“You don’t mind, do you?”

Marcy stands there with… I didn’t catch his name over the music. Let’s just call him Adonis, shall we? One of the many Adonises in the club that night Marcy could have her pick of. Looks like number 194 was the winner.

“No hon, have fun.”

Knowing I really didn’t mind being abandoned, that meant I got to go home, she smiles her Crest White Strips commercial smile, “I’ll text you!”

“K!”

Then in a swirl of hair and glitter she’s off with Adonis on her arm. I jump for joy inside as I finish my pink drink and make for the exit.

“Going already?”

One of the many bodies I am trying to duck and dodge is speaking to me.

I just wish it was anybody but the body of the one person I couldn’t stand to look at. Stup- oh you get the idea.

“Oh, um, yeah… Marcy – “

“Yeah, I know, but you don’t have to leave because she did, we can go upstairs where it isn’t so loud.”

“Oh, thanks, but um… “

He doesn’t let me finish my lame excuse, “Okay, see ya Aim.”

I finally look at him as he turns and goes. Despite being so tall with impossibly broad shoulders, he seems to glide through the mass of humanity with no problems at all. I wondered if his mixed martial arts training has made him so agile. I was lost in that thought when…

“Move!”

I almost fall forward from the shove behind me. Suddenly, it connects in my head that I’ve been standing still in the doorway of a crowded room.

Despite the rudeness with which I was moved, my first reaction is still to apologize to the woman pushing past me. Although she ignores my apologies, she does turn around to the other voice that calls out after her.

“What the fuck, bitch! I know you didn’t just push this chick.”

I turn to face some guy who saw the scene and now seems to be coming to my defense. The scent of his cologne gives me a sharp pain between my eyes and I really didn’t need his help. I hate confrontation and this…um, gentleman… was pulling me into a big one.

The Victoria Secret model who shoved me spins around. “What did you just call me?”

“You heard me.”

I take this opportunity to make my escape through a hole in the crowd. Finally, I make it out into the night air and found a place against the brick wall to lean and take a deep breath. Then another. Another.

Okay. I’m out of there, I’m okay, and now I can go home and not come back. Great.

That is when my cologne-drenched defender flies out of the double doors.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Oh, yeah, thanks. It’s not a big deal, really.” I head for the parking garage with a little wave that I hope he will know means ‘goodbye’.

He doesn’t. “Are you by yourself?”

“I’m fine, thanks.”

He jogs a bit to catch up to me. I slow down, not because I want to chat, but because I don’t want this guy following me to my car.

“I can walk you.”

“Oh, that’s okay. I’m fine, really.”

“Don’t want anything to happen to a sexy girl like you out here by yourself. I can drive you home, we can stop by my place first for a drink or something.”

My creep radar is off the charts. I begin to walk in the opposite direction of my car.

“Oh, I can’t, sorry, I really need to get home.”

“It’s still early, come on, when was the last time you got fucked real good?”

Okay, now please understand, by nature I am a very passive person. And I know in my head at this point I should tell this guy to get lost and leave me alone. But, still, STILL, I try to be polite.

“Oh, um, no thanks. I don’t really do that.”

“Come on, I helped you out back there and you’re just gonna be all cold like that?” The next few moments happen so quickly it’s like a scene from The Flash comic book.

First cologne-man grabs my elbow, then cologne-man is on the ground. Not a second between the two.

I looked down at him, stunned when I hear a familiar voice that has a very unfamiliar tone. “You don’t touch people. Ever.”

Rob is beside me, calm and collected, but burning a hole through the man on the ground with steely glare. Cologne shoots to his feet and spins around ready for a confrontation. But there is no confrontation. One good look at Rob and the smelly wanna-be hero un-puffs his chest.

“It’s cool man, we’re friends. I was just trying to help her out.”

“Go.”

No arguments. They guy heads back in the direction of the club. Rob pulls out his phone and sends a text, then he peers down the street and watches closely as club security turns Cologne away from the entrance. When Rob is satisfied there won’t be a scene, he turns his attention back to me.

“Where’s your car?”

“Oh, over there.”

I point back in the opposite direction from where I was walking.

He raises his eyebrow a bit, “Okay, come on.”