A New Day

I drop my bags in the foyer of my house, The event was more or less a success. Sales were a bit above average or what I anticipated for the size of that particular event, which isn't a bad thing, its enough to cover a portion of my months expenses at least, and there are another couple of events scheduled over the coming weeks, so if they all are as good or better than what this event was, then making my bills for the month wont be an issue. I might even have some extra to put aside into my savings.

My phone vibrates and I take a look at it seeing the text message notification

- 'Did you make it home safe'

- 'yea, Just walked in and dropped my bags'

- 'Awesome, So are we still on for lunch today?'

I will be the first to admit, I am surprised. The person I was chatting with actually turned out so far to be a real person, I was just about to text her asking if we were still on for meeting up, for today. After all, we had been exchanging messages rather regularly over the last five days while I was working the event, and even found out we were going to have the same time available on Friday, so I suggested we meet up for lunch and she accepted. Granted, I'm still of the mind that I will be ghosted, but hey, at this point, that's a 50/50 I'm just pessimistic. If I'm wrong, then that's great, it will be a pleasant surprise to be wrong. If I'm not, well then I was right, and I don't really lose anything.

- 'yea, let me get showered and changed out of my travel clothes and ill be heading there in say twenty minutes? so, lets meet up there in an hour from now?'

- 'sounds good, ill see you there'

Like I said, I'm still skeptical of this, I mean, its supposedly a drop dead gorgeous woman who is willing to meet up with me for lunch. Why lunch and not dinner? Because lunch is much less of an intimate setting to meet someone at, and we both are headed there separately, so neither will feel like we are obligated to stay if things go south, and it just seems like a much better option for meeting first. Less pressure.

I quickly shower and change, then hop into my truck and head off to where we are meeting, I arrive about 15 minutes early, traffic strangely being lite for the day and time of day, but the parking lot of the place is packed like normal. The place is a little rustic, But they make good food, we were both familiar with it having been to this particular establishment on many occasions.

Unless your looking at everyone, your not going to remember everyone no matter how attractive they might be. after some time, you will forget that you've seen them, especially if it was just in passing. Which is why I don't recall if I've ever seen her at the establishment. But its also possible that we just never were there at the same time, or on the same day either.

I decide to not wait and I go in, the establishment has a bunch of tables both inside and outside, I go up to the counter and order myself a bacon cheddar burger, with all the fixings, and I'm handed one of the buzzers, and a cup for my drink. Why am I ordering now rather than waiting? because one, I'm still not convinced I'm not being catfished. and two, This isn't a formal dinner meet, but a lunch meetup, so I don't feel constrained by the typical social niceties to wait.

After a few minutes while waiting for my food to be ready, Someone approached "Are you Alex by chance?" a sweet somewhat ephemeral voice spoke up, I turned and looked at the speaker. And before my eyes, a young woman, with rose blond hair, Wearing a blue half sleeve crop top, and jeans. I quickly appraise the woman and note that she actually looks like her photos, which I'm objectively surprised about, and even though I was pessimistic about this, my best guess would have been that she didn't use recent photos, but that seems to have been wrong.

A pleasant shock to me to say the least.

I nod "Yes, And I assume that makes you Lexi?"

"Yes, I'll go place my order and I'll be right back"

I simply nod and watch her as she goes inside. I cant help but be amazed that she looks better in person than her photo's, for what it matters. I was never one of those whom preferred certain assets over another, To me equal proportions, were best, nothing abjectly out of proportion that is. And she had all of them checked. So I have nothing to complain about in the looks department.

I on the other hand, while am often told I am handsome in appearance, I have never taken personal compliments towards myself well. Be it for appearances, or such. The only thing that i do take well as personal compliments, is my knowledge about topics, specifically when it comes to my work. I don't like people thinking I'm less than capable, and I am the type of person that tends to learn everything I can about it, so I can become an expert to an extent.

Some of the jobs I've had in the past, people would come to me for advice on whether things were possible, they knew they could look it up, but they also knew I had practically memorized things. If it were laws relating to the work, I knew them, and where to find them. So I was effectively the walking encyclopedia in the office.

