Alicia walked out of the bathroom like she owned the entire club, she strutted down the hall with a seductive swagger in her hips and passed the folded up paper towel to the tall man that had been following her. She didn't wait for him to react but kept walking and headed into the crowd towards the front door. She passed the DJ booth and waved at Andre motioning that she was going to leave and that she'd call him later.
Once she got outside she nodded at the bouncer and paused long enough for her stalker to catch up to her. Then she headed towards the small parking lot that her motorcycle was in and leaned against the wall to wait for him. He came around the corner of the building and smiled at her, waving the note on the folded paper towel.
She'd figured that it would probably be best to just confront the man and if she had the backup of the bouncers she'd probably be better off than being lost in the crowd inside. Plus she could always make a break for the motorcycle and hopefully leave the creep in the dust. So she found a girl with a purse and a pen in the restroom and swiped a paper towel and scrawled a note on it. 'I'll be outside' was all she'd written but he got the hint.
"So, why are you following me?" she asked in a low voice. No point in worrying the bouncer needlessly.
The man looked at her over the top of his sunglasses and cocked his head as if he wasn't sure what he was seeing was real. "Sati?" he whispered.
She wasn't sure what he'd said, "What?"
He shook his head as if he were trying to clear his vision or something and said the word again a little louder. "Sati? Is it you?"
"Look pal, I don't know what your game is but leave me alone. I know you've been following me and it creeps me out. I'm not interested okay?" She started to go towards the door of the club but realized that he was standing between her and the door.
"Your name is Alicia right?" he asked.
"Whoa, if you're stalking me buddy you'd better back off, I will make you sing soprano and you will not like how I do it. Just leave me alone." She held up her hands defensively wondering if she could get to her bike and some measure of safety.
"Hang on, I won't hurt you. I don't mean you any harm," he kept looking at her over the tops of his glasses and the light was playing tricks on her because she could swear that his eyes were silver. "I'm sorry if I worried you. You look just exactly like someone I knew a long time ago."
She snorted at that remark, "What? Your third grade teacher?"
He chuckled low in his throat and it sounded almost like a growl, "No. I'm a bit older than I look. But you look like this person I knew and, well it kinda threw me for a loop."
"So you decided to stalk me for it? Look pal, a lot of people in this world look alike. I'm not your friend. Now if you'd please get out of my way."
She was almost past the man when he said, "I'm not stalking you. In fact I'm a friend of Amanda and Tabby's. That's how I first saw you."
That got Alicia's attention. "What?" She turned on her heel to face him and was astounded at just how far up she had to look to see his face. Not that she wasn't tall, she was a tad over six feet herself but this guy was a freaking skyscraper.
"I said I'm a friend of Amanda and Tabitha's. If you'd like to call one of them to verify it you're welcome to do so."
She wondered how he knew about her friends but if he had that much information he was either a serious psycho or he was telling the truth. Deciding to call his bluff if he was the psycho option she pulled out her phone and flipped it open.
She'd just scrolled down the directory to Amanda's number when he said, "Wait, call Tabby instead."
"How…?"
He chuckled again, "You didn't scroll very far. But don't call Amanda, it's a weeknight so she's probably asleep already. Call Tabitha instead, she stays up a bit later."
Alicia studied what she could see of his face behind the dark sunglasses and wondered how he knew so much about her and her friends. He was probably telling the truth but something still didn't sit right with her. Call it a hunch but she found Tabitha's number and hit send anyway.
Several rings later Tabitha picked up the phone, very out of breath, "'lo? What do you want?"
"Tab? It's Alicia you got a minute?"
Tabitha fumbled the phone a little and then replied, "Ally? What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong. I just need your help for a minute."
"Okay, what's up?" Tabitha said finally giving her full attention to the phone call.
Alicia looked over at the man again and noticed that he was smiling at her so she turned her back on him and lowered her voice, "Tabby there's this guy here who says he knows you. He's been following me and I'm slightly concerned."
Tabitha gasped as all of her worst thoughts ran to the front of her mind, "What guy? Are you safe?"
Alicia chuckled at her friends concern, "I'm fine but he says he knows you so I was wondering."
"What's his name?"
"I don't know he didn't tell me."
"Okay, describe him to me."
Alicia glanced back over her shoulder at the man who was now leaning against the wall as if he had all the time in the world. She ran her gaze up his body and realized exactly how well he fit into the leather pants he was wearing. "Um, he's tall. I mean really tall. Long hair, looks pretty Goth…"
Tabitha cut her off, "Wait, is he wearing really dark shades? Looks like he's yummy enough to eat?"
"Yes, and hell yes!"
"Ha! Put me on speaker will ya?" Tabitha said and waited patiently as Alicia did just that. "Ash? What the hell are you doing up there? And why are you bothering my friends?"
The man tilted his body away from the wall and laughed, "Hey Tab. Toga Boy home yet?"
Tabitha laughed at the 'toga boy' name. "Yeah he's here and you're interrupting my welcome home celebration by the way. Now tell me why you're stalking my friend."
"As I said, I'm not stalking her. She looks like someone I knew a long time ago and I wanted to get a better look. Besides, she's really a good dancer so…"
Alicia raised her eyebrow at him and then took the phone off speaker. "So I'm not gonna die here am I?"
"No, he's cool."
"You're 100 sure about that?"
Tabitha murmured something to someone else in the room and then said, "I'd stake my life on it. There is no one on the planet safer to be with than Ash. Now if you're done with me, I need to go rip Val's clothes off."
Alicia laughed and spat, "TMI Tabs," before the phone call ended abruptly.
