Dedication: This story is for Margaret and it's been written for multiple reasons. 1) as an I'm sorry for being out of the loop for a bit. 2) As a belated Christmas, Birthday and Valentine's day present. 3) I had to write this cause it was floating through my brain for a bit, well cause it's featuring one of my favorite Merry Men!
A/N 2: Ok so I wrote this a long long time ago, begining of this year to post for Valentine's day for Margaret but didn't cause of my own reasons so sorry for the delay... but it's getting posted now! Also characters are "THAT" woman's the story is mine!
I am a freakin' stereotypical divorce woman. It's Valentine's Day and I am sitting in a bar. Damn how did I become this sad and lonely woman I think as I down my pina colda. What just because I'm lonely and it's the day to celebrate love I can't enjoy a tropical drink to drown my sorrows in, geez guess with this winter being at all time lows a girl can't have a fruity cocktail to remind her of a warm tropical destination. I look up to see if I can get the bartenders attention for a refill and I notice the bar is kind of empty. This must not be the ideal place to be in 'love'. There are a couple sitting at one of the tables and they look just as miserable. Neither one of them are talking to each other and they are both on their smart phones looking like they want to be anywhere but here with each other. I look and they are wearing matching wedding rings. I wonder if I would have been one half of that couple had I stayed married to the 'Dick'. Hmmm suddenly I'm not as sad as I was, but I am still lonely. As I am scanning the room trying not to obliviously people watch, I then see the only other customer besides myself and the unhappily married couple, I see a Hispanic man with tattoos sitting at the other end of the bar. The bartender has already noticed my empty glass and is bringing me my refill.
While I continue to drink my second drink of the evening I keep an eye on the few patrons while pretending to watch TV. There really isn't anything exciting going on with either of them. All of a sudden four big guys come into the bar not that any of them make any noise but the size of them and being all dressed in black is what makes the commotion. All of them are good looking and built with an underlying sense of mystery and bad assery flowing through them. Each of them scan the bar then head over to the tattooed guy. Well it looks like this bar just got entertaining, it is so hard not to stare at these men but I do seem to be able to keep them in my peripheral vision. They didn't say much to each other, but did seem to order from the bartender. Not even 5 minutes later there were six shot glasses lined up with tequila being liberally poured into them then distributed amongst them. The six glasses was sat at an empty stool. None of them said anything but just clinked glasses then down the contents. They lined their glasses up again to be set up for another round. They did this three more times, then the guys who joined the guy got up and left one at a time. At this point it seemed to be such a strange ceremony that I was blatantly staring. After they had all left the only remaining guy was the original guy that was here when they got here. He looked up straight into my eyes, they were intense. I am unsure if those eyes were naturally that intense, or if it was because I had intruded on their moment by being so obvious to him. I figured I would make a mends by smiling. He just gave me a short nod then got up threw some money onto the bar to cover the shots and walked out the door.
When the clock struck midnight I knew that this craptastic hallmark holiday was over and I could stop my pity party and head back home to the current male in my life, Rex the Hamster. He may not be much to look at and hell he's a bit short on conversation skills but he loves me and I love him. I walked to my p.o.s. of a car. I looked everywhere for my keys, they weren't in my pocket or in my purse. I looked into the window and noticed they were still in the ignition. Now while I wasn't smart enough to take my keys with me, I was smart enough to lock the car. Fan-fucking-tastic and the hits keep coming, I freaking locked my keys in my car, where in the hell is my brain? I let out a groan and sunk down to the ground.
"Chica, do you need some help?" It was my tattooed intense guy from the bar.
"Umm, I seem to have locked myself out of my car." I shrugged and spoke quietly.
"I can pop your lock if you want." He responded.
"I don't want to be too much of an inconvenience." I worried. "I mean it's Valetine's Day, I'm sure you someone better to spend it with."
"No plans, couldn't imagine a better way to this year then to help such a mujer hermosa." He said.
"A what?" I asked confused.
He step closer to me and stared with those intense eyes. "Mujer Hermosa, a beautiful woman." He translated.
I blushed and tried to look away from him, but he was so mesmerizing.
"So do you want me to pop it for you?" he asked.
"Um yea ok" I answered not able to look him in the eye but could feel that I was getting to be a deeper shade of red on my cheeks.
He chuckled then walked over to my car. Two seconds later my door was open and the keys were dangling from his fingers.
"WOW, that was quick. Thank you so much!" I said.
"No problemo, I would hate to have such a lady as yourself stranded out here, this is not the place for you little one." his voice was quiet but the strength that he held radiated from him. I should have been scared, but I wasn't it was like some I had some sort of spidey sense that was letting me know that this man wouldn't harm me, geez how naive am I to think that but even worse I was going to listen to this spidey sense.
"Again thank you, my name is Stephanie, Stephanie Plum" I held out my hand to be shook.
He held my hand in his and kissed the back of it, then looked up into my eyes. The soft chocolate brown of his eyes were encased one on eye with his tattooed teardrop. "My name is Hector."