But if you complement me on my appearance, well I'm likely to just be quiet and give a slightly awkward smile. Why? because what am i supposed to say to that? Do I think I'm bad looking? No not particularly. I'm not in the best of shape, though I'm working on it, I have lost over fifty pounds over the course of the last year, but I still feel like I need to loose a few more pounds to look my best. I have hazel eyes, and dirty blond hair, and I would say my facial structure is not too terrible looking. But I've never been comfortable with people telling me I look 'handsome' or anything like that.

Lexi returns with her own buzzer and sits down across from me with a slight smirk "You know, I was half expecting you to Ghost me today, even with the text saying you'll be here"

I couldn't help but chuckle at that "Its almost like your reading my mind."

She simply smirks again "you'd be surprised how often we girls get ghosted as well"

I look in mock shock "who would ever have the balls to ghost you" My buzzer goes off at this moment "Ah, let me go grab my food." I hop up from the bench and head in with my drink to grab my food and refill my drink. As I walk back outside to our table I see an event that if my hands weren't full at this point I would facepalm so hard you'd be able to hear it the next town over. "Oh for the love of... Really? you expect this type of thing to happen as tropes in books and movies... but I mean come on..." I mutter to no one in particular, a few eyes turn my way then go back about their business

Right in front of me at our table is Lexi sitting there actively ignoring three guys who just randomly showed up. One siting on the table in front of her the other two behind. The two behind her look like your typical burly thuggish young men, wearing white wife beaters. The one sitting on the table again, your typical white wife beater and shorts. Scrawny, well when you compare him to the two beefcakes of men behind her, yea he's scrawny. Heck even when compared to me, he's scrawny. But I would also be tiny compared to the two bigger guys.

I sigh and expecting shit to hit the fan, I take a glance around and notice the cops off to one of the side tables inside, from where they are sitting, if they look out the window, they will be able to see our table. I nod to myself, after all, this joint is one of the local cops favorite haunts during lunch time. I set my food down on a table that is occupied by a couple other people. "I'm sorry do you mind watching my food while I take care of some trash?" I don't wait for a response before walking to my table.

I raise my voice just a bit above the polite level and add a bit of force behind it. your typical tone for when your telling someone to do something and your not going to accept any kind of backtalk, and you expect them to do it. "Hey man, Your ass doesn't belong on the table, so move it." The scrawny guy stops his talking and looks at me "Who the fu..." I cut him off "Also, scram, your in my way and that's my table your sitting at."

"Hey fucker, the fuck you said?"

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were deaf, I will repeat myself slower this time so you can read my lips. Get. The. Fuck. Away!"

"Oh? and what's a bitch ass like you gonna do about it?"

"You seem to be mistaken about something here, I don't have to do anything. Your going to take you and your little friends there and your going to leave. Anything other than that, and your not going to like what's going to happen to you. I will give you to the count of 5 to make like a tree, and get outa here" I hear Lexi stifle a chuckle at my statement and I smirk.

"Oh you think your a tough-guy? your little bitch-ass..."

"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass…and I'm all out of bubblegum." I say with a straight face "You gotta ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? well do ya punk?" The scrawny guy throws a punch at me, and I just turn slightly to the side and give him a bit of an assist with his direction, right smack into the window, he hits it pretty hard with his head and shoulder, and it cracks.

I cringe at that a bit, knowing that had to hurt quite a bit. but the noise does what i hoped it would do, and the cops outside look up at the sound and see the commotion, Just at this moment the two beefcakes round the table and come at me. They grab my arms and I don't try to resist it, the scrawny guy oblivious to anything now pull out a knife, and the cops were already heading outside, see this they then rush out with weapons drawn.

"Drop the knife"

The scrawny guy and the beefcakes look at the cops in shock. the four cops are pointing their weapons at the three guys, one has his tazer out, the other three with their firearms. "DROP THE KNIFE!" the scrawny guy complies and one cops holsters his weapon and rushes the scrawny guy. "let him go" the cops direct to the beefcakes and they release me. two cops approach them and all three guys are momentarily in handcuffs being marched to the three squad cars in the parking lot one of the cops ask if I'm ok and I reply that I am. He asks if I wanted to make a statement, and i replied that they saw everything from the start of it so there's no need to.

