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She got out on the dance floor and let herself go, moving to the music, dancing all the anger and aggression she was feeling. She threw her head back and danced for her very life.
And then she felt Phil’s hand close around her arm. She tried to pull away but he held her tightly, and his eyes were filled with something that looked like hate. “You won’t stop acting like a slut, will you?” he shouted at her.
“Let go!” She yanked her arm away hard and his fingernails left bloody ridges on her arm. He lunged at her and nearly got his arms around her waist, but then he was gone. Sophia whipped around and found herself facing a broad leather-clad back.
Phil was shouting, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying. The man between them said, “You need to calm down, man, and get off this dance floor.”
“Or what?”
“Or I will escort you off.”
The dancing had all but stopped even though the music was still throbbing around them. Phil’s face was contorted with anger.
“You get away from my girlfriend.”
“She doesn’t look like your girlfriend.”
“She’s my fiancée!” Phil insisted, upping the ante.
The guy in leather half turned to Sophia. “Is that true?”
“No it isn’t,” she said just as Phil tried to sucker punch the guy and got elbowed hard in the face. He went down like a bag of rocks.
“Good, then I don’t feel I have to apologize to you for hitting him like that.”
“Not at all.”
By then the bouncers had gotten to the dance floor. For a moment it looked like they were going to throw all three of them out but her leather-clad hero spoke to them for a few moments, and they picked Phil up and dragged him off.
The music stopped and the dancers faded away. Most of them were staring at Sophia as if what happened was her fault.
“You look a little unsteady. Why don’t you come and sit down?”
He escorted her back to her table, held her chair for her, and sat down beside her. “Do you need a drink?” he asked as he shucked his leather jacket and slung it over the back of his chair. It was hard to avoid noticing how handsome he was with his dark, curly hair, pale blue eyes rimmed with thick black lashes, and a mouth that was absolutely sinful. That she could think that way at all after what had just happened rattled her.
“No. I have one.” She reached for the gimlet but he stopped her.
“You don’t want to drink that. He was hanging around the table before he went onto the floor to bother you. I’m not saying he doctored it, but I can’t say for sure.”
It took a moment to sink in. Horrified, Sophia pushed the glass away. “I think I need to go home,” she murmured.
“Do you need a lift?”
“No!” As if she was going to trust a total stranger alone in his car, especially one who looked like a thug with his leather jacket, tattoos and beard stubble. Then she realized how ungrateful she sounded. “I mean—”
“From what I can see you have every right to be suspicious of men. I can call you a cab.”
“I can do it.” She pulled out her phone and used the taxi app to book a cab. “Fifteen or twenty minutes,” she said with a sigh. “Maybe I could use a drink. Do you mind?”
“Not at all. Happy to,” he told her. “Be right back.”
As soon as he had faded into the crowd around the bar, Sophia grabbed her purse and fled. Even if he was completely harmless, the last thing she wanted was to deal with another man that night. She was less-than-thrilled about men in general just then.
She’d lied to him about the cab in order to get away. The estimate had been five minutes, and the cab was pulling up to the curb as she left the club. She got in and said “Go!” and the driver peeled away from the curb. Sophia looked out the back window a couple of times to make sure no one was following, and thought, Damn Phil for making me so paranoid.
She’d never been that way. Before Phil, Sophia had been placid, carefree. She’d had a pleasant suburban childhood, and her first love had, quite literally, been the boy next door. She and Greg had talked about marriage. They’d planned to marry right after high school, but then he got a scholarship to MIT and they decided to put it off until he graduated.
Over the years they’d grown apart, their relationship couldn’t withstand the distance between them. The break-up had been amicable, and they remained friendly, but there wasn’t much more than nostalgia to that friendship now. Greg had recently taken a job at a big tech company in one of the south suburbs, and they hadn’t even seen each other yet, though they had exchanged emails that said, “We have to get together soon.”
