It's been five long months since my boyfriend Oliver has been on tour and tonight was his first night back. His band Infinity was playing at this quaint little African Restaurant/club called The Blue Nile located in Minneapolis, and I was more than excited to meet him and the rest of the band there.
I wanted to make sure he appreciated what he had missed the last five months so I dressed to kill. I smiled in confidence as I walked the distance from the parking ramp to the club as I saw the mouths of many men and some women drop in admiration. My short leather halter dress with the lace-up front matched with thigh high self-holding fishnets and black strappy heels got everyone's attention. Not to mention my long loosely curled hair bouncing against the silky smooth skin on my back and bare shoulders. I liked the attention I was getting, but I only really cared about the reaction of one, my dear Oliver.
I walked into the club and admired the décor. The club section of the joint was fairly small yet the ambiance was amazing. The white stucco walls were covered with the most unique tribal murals painted on them and the lighting was dim but not too dim. The wonderful smells coming from the kitchen also helped to create a comfortable yet hip environment. I didn't see Oliver or any of the other guys at first but I saw my best friend Julia at a table sipping on her favorite drink, captain and coke. I snuck up behind her and gently tickled her sides.
She let out a small screech and turned around to see me smiling at her with my famous impish smile.
"Tori you bitch!" She cried out playfully.
"You say that as if it's a bad thing!" I said as I sat next to her.
"So Julia, did you come in with the boys?"
"Of course, I may as well; Jon and I live together after all." She said referring to her boyfriend Jon, the lead singer of Infinity and Oliver's best friend.
"Where are they? I miss Oliver so much that I want to rape him right here right now!"
"Tori, he feels the same way. You are all he talked about on the way here. Tori this and Tori that. You know I love you Tori but I almost smacked him for talking about you so much."
"Well, where are they?" I asked her again.
"Right behind you." A male voice said from behind me.
"OLIVER!" I screamed as I literally jumped out of my seat and into his arms.
He picked me up and hugged me so tightly for a moment I couldn't breathe.
"Did you miss me?" I asked as I looked deeply into his blue eyes.
"Fuck you for even asking that, you know I did!"
Together in unison we leaned in and gave each other a much needed deep kiss.
We stood there and made out right there on the club floor, my body trembling as his hands slid over the leather on my curves, prompting me to cast a soft moan into his mouth. We were interrupted by Julia's voice.
"Alright kids, I know you haven't seen each other in a while but this is a club not a brothel." Even though Julia was a voyeur, she wasn't much for public display of affection.
Infinity was to play first that night so the guys sauntered off to make sure everything was set up and ready to go. Julia and I went to the bar to get a couple drinks. As we waited for the bartender, I noticed Julia had a shocked look and a blank stare on her face.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Tori, that guy across from us at the bar, isn't that your old internet friend from California?"
My eyes widened as I shot a look to the other side of the bar and sure enough, there was my asshole former pen pal Ace.
I had stopped talking to Ace just a couple months before I got together with Oliver. I must admit one of the things that attracted me to Oliver in the first place was that he resembled Ace quite a bit. Both of them were tall and a bit underweight with dark blonde hair and glasses, a bit on the computer nerd side. They were both highly intelligent like computer nerds too, yet a bit more on the devious side. Oliver was much more friendly though where as Ace was a bit anti-social. His anti-social and scathing behavior is what ended our long distance friendship.
I tried not to maintain eye contact with him as I did not want to encourage his presence. I didn't know what he was doing here in Minnesota but I am sure it had to do with me and I was worried.
"Oh shit, here he comes!" Julia whispered to me.
As I looked up to see his empty barstool it was too late.
"Hello Tori." I heard his all too familiar deep sarcastic voice behind me.
"Hi Ace." I said returning his bitter tone.
"I'll go grab our table before someone else takes it." Said Julia as she walked away, glaring at Ace with a hateful look in her eyes.
Ace snickered at Julia's stare and returned his eyes to my hateful glare. Seeing my anger caused his already gleaming evil smile to spread further on his face.
"Well my old friend, it's been awhile hasn't it sweetheart." He said.
"Almost a year, not long enough!" I replied.
