It was after three in the morning when she’d finally made her exit. She hadn't wanted to leave, but the night would end, with or without her approval. Even the hardcore bar flies had long since stumbled from the building and Jess saw the bartender blowing out candles on empty tables. When she headed to the door, the quartet in the corner was approaching, apparently reaching a similar conclusion.
She should have been paying attention to her own steps, but Jess’s eyes were transfixed on the foursome and the way they moved in unison towards her. Her foot caught the bar stool closest to the door, and she clutched the edge of the counter, to prevent her body from spilling onto the concrete for a second time in one evening. She managed to save herself, but her purse was a casualty of her clumsiness and lay on the floor taunting her. She leaned over mumbling and wishing she could crawl back to her chair for a do over. “What an idiot.”
She heard a low chuckle and glanced up to see the stranger with dark hair standing over her. As her face heated with embarrassment, beads of sweat formed at her hairline. She assumed it would have been too much for God to spare her this one time. Exasperated with her lack of social graces, she exhaled and her breath formed in a cloud of vapor. The wind blowing through the open door was hot, and Jess regretted the mixed drink she ordered just before getting up, as it was playing with her mental stability. Her Coach bag dangled from his steady hand, and his smile stabbed at the bit of dignity she had managed to salvage.
Jess gazed up and was granted a better view of the unnamed hue that tinted his eyes. She saw the color rock within its borders in tiny waves. The smile left his lips, and when she reached out a trembling hand to take the purse, he turned and left her there without a word.
Less than an hour before, she had seen him knock a guy from his chair with one swift motion. It happened so fast that Jess almost missed the whole thing. She wasn’t distressed by the display, because the guy he hit had cornered her in the bathroom. He’d leaned into her, his cologne making her eyes burn, and breathed on her neck. A wicked little laugh escaped his lips as his fingers brushed over her arm and she shivered. Then, as though he hadn’t followed her, he glanced around declaring he had drifted into the wrong restroom.
She heard him call the brothers by name. Blue-eyes was Justin. His brothers were Blake, Lathan and Rory. Jess filed these names neatly into her memory bank. The newcomer’s name was Dawson. Justin spat it at the kid right before he knocked him to the ground. Although, she probably should have had sympathy for the boy, she didn’t. The way he raided her confidence while restraining her in the confines of the bathroom, made the tiny hairs on her neck stand on end, and he deserved the degradation.
On the street outside, Vi stood with Marcus and Jeremy, waving madly. “Hey you! Come to the casino tomorrow. Don’t say no, just say you’ll go.” Vi held Jess’ hands and bounced around like a teenager.
Jess laughed and imitated her jig. “Fine, fine, I’ll go. See this?” She pointed to the giant dark stain on her rear. “This is why I couldn’t leave my chair all night.”
“Yeah, we’ll work on your style.” Vi kissed her cheek before skipping off in the opposite direction.
Finally back at the apartment she couldn’t quite call home yet, Jess slid under the sheets then kicked her legs and squealed. First finding a friend, and then seeing mystery in Justin’s indigo eyes made her heart feel like it was floating. Only hours before, she had set out to relieve herself of depression. Vi was a step in the right direction. Jess decided to share her enthusiasm with Jordan and grabbed her cell phone from the night table.
The phone rang twice then went to voicemail. She didn’t say what she wanted; instead, she just asked him to call and lay staring at the ceiling tiles above her bed. The sound of rain on the tin roof did not lull her to sleep now, as it sometimes had. Jess had become someone different inside the safe harbor of Dez’s. The guilt and grief which had been sewn into her being had evaporated in the hours she'd passed there. Her brain became preoccupied with the people who frequented the place, and she wondered if external forces conspired to bring souls together. Jess reminded herself she couldn’t hedge her happiness on others, but Vi was just what she needed. She only hoped the girl was truly what she seemed, because people, in general, tended to be extraordinarily adept at hiding the ugliness which dwelled in them.
The drum of the rain on the roof fell silent. She counted in her head trying to block out thoughts of new people and their potential to impact her life, but they persisted. Inside that bar, the air felt easier to breathe, and Jess knew it hadn’t been an illusion. There was something unique about Justin. She couldn’t yet identify it, but he was almost too beautiful. A blush bloomed on her cheeks as she thought about him having been a witness to her humiliation.
Sometime around sunrise, sleep finally came, and Jess dreamed of her mother. Her mind reeled her back to her childhood, and into the arms of the person, she trusted most. She could smell her perfume and hear her laugh, and for a time, she believed the world in her head was real. She felt this way until her eyes opened, and she was thrust back into a reality where her mother and father were dead.