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“Yes... unless you’re busy. I don’t mean to interrupt,” I added with a charming smile, my hand still extended. I was confident she wouldn’t decline.
“Okay, sure,” she agreed as she took my hand and stood.
“What’s your name?” I asked her once we got away from the others.
“I’m Ashley,” she said, smiling nervously.
“Well, Ashley, I hope you don’t mind. You looked a little bit miserable sitting over there, so I thought I’d see if you’d like to dance.” I motioned to the dance floor. There was already a crowd dancing.
“Sure, I’d love to,” she answered, so we entered the dance floor and danced a couple of songs.
I stole a couple of glances at Zia when I could get away with it, not wanting to be rude to Ashley, but also not wanting to get her hopes up that this was going anywhere.
At the end of the second song, I asked her if she wanted to sit down, so we walked off and sat in a quiet corner away from the crowd and away from her friends.
“Who are the girls you’re here with? They don’t really seem like your style,” I guessed, of course, not knowing enough about Ashley to really know what her style was.
She gave me a guilty smile. “It’s that obvious, huh?”
“A little,” I admitted.
She explained, “To be honest, I just broke up with my boyfriend a few days ago, so my roommates offered to bring me out tonight to take my mind off of things. They really did mean well.”
“Oh, I’m sorry about the break-up,” I sympathized, silently hoping she wasn’t going to transfer her feelings to me, but feeling bad for her at the same time.
Ashley sighed. “No need to be sorry. I know they can’t all last forever. To be fair, though, you should know that I’m not in a place where I feel like I’m ready to move on yet.” She looked up at me, as though seeking my approval that this was okay.
Relieved, I told her, “I understand. Really, it’s okay. Since we’re being so honest, I’m not exactly in a place where I’m looking for anyone, either.”
“You had a break-up recently, too?” she asked.
“No, not a break-up. There’s just a girl who I’m really into, and we’re g
reat friends. But I want to be more than friends, and I’m not sure she feels the same about me,” I explained, feeling strange about opening up to a complete stranger about it.
If there was one thing I got out of all of this, I realized, it was that there was a whole world of women out there who were different and interesting, beautiful in their own rights, that I was completely oblivious to before Zia came along. Now that my eyes were opened to them, all I wanted to see was Zia.
I told Ashley it was nice to meet her and excused myself to head back over to our table, but when I got back over there, the table was empty. I sat down for a few seconds looking around, assuming that Zia had gone to the restroom, but I wondered where Cason had gone.
A chill ran through me as I suddenly got the feeling that something was wrong. I scanned the room looking for Zia, and my eyes closed in on the sight of her stumbling to the exit, strung limply on Cason’s arm and barely able to hold her eyes open.
Knowing that Zia never drank enough to get stumbling drunk like that, I knew right then that she had been drugged.
Fuck!
I immediately saw red, and instinctively shot up out of my chair, running toward Zia. I would kill this motherfucker before I let him leave with her.
On my way to her, I could see her weak and futile attempts to get away from him as she shook her head in feeble protest, a look of panic spreading across her beautiful features. I couldn’t get to her soon enough! I wanted to rip Cason’s arms off his body for touching her like that.
Running through the crowd of people, not caring who I had to push out of my way, I made it to Zia and grabbed her with both hands, pulling her away from him. He must have had a tight grip on her, because as I pulled her to me, Cason was pulled in my direction.
This gave me the angle I needed as I reared my arm back and threw a fist as hard as I could muster, ready to beat this sorry bastard to a pulp. My fist connected with Cason’s jaw and his face was pushed to the side in the follow-through.
I expected Cason would try to fight back, and I was ready for it, ready to go at him, but the coward stood dazed for the briefest second before putting both hands up in surrender, backing away, and disappearing into the crowd of onlookers now circled around us.
I turned back to Zia just in time to catch her in my arms as she collapsed, no longer able to stand on her own and now, no longer conscious.
I picked her up and made our way to the exit. I had to get her to the hospital and I couldn’t wait for someone to call an ambulance. My truck was right outside.
