It had been a hell of a night. So horrendous, it had nowhere to go but up. But right now, Amara only wanted to see the bottom of her second madras cocktail to render the buzz needed to decompress.
She ran her own boutique shop, which was usually a smooth operation. However, tonight, her new sales girl was unable to reconcile the closing paperwork and had inadvertently set off the store alarm on her way out numerous times last week. Amara had reluctantly hired the girl only because of her eager can-do attitude, but she was no replacement for Shelly, whom Amara lost to maternity leave.
The shop was small enough that it only required Amara and one other person to relieve her, if needed. In any case, Amara was always willing to spend the six days out of the week the store was open devoted to her 'baby', her business. Lately, she found herself doing more at the shop than her usual managerial/owner tasks, and it was going on Nina's third month. Her nerves were wearing thin, and the satisfaction that she usually derived from a hard day's work was rapidly dwindling.
Such thoughts had been mulling around in Amara's mind since she flicked the switched to the neon 'Closed' sign on her shop door. She had sent Nina home ahead of her. Amara would figure the shit out in the morning.
Tonight, there was relief in knowing she had the freedom to indulge a bit since she kept the shop closed on Sundays. She found herself at 'Votives' on nights like this. True, a glass of wine in the jacuzzi tub at home would be nice, but every now and then the swank red velvet atmosphere of her favorite bar and lounge yielded a comforting escapism.
It was a secluded enough place that she knew she wouldn't be bothered if she didn't want, but a classy enough place to meet someone if she was feeling social. They kept the lights dim there, and keeping to its namesake, there was a simple votive candle arrangement at each of the scarlet covered booths. It was like a scene from her favorite show, 'Mad Men'. Intimate and sexy, down tempo tunes seemed to linger in the air, emanating from an unknown source.
"8 ball, corner pocket," Nathan called out his winning shot at the pool table across from the bar. Shoulda put some money on the fucking game he thought. But then again, he was just blowing off steam with a buddy on a Saturday night. A bet could have made things too serious.
"Damn, they don't believe in light bulbs here do they?" Nathan mused more to himself than anybody as he air targeted his game winning move.
"Fuckhead, the place is called 'Votives', not 'Spotlight'. Besides, lighting didn't handicap your ass from beating mine", Cooper added "this one isolated occasion." He got a kick out of busting Nathan's balls.
"Awww...don't start getting your panties in a knot. I'm in a charitable mood. I'll buy the loser a drink. What'll be, Coop?" Nathan teased in a lisp tone, "a white wine ssssspritzer?"
"No, bitch, that's your drink of choice,"Cooper said mockingly, "---Jack on the rocks."
Nathan propped his pool stick into the holding rack on the wall but not before swatting it towards Cooper as if wielding a bat. Cooper, who had been eying a slender blonde was caught off guard.
"That's two for flinching, fucker." Nathan punched Cooper's shoulder twice in quick succession, pointing his finger admonishingly at Coop's nose. "Tits and a skirt are your downfall, man."
"So you're the pot and I'm the kettle, right?" Coop retorted.
"Whatever, douche bag." Nathan smirked on the way to the bar. As much as he didn't want to admit it, his friend had a point. Nathan's break up was the whole reason they were there. A game of pool and a mind obliterating amount of whiskey was somewhat of a band aid to the open wound Carrie left on his heart.
Finding his girlfriend home early from her late night college accounting class was one thing. Finding her home at her place early with the maintenance guy's dick in her was something different.
When Nathan requested his drink order from the bartender, he was still in an oblivion haze of frustration and pent up rage from the series of events with Carrie. He had just been glancing at the UFC fight on the wall mounted flat screen, looking for distraction from his bleak thoughts, when he began observing the silhouette of a woman about three bar stools down the row from him.
From his angle of view, he could see that she had long, wild dark chocolate curly hair accented with golden highlights, a petite upturned nose, and full pouty lips that rivaled Angelina's. Her skin was like honey. She wore a snug fitting white blouse and a black skirt with a side split high enough to reveal enough smooth caramel thigh to distract the pope.
