Night Stories #1
by Silver
-part 2-
I played against the tattooed guy for the best of 5 games and each of us dropped a twenty, just to make the stakes a bit more fun. I liked him. For all that brawn he was a nice guy, and a good player. We ended up tied and played the fifth game like nothing else mattered. I lost. We were both fighting for the 8 ball for the better part of 10 minutes, but he made a good shot. Oh well, I guess I’ve still got more to learn. So, I shook his hand and told him it was a good game, and he smiled proudly, and gave me a hearty slap on the shoulders. I took it as a compliment. I headed back to the bar and checked the time on my way; 10 minutes until her shift was done. She said ‘hey’ and handed me another Blue Moon without me asking for it. ‘You know this is a woman’s beer, right?’ She said. ‘Good thing I am one, then’ And I gave her a wink. She smiled again and went back to cleaning glasses, but she stayed there. “Anyways, I don’t really like the taste of beer. -I continued- At least this one is a bit sweet’. ‘Then why are you drinking them?’ ‘I don’t know, maybe I just liked your smile’. And to this she actually blushed. That kind of surprised me. I would have thought she would be used to hearing those kinds of things by now. Maybe the problem was it was usually men that said it. I took her in while I took a few sips of beer; she couldn’t be more than twenty three years old. She was about 5’2”, a little bit shorter than me. She was wearing a pair of jeans, a plain black t-shirt and black sneakers. Nothing about her really said “look at me”, except for those eyes, which, at first, I had mistaken for dark brown because of the dim light, but I now saw they were a dark shade of green. Full pink lips, teeth more perfect than mine, hair dropping by her shoulder in a loose braid. I wanted her. ‘You been working here long?’ I asked her. I wanted to know more about her, know what her deal was. ‘Not really, I’m on my second month. Moved here for college so I thought I’d do something on the side for a little cash. Are you from around here?’ ‘I am, I live just a couple blocks down the road.’ ‘Haven’t seen you here before’. ‘Yeah, I don’t really drink. Just came to play a little. Don’t got to work tomorrow, so…’ She glanced back at the clock on the counter and I followed her gaze to look as well. Five more minutes till her shift was over. I guess I wasn’t the only one anticipating. It had been a day or two, to be honest. Between working at the hospital and working on my novel, I hadn’t really gotten around to go out on dates or anything of the sort. Not since my last partner, anyways. But tonight, I was all in. I had been wanting to for a good while. ‘And what kind of work do you do?’ She continued. ‘I work at the VA Medical Center, been there for 3 years.’ ‘You a nurse?’ ‘Physical Therapist’. ‘So, you know your way around a body, then’ She chuckled a little when she said this and so did I. It wasn’t grade A flirting so far, but I was enjoying it, and the conversation was starting to go in a good direction. ‘I do, I do, though normally I don’t get to use my full knowledge.’ I said with a sly smile. ‘Why don’t you sh- the manager came over and said her shift was over, so I slid out of my seat, grabbed my stuff over by the pool table, and went outside. I stood by the door while she finished talking to him. Three minutes later she came out the door, looked at me and asked ‘where’s your car?’ I handed her my helmet and said ‘Don’t have one.’ I then walked over to my Ducati Monster 821, got on, and looked back to her while patting the back seat, signaling for her to get on. I could see she wasn’t sure if she wanted to. ‘Don’t worry, it’s just a few blocks -I said- and I’ll go slow.’ I patted the seat again and gave her a reassuring smile. She nodded, walked over to me, put on the helmet and got on. I took her arms and put them tightly around me. ‘Hold on tight’ I told her, and we were off.
Should I continue?