Mark Thomas casually looked around and took a long drag on his cigarette. He was standing outside the seediest bar in all of San Diego, and didn't even know why. He flicked his cigarette onto the ground, and walked into the small, smoky, bar, and suddenly wanted to leave.
Mark was 6'2", and a slender 170. He had a pale complexion, and sandy blonde hair, with ocean blue eyes. The reason he wanted to leave, was because, he was the only white person in the whole place.
He was deep in the Mexican district of San Diego, and every person in here was some form or other of Latin. There were short older Latinos who worked in the warehouses; there were tall, lean Latino boys in the US Navy, and a collection of overweight Latina mothers who were sitting in a corner of the bar, whispering to themselves in hurried Spanish. To top it all off, a short, bald Latino man was behind the bar, and he looked old enough to have fought at the Alamo.
The room was small, smaller than most public school classrooms, and a seedy, worn down bar and her stools took up most of the room. A few grungy tables with even grungier chairs filled the other half. Mark, the tall, conservatively dressed white man wondered what in the hell he was doing here, and then he knew it.
In the corner, she was. She was a tall Latina woman, with beautiful brown skin, and long flowing brown hair. She was wearing a skin tight red dress that showed enough cleavage of her ample, full breasts, and her luscious ass. She had an exotic tattoo of a green snake, which started at her neck, and slid, down her chest, slipping below the cleavage line of her dress.
She was sitting alone, with an empty shot glass in front of her, and a sad look on her face. She was Mark's man. Mark strutted across the bar, and sat down on the barstool next to her. Nobody bothered to look at him, but he knew everybody in the bar was looking at him. He sat next to the woman and smiled. "Hey there," he said with a cocky grin.
She didn't even turn her head. "
Ningรบn inglรฉs, usted hรญbrido
," she replied in Spanish, still not even glancing at him from the corner of her eye. Mark smiled and turned from her to the bar, and smiled.
"You want a drink? Sure," Mark said, waving the short bartender over. "Two shots of whatever she had," he said to the barman. He nodded, and scurried off to prepare the shots.
Finally, the beautiful Latina woman turned and looked at him, with a shocked look on her face that said,
how dare you
? Mark returned her look with a smile. She turned back to her cigarette and ash tray and said, "I'm not looking for company," she said curtly.
"Neither am I," Mark said, still not even losing a touch of his friendly smile. Two shot glasses of a clear liquid were placed in front of them, and Mark tossed a twenty dollar bill on the bar.
He picked up the glass, "Cheers. I'm Mark." he offered, before quickly downing the clear liquid. If he hadn't been trying to impress her, he would have spit it out. It was the strongest thing he had ever drank, and tasted like shit.
She gave him another glare, and then a smile crossed her lush lips. "Fine, Mark. I'm Lucia. Thanks for the drink," she said, before grabbing the glass, and downing it. She had an exotic gold ring on her middle finger that made a clank noise on the glass when she picked up and set down the shot.
"Nice ring? From your boyfriend?" Mark asked, trying to sound casual.
"From an asshole," Lucia offered a hint of anger in her words.
"I'm sorry?"
"Don't be," she said, brushing her hair from her eyes, to better stare at Mark with her shiny, yet sad, brown eyes. "Tell me, Mark, what brings a white boy like you to a place like this? You won't find drugs here," she said, still slightly offensive.
"I'm not looking for drugs..." Mark said, "or whores," he said, predicting her next retort.
"When... what are you here for?" Lucia demanded.
"Just some company," Mark said with a grin, waving to the bartender he wanted a second round of drinks. "What are you doing here?" She practically rolled her eyes at him.
"Drinking. What does it look like? I'm not the one out of my element, here," she said with a slight Latin accent.
"Drinking away your troubles, I see," Mark said while the barman set their next round down.
"Listen, I'm not interested in sex with you," she said, before casually downing the fresh shot. Mark smiled and followed suit.
"Not yet, anyway. Give it time," he said. Her jaw dropped, and she started at him for a moment.
"You either have big
cojones
, or no manners," Lucia said.
"Maybe both," Mark said.
Lucia gave him a seductive smile, "Buy me another drink, and maybe I'll find out."
"About the manners?"
"No, the