Celia

Hot Tots was a club that I hadn’t even heard of before. It was in a hole in the wall and if you didn’t know what you were looking, you would miss it altogether. Betty invited me out after work and it took me almost twenty minutes to find the place. I finally had to ask a couple of locals that I found in the street to point me in the right direction. Three of them didn’t even know where it was, but I lucked out with the fourth one because Carlos was going there as well.

“Just come with me. What is your name?”

“Celia.”

“Come on Celia. I will show you the way. My friend is playing in the band tonight. They are called the Undesirables.”

“That sounds like an interesting name. My co-worker from work really seems to like it here.”

I stopped when we got to the door because it was kind of a strange place to be and the name of the band was a little off putting. I had agreed because I just started at the restaurant and I wanted to make friends there, but this was a bit more than I was used to. It looked to me like a biker bar or something of the sort and there was a rough crowd on the other side of the door. It was not at all what I had expected and for a moment I wanted to turn right back around and go home.

When we opened the door, the light from the street filtered in and half of the occupants turned around to look at us. I felt a little strange having everyone staring at me in such a way, but Carlos urged me forward with a hand on my arm. I wasn’t a delicate kind of girl, but he seemed to think I was and he whispered that their bark was worse than their bite. I don’t know if I believed that or not, but I was sure that I wanted to leave as soon as I got there.

“Are you sure?” He didn’t look like the rest, tattooed, with piercing in his ears and leather jackets on.

“Yes, I am sure. I come here all of the time.”

“I don’t think I belong here Carlos. Maybe I should call her and make sure that this is where she was talking about. Betty may have given me the wrong name.”

Carlos grinned and asked if it was Betty DeMarco I was talking about.

“Yeah.” I had a sinking feeling then that I was in the right place and the man next to me waved at Betty. I was exactly where I was supposed to be and I groaned out loud with the knowledge.

“Okay, well I guess you are in the right place, which is good because I didn’t want to see you go. Can I buy you a drink to slow your nerves down?”

Carlos was nice and cute and I told him that he could. Betty and Mel were there from work and as soon as Carlos made his way towards the bar, they wanted to know if we were here together. I told them that we weren’t, but I got a look from the two of them that maybe we should be or rather maybe they didn’t believe me.

“He is cute Celia. I have seen him around many times. He is always in here, but I don’t think that I have ever seen him come in with someone before.” Mel looked from me to Betty.

I shrugged at Mel. Carlos knew who she was too and I had to wonder how well they all knew each other. Betty gave him a look at the bar that told me that maybe she had seen him outside of this place before.

“No, I couldn’t find this place because it is tucked into the other buildings so well so he helped me find it. Nice guy.”

“Cute guy.” Mel piped up and I could see her looking at him the same way. He was tall, dark and handsome, what all women were supposed to be looking for, but if I was honest with myself, he really wasn’t my type. I wasn’t that into the mysterious bad boy thing. I liked the all-American style man and there weren’t too many of them like that around here. I thought that the sexiest thing that a man could wear was a suit, not leather and jeans.

“He is alright, but not really what I am looking for.” I wasn’t looking for anything really at all, but I did know what I didn’t want. I didn’t want a guy like that. I wanted a guy that I would have more in common with. All men were womanizers as far as I was concerned, but I at least wanted to pretend that they weren’t and it was hard to do when they looked like Carlos.

The smile on his face when he got back with my drink told me all that I needed to know. He had checked me out, looking my body up and down a few times as he walked up and at some point I wanted to tell him where my eyes were. They certainly weren’t below my neck where he kept looking.

The music started to play and I looked towards the band that was taking the stage. They were more the same, but a couple of the four guys looked a little cleaner cut and one in particular really caught my eye. The drummer was blonde and blue eyed. He wasn’t wearing a suit, but I was sure that he did on occasion. He was also clean cut and his hair was neat. He was the kind of guy that I was looking for, if I was looking. But I am not looking, I reminded myself.

The drummer was also paying attention to a young woman that was closer to the stage and I figured that she was his girlfriend. It was my luck of course. I always picked the ones that I couldn’t have. It was a talent of mine, one that I didn’t always like.

Carlos must have been feeling ignored or he noticed where I was looking because he asked me if I wanted to dance. The music was not really the type of music to dance to, but I was happy to get my mind off of the drummer. He was hot and I had all kinds of bad thoughts going through my head. Carlos pulling me up against his body wasn’t helping either.

I looked over at Betty and I could tell that she was not so happy about my dance partner. I tried to make some space in between us because I was trying to make new friends at work, not make enemies.

“What’s the matter Celia?”

“You and Betty, did you two have a thing going?”

“No, not really.”

I sighed and made sure that there was a little more space in between us then before. That was man code for the fact that they had sex and he didn’t call her back. I could see the yearning in the woman’s eyes and I should have known better.

“So you two did have a thing going?”

“Well yes, how did you know?”

I made sure he could hear my aggravation. “Because I can tell and men are all the same. Why don’t you go dance with her Carlos? It looks like she wants to dance with you more than I do.”

I broke contact and he looked at me like he wasn’t very happy. I wasn’t very happy to be duped and I hoped that he would do as I suggested because if not, Betty was going to continue staring daggers at me and I can’t say that I liked the feeling all that much. I wasn’t trying to upset her and the guy wasn’t even my type. Why did I always seem to go right, when I was supposed to go left?

Going to the table that Betty and Mel were at, I could feel the frostiness in the air and I wanted to warm it up a little bit.

“Carlos wants to dance with you Betty. I guess I am not the right kind of dance partner for him. I told him I would see if you were interested.”

She didn’t say anything, but the smile on her face as she got up was all that I needed to see. It perked her right up and I hoped that Carlos wasn’t a jerk to her. When would men get that a woman like her was going to get attached?

I watched the band for a while and I couldn’t help checking out the drummer. He was definitely hot and since he wasn’t paying all of his attention to the woman in the front anymore, I decided that maybe I should push for something more. I realized then that I was a bit too horny to ignore the tension as our eyes met a few times through the first set. But when it was over, he went to the other girl and I was left nursing a drink at the table with Mel.