I was still fuming inside from my fight with Clint. I didn’t feel like running away any more. No; now I wanted to dig in my heels.
“No, take me to the basement Clarence. I want to check out the dance bar.”
The darkness in me needed a drink.
Chapter 8
Wonderland
~ ~ ~
When the elevator doors opened, Clarence lifted his hand to say goodbye. I gave him a short wave as I stepped out after the older gentleman in the gray suit. I was surprised to see that a man of his age had ventured in to a dance bar. I guess you’re never too old to get down with it. Mr. Gray Suit soon disappeared into the massive sea of dance patrons in the basement level. This bar was dark, with different shades of blue LED lighting illuminating the floor, walls and all around the bar. The blue lighting made the room look like it was made of ice. The bar was shaped in a semicircle just off from the massive dance floor that was packed to capacity with people. I headed straight to the bar, keen to order myself a drink so I could take the edge off my still simmering nerves.
As I stood at the bar waiting, a bartender came over and planted a shot in front of me. “What’s this?” I asked the bartender, whose face reflected a mix of darkness and blue lighting that filtered through the air from the dance floor. I looked at the green and red liquid swirling in the bottom of the miniature cup.
“It’s truth serum,” he said, smiling at me, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
“Are you fucking with me?” I snapped at him, caught off guard by what he said. After my fight with Clint and feeling as if I was caught in one big massive lie, the word ‘truth’ seemed like it was taunting me, and I was in no mood play around.
“I don’t understand your question. You asked me what the name of the shot was, and I told you. I don’t believe that’s ‘fucking with you’ as you so politely put it.”
I bit my lip, a little embarrassed I was so offhand to the bartender, who clearly was being punished by me because of my brusque mood. “I’m sorry. What I mean is, I didn’t order this, so why did you give it to me?”
The bartender leaned across the bar, a little closer so he could whisper into my ear. “Some guy ordered it for you and sent it over. I told him that girls as beautiful as you don’t just accept random drinks from strangers. And besides, you don’t look the ‘Alice’ type.”
I pulled my body back and looked at him. The bartender’s eyes waited for me to respond. He had complimented me but also implied I was not some kind of girl. I could tell he was hoping I would enquire as to what he meant, but I wasn’t sure I felt like entertaining him. He obviously like to play mind games.
I looked around at the crowd in the club. The people grinding up against each other to the sound of the thumping ‘doof doof’ music. I looked out to the blue lighting that filled all the corners, and the strobe light that flickered in and out of my eyes. I sighed, thinking about Clint talking to Melanie and her hand on his back, touching him intimately, and the way he threw my jealousy back in my face. That image and our fight filled me with an anger that now replaced my disinterest in this bartender. Entertain him? Yeah why not.
“What do you mean I’m not the Alice type?” I screamed back at the bartender over the heavy beat of the music. He smiled again, allowing his teeth to show, obviously happy I allowed the door of conversation to be opened.
“Well,” he said, holding up his hand, and flashing his five fingers to the other bar crew. Another guy yelled back, “OK, five minutes Eric, and hurry up.”
“Eric is it?” I asked, noticing now that he was wearing a very tight fitted black T-shirt and jeans. The T-shirt outlined his toned muscular arms that were tattooed with various tribal symbols that went from his shoulders to his wrists. His hair was spiky and dirty blond, and he had dimples when he smiled. He walked around to a break where the bar connected in a semicircle to the wall, and stepped out from