AUTHOR'S NOTE -- This is a polished draft of a story that I initially published a few years ago.
For anyone who's read this before, the story is exactly the same and is the one that I'm most known for within my small following. I've gone through it and given the document a much-needed polish as there were some typos and inaccuracies that have always driven me crazy and I've been dying to fix them.
Both sequels to this are also being polished in the same way and will be uploaded within a few days.
Thank you to anyone who checks this out for the first time and thanks to everyone who read the original version.
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As he slammed the passenger seat door of the taxi shut, Mark hunched his shoulders as the wind howled and the rain swirled around him. With luck, there were only a few metres of ground to cover before his group of friends reached the entrance to the bar.
It was a nod to their determination to have a few drinks after work on a Friday evening that they even ventured out into such horrible weather. Mark hadn't sprinted since he was a high school student, but he made his way through the puddles at an impressive pace. He caught up with his group just as they made their way through the entrance, each of them relieved to be free of the elements.
The group was six-strong, with Mark and his girlfriend, Jess, joined by four of her closest friends she'd kept since childhood.
He'd long since grown comfortable in their company and each of the girls had forged lasting friendships with him. So much so that their collective social life had settled into a familiar groove. Each Friday night, they'd frequent their favourite pub in the city and stay there until last orders.
But this evening had already forced a change to their well-established routine. The group's favourite bar was undergoing renovations so they had to decide on an alternative. After trying a few other venues, the capacity had already been reached in each of them. Each time, the group returned to their seven-seater taxi and drove off to continue their search. It was after the third different pub couldn't accommodate them that the taxi driver suggested a small rock bar on the outskirts of the City Centre. The group didn't take much convincing as their search had become frustrating and instructed the driver to take them there.
Jess was the first to make her way into the bar and took in the sights around her. There was a real bustling atmosphere with the queue for the bar at least three rows deep. All of the tables and booths were occupied, but there was a significant amount of space for the group to stand at the furthest end of the bar. Jess realised that the area afforded them close proximity to the bar, so seized the opportunity to lead her troops across to it. Their usual haunt was much better lit, this bar was dark and more than a little grubby. The walls were adorned with old posters promoting live music and events from over a year ago, with the paint on the wall having started to flake.
The majority of the customers were sporting jeans and t-shirts, to Jess they seemed to be mainly students. Plenty were tattooed, pierced and quite boisterous. Turning her head to scan the room, there was plenty of raucous laughter from the different tables and booths which dominated the sound of guitars and drums that were playing through the speakers. But it was fine, she figured, they'd be back at their regular venue as soon as it reopened in a few weeks.
Mark used both hands to brush the heaviest raindrops from the chest and sleeves of his coat, reaching to the strap of his shoulder bag before lifting it above his head and sitting it on the floor pressed against the wall. He stood 6'1" tall and was in good shape. His short brown hair sported a longer fringe which he swept back, offering a clear view of his piercing blue eyes. He rarely worked out as he preferred to focus his energies on his office job, but he remained slim. However, it was Mark's face that garnered the most attention, with a cheeky smile that women had always complimented. Indeed, it was that smile, coupled with a cheesy pick-up line, that secured his first date with Jess four years prior. Their relationship had reached the point where his friends and family were starting to anticipate news of a potential engagement.
Their discomfort didn't last for long as they slipped their coats off and gathered their bags in a little pile on the floor with Mark's. Jess and their friend, Anella, snuck into a small gap in the queue for the bar and managed to get served their first round of drinks. Before long, they had settled and started catching up with events of the last week since they last met together.
An hour had passed before Mark noticed the time on his phone when queuing at the bar, it was just after 7:00 p.m. He quite liked the change in venue even if it was a bit louder than he was accustomed to. It was then that he noticed that there was a theme to how the bar staff were dressed. There were four of them tending the bar, two guys and two girls. The guys were wearing black t-shirts with the bar's name and logo on the chest, while the girls wore matching black hoodies with a far smaller logo on the upper left sleeve. Both of the guys were busy serving customers but he couldn't get a good look at the girls as they had their backs to the bar as they restocked trays of glasses.
Jess had kept her eye on Mark at the bar as she grew impatient waiting for her next drink. From the corner of her eye, she was relieved to spot Mark getting served and resumed her conversation with her friends. It was at that point that a stranger went to lift his bag from close to the group's pile before Jess spoke up.
"Oh, be careful, that's my boyfriend's bag. Sorry...", she chirped. Trying to thread the needle between being helpful and overbearing.
Immediately, her friends Anella and Lucy started to giggle and roll their eyes. Lucy even dug an elbow into Pauline's side and repeated what Jess said in a mocking manner. After a few seconds, the stranger retrieved his own bag from the floor and wandered off, allowing Anella to speak freely.
"Jesus, Jess. Can you even go one night without telling random people about your boyfriend?" Anella's tone was playful and it wasn't the first time that she'd poked fun at Jess' seeming overenthusiasm to bring up her relationship with Mark.
As her friends gleefully piled in on top of Anella's joke, Jess felt a familiar tinge of embarrassment in her chest as she realised that she'd been caught out once more. "Come on, I just didn't want him walking away with the wrong bag, I can hardly see in the dark of this place." Jess took a sip of her vodka and lemonade and sat her drink on a thin wooden shelf that ran along the length of the wall.
Pauline smiled, sensing the opportunity to entertain herself. "Yeah, yeah. We know. You just love telling any random stranger all about your perfect man, don't you?" Before glancing towards Anella and Emily, hoping that they'd jump in too.
Jess allowed a smile to form across her face before setting the group straight. "Shut up, Pauline. I don't do it anywhere near as often as you guys say."