It was sort of exhilarating to watch the mystery beauty without her knowing. Nathan had a slight streak of voyeur but damn, who didn't or else what kept the porn companies in business? Nathan started to get turned on at the sight of the gorgeous woman, now untucking her blouse from the waist of her skirt, getting comfortable.
Apparently, she planned to hang for a while. So Nathan took his time, waiting out moments to see if the mystery woman had a male companion. But what man in his right mind would leave HER alone??? Nathan's eyes scanned her left hand from the short distance between them. No ring. But that wasn't much relief. In as scandalous a place as Vegas, men and women alike went out sans wedding bands. Hell, it wasn't called 'Sin City' for nothing.
Nathan decided he had bided his time long enough. It was beginning to become a torturous curiosity, the fact that he did not see her fully. Fully naked and crawling towards him on top of the pool table would be nice, but for now a face on meeting would have to do.
Nathan knew how to hold his shit together when it came to women, but this would be a balls-to-the-wall challenge. He approached her.
As if sensing his presence before seeing him, Amara tilted herself to the left on the tall bar stool, hitting Nathan right between the eyes with a smoldering look from her slanted cat like eyes. She reminded him of a young black version of Sophia Loren.
To hell with Helen of Troy! This girl was fucking breath taking, erection inducing. This was the face that could launch a thousand dicks. Sideways, front forward, whatever, this woman was a detonated sex bomb.
She almost robbed his vocal cords of the sound needed to speak. He did NOT want to risk a chirping Peter Brady type incident, so he cleared his throat before he spoke. "I hope your night has improved," Nathan spoke sincerely.
Questioning puzzlement crossed her features. Taking the comment at face value, she nodded slightly, "Thanks, it has. But what made you assume it needed improvement?"
"Well, you obviously came here after a hard night at work," his eyes slowly perused and paused at each feminine curve as if gesturing her attire. "...and you seemed to have placed a sort of invisible 'do not disturb' sign on yourself."
She giggled at that. "Well then, I guess my sign wasn't very effective now was it?"
"Maybe it was to most, but I'm not most people, so I took my chance," he lowered his voice, "and look, it paid off."
"So it seems." Amara was used to all kinds of men flirting with her---young, old, black, white, latin, almost anyone of the male gender imaginable. Usually they came on very cocky, talking down to her as if they already knew they could fuck her and leave her. Or, alternately, they were extremely intimidated by her. This guy didn't seem so usual at all.
His eyes were hazel green, glittered with wit and intelligence, and framed by masculine groomed brows. An aquiline nose, well shaped lips, hair sable brown and close cut. Skin fairly pale, but had the slightest tint of olive to it. Broad shoulders complimented a toned, athletic frame. Nice, very nice, Amara concluded mentally.
Just then, with lousy timing, Nathan spotted Cooper making his way from the semi-enclosed billiard area.
"Jesus, Nate, did you go to fucking Tennessee to ferment the shit yourself?"
Amara giggled. Nathan laughed a bit uncomfortably, waiting for Coop to catch on to the fact that his presence was unwelcomed at the moment. It was as if Nathan silently willed Cooper to see that he was trying to speak with--- damn! he didn't even know her name.
Cooper did a double take when he saw the beautiful female who had snickered at his comment. He introduced himself to cover his stunned reaction. "Fuck, I'm sorry, didn't mean to interrupt. I'm Cooper, Nathan's friend." Cooper went to shake hands with the vixen.
"I'm Amara," she said while placing her delicate hand in Coop's.
Nate felt a pang of jealousy that the siren gave her name to Cooper first. Shit, he was jealous Coop even touched her hand.
"Damn, Nate, if I were you I would have forgotten my drink too." Cooper said it almost low enough for just Nathan to hear. "Well," Coop slapped Nate's back in friendly gesture as he announced "I'm out, bro. I'm fucking beat. Later."
