Dark Intentions - Charlotte Byrd Page 0,11

I say silently to myself.

Staring at myself in the mirror, it occurs to me that I'm not so much here for someone new, but for someone old.

I exhale slowly and I curse myself because this is the complete opposite of what is supposed to be happening. I'm supposed to meet someone new, someone fun.

What am I doing instead? I'm waiting around for him.

I go back to the bar. I chat with two more guys and then a girl. She's a single girl, just like me and introduces herself as Emerson. That's such a good name, I suddenly feel jealous.

Why didn't I go with something literary and exotic instead of plain old Kylie?

Emerson has thick curly, black hair and is in an attractive peasant blouse and jeans. She's not particularly dressed up and from talking to her for a few minutes I realize that she's not a stranger at all.

"How often do you come here?"

"Um, usually once a month just to blow off steam."

"And what is it like?"

"Oh, you've never been?"

"No, I was just once, so this is my second time."

"Oh, okay. Were you with a guy or more people?" Emerson asks, drinking her Bloody Mary.

She seems completely unfazed by the fact that that's a morning drink and that everyone else is wearing cocktail dresses and I admire that.

"Well, I'm a pilot, I fly around a lot. Single, so, you know, this is kind of a fun thing to do whenever I'm in different cities."

"So are these clubs everywhere?"

"Major cities, yes. LA, New York, Boston. Let's see, Atlanta, Seattle. There must be others. Miami, I'm sure."

“So, do you meet guys in every place?"

"Well, that's what's so interesting about it. You can kind of hook-up with whoever you want. Sometimes couples, sometimes one-on-one depending on how the mood strikes.”

I take another sip of my Old Fashioned and suddenly hate the way it tastes. I ask the bartender to bring me a martini.

"You don't seem very comfortable," she says.

I rub the back of my head and lean my elbow onto the bar top.

"Um, that's the thing. I'm kind of all over the place. Last time I came, I had a really good time. I met this guy."

"Who?" She leans over as her eyes light up.

"Dante."

"Oh my God. You lucked out. And you were with him one-on-one?"

I nod.

"Dante is a stud." She crosses her legs and clinks my martini glass with hers in a demonstrative manner.

"Have you been with him?"

"Yes, and he is very, very good."

"So how often does he come here?"

"Well, he travels a lot for work and I mean a lot. I've seen him once here probably every six months. If he were here last week, I wouldn't expect him to be here again for six more months."

I nod, slightly disappointed.

"I know how you feel."

"You do?"

"Yep. We got together about the fourth or fifth time that I was here and let me just tell you, if you're expecting every guy here to be as good as him, I would adjust those expectations. That's just not going to happen."

"Oh, okay.” I nod, not hiding my disappointment.

"It's like, he will be what you want him to be. If you want him to be rough, he'll do that. If you want him to be a little soft, take it easy, he'll do that,” Emerson continues to gush and I feel a tinge of jealousy. “And the best part is you don't have to request anything, you don't have to tell him what you want. It's like, he knows intuitively as soon as he gets with you."

"Ah," I exhale loudly. I thought that we shared a real spark but I guess that wasn’t the case.

“Don’t let that get you down,” she says. “This place is great, you're going to meet lots of other people."

"I know. I just, I don't know. I came here thinking that this is what I want. I want to have a good time. I want to forget what happened and here I am talking to you about the first guy I met and thinking about how I'm not going to be able to see him again for six months and I'm sorry about that.”

"But just because it's not Dante doesn't mean that you're not going to meet someone amazing, okay?” Emerson says. “A lot of people here are very good and the couples, you should give them a chance. They're very giving and you know, you don't have that same pressure you do with guys one-on-one. And since you're the guest star,