and I was expecting to do just the usual stuff, watch movies the whole of Saturday, paint on Sunday. I had forgotten my life had changed now, my friendless new life had taken a swing. "My friends and I go out to this club every Friday night to have some fun, wanna come??", To cool off the steam and meet new people, he had said. Sounded good. He said to pick me up at eight, cool.

I just decided to roll with a a green bodicon off-shoulder knee length dress. My bun was still on and I decided just have a lip gloss on, I just wanted to look simple. Beth stressed I had to look ravishing, and her face on the screen right now told me she wished she was here to force a make up on me.

"You're meeting his friends Lisa, just a little make up, come on. When a guy tells you, I want you to meet my friends, believe me, he wants to go to the next level with you". I rolled my eyes, seriously? Plus, he didn't say to meet them, he just said to have fun, or maybe Beth was right.. whatever.

It wasn't like we were about to get married and I was going to meet his family. "You know, I'm So happy for you Lisa, I have a feeling this Dave likes you... I mean, he calls you how many times a day? Remind me  again...he's got a busy schedule and he still finds time for you, only a man in love does that, trust me".

I was getting tired of Beth's unending pep talks, I was all done, waiting for Dave to call. Despite my all my signs of frustration, Beth just kept talking, "remember, keep your snow on, head up, chest out, don't drink too much , your hangovers are--", I thanked my stars my phone rang right at that point.

"I've got to go Beth, love you!!", I snatched my purse from its peaceful abode.
"... Miserable.." she ended her statement. "Okay, enjoy yourself, bye!!".
Running out the door, I made extra care not to fall, the heels were quite high. "Hey..hi, I'm almost downstairs", I panted.
"I could have come up, I wanted to", Dave said.
"No, no no no, you..uh, would have gotten lost or something..uh..the whole place is really big, you know. "
"Oh"
"Yeah, don't worry, I'm almost down, hang on a few seconds", I tried to sound calm.

"Sure". I didn't want him to come into my apartment, pictures and paintings were all over the place and I didn't want him seeing them and asking questions, where I would have no other option than to tell my tragic stories.

The drive to the club was not so long. I felt so comfortable in his company, surprisingly. Three days I had known him and I felt I knew all about him. He kept talking about his family and I felt bad because I kept making up lies one after the other, telling him my family was back home and doing just fine. Questions kept coming, and I did what I did best....pretended I didn't hear most of them.

Now I guess he could come into my apartment because he knew about my family now....my non existing family, actually. So seeing their photos wouldn't do any harm. "Why did you move here if you have a happy family back home??" Damn! I wouldn't have it easy after all, why was he always curious?

I cleared my throat, "I... Actually, I just wanted a new environment, you know, meet LA's finest gems like yourself..your friends, you know". We both laughed , while he nodded, "finest gems, huh?", I simpered.

"They're actually cool, you'll love them. There's Chad, Bill, Mike, Adriana, all from my workplace, and then, Peter and Jonah, and my best friend Candice, all bankers, and then myself. We've all been friends for years, you know, cos of them I look forward to every single Friday evening, they make my weekend complete in advance , you know. Seriously, you'll love them."

I nodded, "I want to meet them already, they seem interesting"
"I promise you they are, you wouldn't want to go back home tonight", he flashed me a smile.
The car finally came to a halt and I was surprised to see a few people outside though it was still early, I mean it's a club. As if reading my mind, "you'll be overly surprised when you get in, where the actual magic happens", Dave answered my thoughts.

Truly, the inside was overflowing when we got there. Matter of fact, I would be lost, if I was to get back to the entrance alone, but Dave knew his way around perfectly. He laced his fingers with mine as he carefully led me through the heated crowd, looking back every second to ask if I was okay. 

After about three minutes of struggle through the aggressive crowd, we finally got to a less quiet area where groups of people were seated on brown couches. We went past a number of groups to much quieter area, where about six people were seated laughing hysterically probably at a joke or something.

Their laughter died down as we approached them. All heads turned to us. They stole sideways glances at each other with smiles on their faces, others with pursed lips. Nervousness was crawling in. "Guys!.." here's Lisa.. Lisa, meet Adriana, Peter,Chad, here's Mike, Bill and Jonah....uh... Candice's not in yet." Adriana and Chad stole a quick glance at each other. Something smelled fishy.

All waved and said hi while We took seats by Bill. Chad offered to get some more drinks. After quite a few drinks amidst talking and laughing, few of them started asking random questions. Bill cleared his throat, quieting the group.

"So..uh..Lisa, you single?" All heads turned to me, I shifted in my seat, "be honest, come on, cos if you are, my man's dead. You're all he's been talking about these last few days". Well well, that's flattering, I blushed. Dave rubbed his eyes, I knew he was blushing too, "dude!", He cut in.

All eyes were still on me, so I definitely had to clear the air. "I'm super single". I said plainly.
"Oouuu", they all chorused, Mike leaned forward, "I mean he's black, he's cute, he's rich, he's--"
Dave was restless at this point and it was hilarious, "dude, what are you doing?"

Adriana rolled her eyes, "getting you out of your cage!" They all broke into laughter, "if you sit by for another man to snatch Lisa, I'd be disappointed"

Seriously? They were trying to hook us up right there? Not that I didn't like Dave, I really did, I mean, he was a good person, fun cool, he was amazing and so thoughtful. In fact I was happy his friends thought we would be good together, I didn't know what was on his mind.

Bill had started making fun of Dave about a creepy girl he was dating months ago, when my phone decided it could ruin the moment, by vibrating. It was a call from an anonymous person, excusing myself from the group, I stood at a distance to answer. "Hello"

"Hey, Lisa, it's Oscar", Why on earth was Oscar Calling?
"Why are you calling me?", I tried to keep a steady voice.

"I'm so sorry I called late, I ..uh..I wanted to know if you would want ...to meet..to, uh, to talk? If you're free tomorrow... Lisa , please, I just want to talk, I know I owe you an apology and a whole lot of explanations, please", I didn't know what to say, I did want to hear him out, but I don't know if I was ready.

I shot a glance at Dave who was busily talking about God knows what, "alright, I'll meet you".

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