"Don't kid yourself Tori, I know you miss me." He replied in his cold hearted matter of fact tone.
"What makes you think I miss you?" I snapped.
"Just look at your boyfriend. He is nothing but a cheap imitation of me."
"Get off yourself Ace, you're not that great!"
"Keep telling yourself that luv, you'll be in my arms soon enough."
He quickly caressed my cheek with his right hand and walked away, still snickering.
I was so mad, not only mad because of his showing up here with the obvious attempt at coming here to regain my affections, but also the fact that as usual he was right. As much as he pissed me off, I did miss him.
As I returned to the table Infinity was starting their set so I didn't have a chance to tell Julia what had happened between me and Ace. I looked at Oliver on stage to see his facial expressions, hoping that he didn't see me talking to Ace. Oliver caught my glance and winked at me. I was sure at that moment that he hadn't seen anything. I had briefly mentioned Ace to him before, but only that I had a friend in California I had lost touch with. He knew nothing of the online romance or the bitter end of our friendship.
I tried to get Ace out of my mind and enjoy the music but I kept feeling his hot telepathic stare on the back of my neck. Sure enough every time I looked behind me Ace was sitting there with his beer in hand and a sly look on his face. He was looking me up and down, claiming me with his eyes. I knew our exchange of words wasn't the last of him; Ace always had more tricks up his sleeves.
As soon as Infinity's set was over I grabbed Julia's arm and drug her to the ladies room.
"The nerve of that jerk!" I screamed.
"What the fuck does he want?" Julia asked.
"He wants me!"
"Well, what exactly did he say?"
"He said that the only reason I am going out with Oliver is because Oliver is a cheap imitation of him." I replied.
"Is he Tori?"
"Look Julia, I am well aware that they both look alike, and yes I am attracted to that particular look, but I love Oliver. You should know that."
"Tori, you and I have been friends long before either of us got hooked up with Oliver and Jon and I am going to continue being your friend no matter what. I was there for you when Ace pulled his crap and I don't want to see him hurt you. He is a selfish jerk who only cares about himself."
"I know Julia, but what am I going to do? You know he isn't going to let this all go. He came up here for a reason and he is determined."
"Well, we will just have to ignore him as much as possible and go with the flow. If he does start shit just tell Oliver the truth, you aren't doing anything wrong. You know I have your back anyways, I am your star witness girl."
"Thanks Julia, this is why you are my best friend." I said and hugged her tightly.
We left the ladies room together hand in hand as best friends and both stopped dead in our tracks as we looked towards our table in sheer horror. There was Oliver chatting it up with Ace over a couple of beers.
"I am gonna fucking kill him Julia, I swear to God!" I whispered to my friend.
"Just keep your cool okay, let's go deal with this." She replied.
We calmly walked over to the table as if we didn't know anything. One thing that comforted me was that I knew how Ace's sick mind worked and I knew that he most likely didn't want Oliver to know much about the nature of our relationship either.
I snuck behind Oliver and wrapped my arms lovingly around his neck, putting on a show for Ace to show him how dedicated I was to my man. Ace knew what I was doing and he just looked at me with that sarcastic evil smile that had been glued on his face all night so far.
Oliver looked up at me, "Tori, you didn't tell me that your old friend was going to be in town."
"I didn't know he was going to be in town." I replied as I circled around Oliver's chair and sat in his lap, playfully crossing my legs in front of Ace who was sitting in a chair facing Oliver. "When did you get in town Ace?" I asked trying to act dumb.
"Just a few hours ago, I basically got off the plane and came right over."
"What made you want to come to Minnesota?" Julia asked him in an interrogating tone.
"Well, I haven't heard from Tori for awhile. I heard she was seeing this guy in a local band called Infinity, I had a little vacation time so I came to see them."
"I see." Julia said. "I'm gonna go see what Jon is doing."
Tori looked at her friend, pleading with her eyes, asking her not to leave her there alone. Julia just shrugged and walked away.
"So where are you staying?" Oliver asked
"Well, I'm a spur of the moment type of guy; I didn't really make any plans. I was thinking I would just see if any hotels have any openings after the show."
