Broken Read Free

was a spur-of-the-moment decision, one that I hoped I
wouldn't regret. I strolled over casually, and sat on the bar stool on the
other side of her. I waved to the bartender to bring me a drink. I looked over
to find her friend was gaping at me, and I wasn't sure if I should let her know
she could catch flies with a trap open that wide. The scene must have looked
comical to someone else. Aside from the gaper, the redhead didn't even know I
existed, even though I was inches away from her.
    “Can I buy you girls a drink?”
    “Yes!” squealed the friend. She
clapped excitedly, and I had to chuckle.
    “Julie! What the hell are you
doing?” My beauty didn't seem too pleased by my invitation. She was already
drinking, so why not have more? What harm was there in me buying them drinks?
    “What? What's wrong with him
buying us a drink?”
    “Oh, forget it, I don't care.”
The ginger girl seemed to have given up hope of getting rid of me quickly.
    I felt like this was my
opportunity to get on that girl's best side. The bartender arrived with my
drink, and I ordered the two girls another round of what they were drinking.
    “Thank you, that was really sweet
of you,” the friend gushed. She thought I was possibly interested in her, but
she was only a means to an end. I wanted the redhead.
    “It's my pleasure.”
    I looked at the girl beside me
and said, “Hi there, beautiful, do you have a name?”
    She didn't even look over at me.
She just stared down into her watered-down rye and Coke. “Yeah, sure I do; it's get lost .”
    That made me chuckle. “That's
kind of mean of you. I only came here to say hi to you.”
    “I didn't ask you to, so why
don't you go back to where you came from?” She smiled into her drink as if she
enjoyed her joke.
    I glanced over at the friend, who
just shrugged her shoulders at me. “Is your friend always so mean to people?” I
queried.
    She looked embarrassed, as if she
wasn't quite sure what to say to me. “No, she doesn't know who you are, really.
She's just having a bad night. For the past like eight months
though ... the same bad day.”
    I couldn't help but laugh. That
girl was sort of funny.
    “What's your name?” I asked.
    “ Julie, and my friend’s name is Natalie.”
    “Natalie, what a beautiful name for a beautiful girl.”
    Natalie snorted. “Is that the
best you can do ... Jet, is it?”
    “You do know my name, wonderful.”
    “Hardly. Julie was nice enough to impart your glowing reputation
to me.”
    “You can't possibly dislike me;
you don't even know me. And I just bought you beautiful ladies some drinks.”
    Natalie finally looked up from
her glass, and met my gaze. “I know about guys like you. You're all the same
and I couldn't be less interested. Did you really think you could come over
here and I would just go home with you? You can't be that deluded.”
    I laughed out loud. She was a
total trip, I was quite certain that no female in my entire life had talked to
me that way. I kind of liked a girl with a set of balls. Girls these days
kissed ass too much to land a boyfriend, but not this one. She was on fire
tonight.
    Julie laughed, too, though more
nervously.
    “Give me a chance here,
firecracker. Come dance with me. You will have fun, I promise.”
    “No shot.”
    “Well, would you be interested in
coffee sometime? In a nice, safe, public place so I can't trick you into sex?
You can’t believe everything you hear about my reputation.”
    “Just beat it, Jet, I have a drink to finish.”
    The drinks I ordered arrived, and
Julie grabbed hers, while Natalie just left hers sitting there. I wasn't quite
sure what to think of the whole situation.
    “Are you really not going to give
me a chance here?”
    She looked up at me again, and
met my eyes. She lingered there momentarily, just long enough to give me hope.
And then she whispered, so softly I almost missed the words, “Fuck off.” She
then turned back to finish her drink.
    I took a look around,