and I could hopefully put up with their drunken behavior.
"Hello." I said. "Can I get you guys anything?"
A man in the corner of the room, not even at the table whisteled at me.
"Umm.." One of the men said. "I guess we'll all just have beers, right guys?"
They all nodded their heads and I went over to the bar to get their order. I walked back and heard more incessant whistels, and put the drinks on the table. They said thank you and I walked away. A few feet away from the table the man that had been eyeing me and whistling at me all night stopped me in my tracks.
"Excuse me," He said. Obviously he meant to stop me.
"It's okay," I said, trying to make my way around him.
"What's you name?" He stood in my way again.
"Let me by please, I need to get back to work."
His face grew mean and he glared at me. "I just asked you your name. You can't answer that?"
I grew scared. "Kirsten,"
His expression changed again and he had a smile on his face. "Kirsten? Great name. What do you say I buy you a drink?"
"I'm working. Sorry." I almost made my way past him when he grabbed my arm.
"Hey. It's just a drink."
"Please, sir." I tried to take my arm away from him but he wouldn't let go.
"Hey! Let her go." A different man from the table I was just serving got up and was now in the guys face. The man let go of my arm and faced the other guy.
"Excuse me?" He said clenching his fists. "Who the hell are you?"
"Leave her alone."
"Bug off bud. I saw her first."
"I said, leave her alone."
The man from the table was taken off guard when the other man hit him. They started fighting and rolling around on the ground. "Security!" I called. Other men were trying to break them up, but nothing was working. The security guardsfinally came and broke them up. They threw out the bastard who was flirting with me and the other man went back to his table. I figured I owed him a thank you so I went back to their table.
"Excuse me?" He turned towards me. "Thank you for that."
"It wasn't a problem." He turned back to his friends.
I don't know why, but I didn't want to leave the table. There was something about this man that made him different from the other men at this bar. He noticed me standing there still and turned back towards me.
"Can I help you with something?" He asked nicely.
"What? Oh. Um. No thanks. Say, what's your name?" I was curiours now.
"Sandy. Sandy Cohen. What's your name?"
"Kirsten. Kirsten Nichol."
"Well it's nice to meet you Kirsten."
"It's nice to meet you too."
My boss saw me chatting with Sandy and not working, he yelled at me to get back to work.
"Sorry, I have to get back to work. Thank you so much for doing that for me. Are you okay?"
He nodded his head. "Just a few scrathes."
"Are you sure?"
"Yup. But um...I guess i'll maybe see you some other time?"
I nodded my head. "Yeah. Um...Bye Sandy."
"Bye Kirsten."
I walked away and looked back at him when I was about half way across the room. He was watching me walk away. That's good. Right?
After my shift was done i walked outside. It had started raining and I was standing by the curb trying to get a cab. I was soaking wet and I still hadn't gotten one when Sandy walked out of the bar.
"Hey." He said walking over to me. He opened up his umbrella and offered to let me stand under it with him.
"Hey. Thanks." I smiled at him.
"You're never going to get a cab at this time of the night." He pointed out. "You want a ride?"
I had just met this man but there was something different about him. Millions of other men have asked to give me a ride home but this was different. I actually wanted to go. But what if he was just like the other guys and just wanted to get me in bed? No. He wasn't like that.
Was he?
"Um. No that's okay. I can just walk home..."
"In the rain?" I realized how dumb that was of me to say after he said that.
"Uh...yeah. I love the rain." Wow, i'm really stupid.
"Well then i'll walk you. So you don't get wet."
I was about to tell him no, but I actually wanted to walk with him. "Okay."
We started walking to my apartment and I learned a lot about this man. He use to live in the Bronx, his mom is a social worker and completly hates California. He's here on a scholarship and he has a brother and a sister. He's 3 years older then me too, but who cares right?
I told him a lot about myself too. I told him I was from Newport Beach, and I had one sister, my dad worked for a company called the Newport Group, and I'm here just to get away from my family and my old life.
"So you just want a completly different life?" He asked.
"Well no. I love my family, don't get me wrong, but I just want to see something outside the Newport Beach bubble."
"The newport beach bubble?" He chuckled.
"Yeah." I never realized how dumb that actually sounded. "They call it that. If you lived there you would know why."
"Probably." He said. "So...um." I noticed him hesitating. "Do you have a boyfriend?"
That took me off guard. "No." I said, just plain and simple.
"Oh."
I was curious now. "Do you have a girlfriend?"
"No." He said that quite quickly.
"Oh. Well this is me." I said pointing to the apartment above.
He nodded and looked at me. "Well I guess I'll hopefully see you around."
"Yeah." I really wanted him to come up but would that be sudden? I've only known him for the night. Screw it. "You want to come up? Have some coffee or something?"
He smiled. "I'd love too."
We made our way up the stairs and we went into my apartment. Thankfully it was clean. I had cleaned it that morning. I went into the bathroom and got some towels since we were soaking wet. I came back into the living room and noticed him still standing at the front door over the welcome mat. He was trying not to get my carpet wet. He's so sweet.
"You can come in you know?" I smiled at him and handed him the towewl.
"I don't want to get your apartment wet." He dried off and then walked inside. "You have a really nice apartment."
"Thank you. Would you like some coffee?"
He nodded his head and I went into the kitchen and put on the coffee pot.
"I'm going to go change real fast. Do you want something to change into? Like maybe a t-shirt?"
He shook his head. "No thanks i'm fine."
I walked into my bedroom and put on my pjs. I washed my face and put up my hair too. I walked into the living room and he was still sitting there. I smiled.
I got two cups of coffe and handed one then joined him on the couch. "So..."
He just nodded his head. "So why don't you have a boyfriend?"
That was a little sudden. Should I tell him? "Well. I did. But he cheated on me and got a girl pregnant...so..."
"Oh. I'm sorrry. I shouldn't have asked."
"No. It's okay, really." I hesitated. "So do you mind me asking why you don't have a girl friend?"
His gaze fell to the floor. "Oh. I'm sorry, you don't have to answer that."
"No, It's okay. I had a girlfriend. Actually we were engaged. But, I don't know..." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "An accident happened and she dissapeared without a word."
By the end of his story, i realized my hand was up to my mouth. "Oh wow. I'm really sorry."
"Its okay. It happened awhile ago..."
"So you're over it?"
"Basically." I saw him glance at the clock. "Well I guess I should get going."
I walked him to the door and opened it. "I'm glad you came up."
"Me too. Hey, do you think I could call you sometime?"
I smiled. "Sure. Let me write you my number." I got a piece of paper and wrote down my number for him.
"Thanks." He put the paper in his pocket. "So...Bye?"
"Bye." I said. He tured around to walk away but then turned around again. He started to lean towards me.
"Can I kiss you?" He asked. He's such a gentelman.
"I thought you'd never ask." He leaned in and gave me a gentle kiss.
"So i'll see you around? I'll call tomorrow."
"Ok. You better call me."
He smiled. "Oh I will." He kissed me one last time before walking out the door.