Minarette was the center of the Universe. I’d never seen such a stunning creature. I remember the night the club opened vividly. Music cranked and thumped. Everyone was having a good time. The place was packed with beautiful people. Minarette’s magnetic smile stood out. She seemed to be from another timeless place and era. Everyone was drawn to her.
All the focus did not go unnoticed among the girls, either. Some of them wanted to be near her, but there were others stalking along the sidelines, sneering and sipping their drinks—eyeing her like cheetahs tracking a gazelle.
The big guy in town—the one all the girls wanted to be with and all the guys wanted to be like—was this dude named Badger. He’d been sitting next to his girl, Tracy, watching the whole thing go down. After Tracy headed off to the ladies’ room, what did brilliant old Badger do? Headed over to Minarette and her entourage to introduce himself. He hung over there, laughed it up, while Minarette flirted, smiled and loved his attention.
Tracy rushed out of the bathroom, didn’t see Badger where she’d last left him, then spotted him with the object of her venom. She mouthed something like, “Oh, hells to the no”, and marched on over.
By now everyone in the general vicinity was watching things go down, you know, enjoying the real-life reality show unfolding in front of them in 3-D.
Minarette looked like she was trying to play it off, shrugged and turned toward a bald, scary, intimidating son of a gun next to her. He wasn’t amused.
Tracy got up in Minarette’s face. To her credit, Minarette just put out her hand and pointed her thumbs toward Captain Intimidation. That’s her guy, it seemed. Buzz off. Or else. Badger tried to pull Tracy away. Tracy, used to being the Queen of Sheba of our world, didn’t back down. Nope.
She swung at Minarette.
Freaking hit her in the side of the head.
For a second we all thought Minarette was going to go down.
Captain Intimidation didn’t budge. Obviously, he knew he didn’t need to.
Minarette recovered. Her chin lowered; her eyes looked like they would catch fire. She took a swing. It was unnaturally swift.
Tracy took Minarette’s hit in the mouth. Before she dropped, her nose exploded like a bloody sprinkler. It was everywhere, spraying all over everyone nearby.
She stumbled back three loping steps, trying real hard to keep her balance.
Didn’t work.
On the ground, Tracy held her face. Somehow, over the obnoxiously loud EDM, we all heard her whimpering. Badger hurried over, trying to comfort her, but she wasn’t having him. Not at first. She eventually relented, letting him lift her by the crux of the arm before leading her out. The folks that got hit with her blood scrambled away.
Minarette went on talking to her entourage without missing another beat. The big guy stared at me because he saw me staring at her. Even with his sunglasses on, I knew he’d caught on to me. I tried to watch them without really watching them. Didn’t work.
Later on we learned Tracy was rewarded with a broken nose and two lost upper teeth for her bravado.
Me? I fell head over heels in love.