The cops spend a few more minutes talking to other people there, and I sit down and resume my conversation with Lexi after recovering my food. Her buzzer now having gone off. the whole thing taking less than five minutes for the altercation to be wrapped up. Unusually fast, but hey, the cops were already there so that's why.

"well this is an unusual way to make first impressions" I laugh

"What, you don't always save a girl being accosted at lunch?" she chuckles

I wave my hand "psh... such cliché things? honestly I about facepalmed when I saw them surrounding you, Like seriously? that actually happened. I mean talk about a Trope, cute girl accosted by thugs when meeting a guy, when they guy stepped away for a moment. Its the type of story you tell someone who wasn't there and they would never believe it actually happened."

"Well that aside, I was kind of surprised that you acted that way, and it didn't look like you were scared of the knife."

I smirked at her, "Because I knew they would never get near me with anything. I expected them to have some sort of weapon, I didn't see any tells on them that it was a gun, so I figured they would either have a knife or nothing at all." I nodded at my own words "And I knew there were cops inside, I looked for them first and saw them sitting at that table." I pointed to the table inside "So I planned to make a commotion enough to draw their attention, and bait the thugs into attacking me, banking on them not knowing or paying attention to the cops inside."

Lexi nodded "makes sense, though if they got too annoying I could have handled them myself"

"I'm sure you could have, but why bother when you can get others to do that for you? Like I got the cops to take them away, and they cant even try to come after me later because they won't connect the cops coming out with me or their actions towards me. Point being, I had them checkmated the moment I came up to them, they were playing by my rules. Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."

Lexi's eyes flash momentarily fast enough that no one would notice unless they were staring directly into her topaz blue eyes at that time. "I see your familiar also with Sun Tsu. Not just pop culture."

I nod "If anyone has not heard of the Art of War by now, I would count them a fool. no matter from whom, or what era it comes from, wise words never grow old. Humanity doesn't change, only time changes, and the circumstances surrounding humanity. But we are the same now as we were several thousand years ago, and we will be the same in the future as we are now. The only defining difference will be time."

She nods "Those are very true words. Humans have not changed at all in the thousands of years of their history."

We continue our chat through the rest of our lunch, eventually we say our good byes and go about our ways for the rest of the day. I return to my house to get some much needed rest, after all it was an early day I caught my flight back from the event early this morning, and then showered and changed right after getting dropped of at home, to run out and come here to meet Lexi. Then we had to deal with a bunch of idiots. It was more eventful than I would have cared for my day to have been, but it is what it is, no use crying over spilt milk.

I take a quick nap which turned into several hours, I didn't set my alarm because I had no plans to be anywhere that night or the next day. I woke feeling refreshed but also knew I was going to hate myself because that nap was going to screw over my sleep schedule. I glanced at my phone and saw that it was about 8:30 at night.

Right at this moment, I get a text from Lexi, she says she's bored and was going to hit up one of the clubs tonight and asked if I would like to join her. Well seeing as I had nothing else planned, I figured why the hell not, might as well. Wasn't planning the second date to be so soon, but hey, she's the one asking me and not the other way around so I guess its not too early then. I reply that I'll just get changed and head that way, she gives me the address and a few minutes later I find myself heading off to a club I have never heard of before called Synapse.

Upon arriving to the club, It had a very peculiar vibe about it. Your typical club vibe, along with the theme of the club. It was out in a warehouse district, cramped parking, but it seemed pretty busy. Aside from a few lights around the area it was pretty dimly lit, with most of the light coming from the club itself, but with the dark blues, reds, and green lights coming from the club, it didn't do much but light up the club itself. It had a very cyberpunkish vibe about it, which I rather liked.

The club patrons were dressed in their rave gettups, which just added to the cyberpunk feel it was unique, and I had wondered how it was that I had never heard of this place before. Because I absolutely would have been a regular. But now that I know its here, I certainly will be back again.

After arriving I make my way to the bar and get my first drink, and am once again surprised by how cheap the drink is for a club. This just reinforces that I will be back, good vibe, cheap drinks? what could go wrong?

A few minutes after getting my drink I manage to track down Lexi, albeit with help from texts to her. Otherwise it would have taken a long time to find her in the place with how many bodies, and how dimly lit the place was. "Lexi, there you are. Was getting worried I'd never find you in this place." I offer her a smile as she gives me a quick hug

"What do you think of this place?" she asks.

"Honestly I'm a little surprised I never knew about it before"

"Well that's not that much of a surprise, the place has only been open for about a month now, and you said you've been traveling for work to various events over the past three months."

"Good point, I guess I would never have learned about it without you telling me about it if its only been here for a month now, But I know now, and I will certainly be a regular if for no other reason that it has cheap drinks."

"Yea, you should come on Saturday's too, they have dollar well drinks"

"Stop, you don't have to sell me on that anymore, ill be here tomorrow night for sure"

She laughs at that, then grabs my hand and drags me off to a quieter corner of the club where we managed to find an empty table, and we sat down. I was working on my drink and watching people mill about and we made some minor small talk. Some other girls came up and talked to Lexi, and I excused myself to find the bathroom.

On returning, the girls had left Lexi sitting by herself and I took my seat once more. "I had one of the staff bring you another drink since yours was getting low" She said as she handed me a fresh drink. "I wasn't sure if you were drinking anything specific so I just had them bring you a Scotch on the rocks." She held up her own glass filled with a neon green colored beverage and we clinked glasses and I started sipping on my Scotch.

It was a really good scotch, and instead of just using regular ice and calling it on the rocks, they actually had a rocks cube in the glass. It was impressive to say the least that such a club would go to that kind of effort, unlike most of them, even your typical bars don't do that.

We chatted a bit more, I having long since finished my drink. I had to make another bathroom run, I stood up and wobbled a bit... Strange, I don't recall having drank enough of anything to feel tipsy much less drunk. I steady myself and make the trip to the bathroom and back. Lexi was sitting there with another drink, and some of the girls had returned and were chatting with her.

"Do you want another drink?" she hands over another scotch I start reaching for it and my eyes finally notice the table, and there seems to be several such glasses on the table, and I'm a bit confused, because I only recall having drank one "N...No" I shake my head "I think I've drank enough, I still need to drive home so I need to sober up now a bit."

Lexi smiles lightly "Are you sure?" she glances at one of the girls who smiles brightly and nods, She had black hair with a bob-cut and the sides frame her entire face. She is cute but not as gorgeous as Lexi, though that would just be setting the standards too high to compare other girls to Lexi, it just wouldn't be fair.

This girl though I would give a solid seven or eight to, still quite respectable in appearance. Lexi glances back "Ash here wouldn't mind driving us back, she hasn't had anything to drink tonight, you can just give her your keys and she can hang out with us for the rest of the night?"

I contemplate it for a short while, Something seems just a tad bit off, but I am also enjoying myself, and the alcohol certainly isn't making me clear headed. I agree to it, after all, its not entirely an illogical or irresponsible decision. "Fine, ill just give you my keys when were ready to leave," I check my phone for the time and it reads as 01:30, apparently much later than I thought it was, and that explains why then I had so much to drink without realizing it.

"This'll be my last drink anyways, they're going to be shutting down in thirty minutes as it is." so I accept the drink and sip on it and the three of us continue chatting. More like, I'm barely listening as the two girls chat, the longer it goes on the more I'm feeling the alcohol, so focusing isn't my strong suit at present.

The next thing I'm aware of is the music has shut off and the lights are on in the club. The universal signal to get out, because they are now closed. "Well I guess that's it for us here tonight" I say as I reach for my Keys and hand them over to Ash. I stand up and have to support myself with the table until I steady myself "It really has been enjoyable, though I clearly drank more than I usually do, So thankyou Ash for offering to drive me home." She smiles at me "Wouldn't want you two to get into an accident on the way home now would we? besides I'm used to it, I don't drink, though I like coming out and hanging out with friends, so I'm always the DD"

Lexi smiles "Yea, Ash is always the dependable one" she leans over and places a kiss on her cheek "Has taken care of me plenty of times after the club" she then grabs my arm and we start heading out to the parking lot Ash asks for which one is my vehicle and I point at the White SUV that's one of the few vehicles still in the parking lot and we head there, She gives me her phone to put the address into and we head off. I don't remember the drive home, only that the two of them had to help me out of the car, and we fumbled around with the keys to my house, and then I was plopped down onto something soft and I was out.