The smell of a carefree night hit her nostrils as soon as she stepped into the bar. Sandra squinted her eyes as the splashing lights of neon hit her like flying orbs. The music on the dance floor was blaring and the crowds, like last night, were wild. She had expected it, after all, it was a Friday night – a night designated for fun and night outs. The brunette gathered all the courage in the world as she pushed herself towards the bartending area where she was sure, Lou would be working. As the brunette took her stride, she could already see Lou, wrapped in nothing but leather, mixing up drinks.
There was something enigmatic about Lou – like a dirty little secret wanting to be revealed, and Sandra still, to be honest, wasn’t convinced that she wasn’t Cate. She looked like her; it was like Cate had a clone. From afar, Sandra could see the charm Lou professed – from the way she moved, the way she talked to customers. Lou was like a tavern of fire, and Sandra, in the most shameless way would swear that she felt like she was a flightless moth aching to rest on the fire of her death.
“Hi.” The brunette started as she sat on the stool bar across Lou, the island counter of the bartending area separating them both, “I was wondering if –”
“I told you, I’m not her.” The blonde spoke, her eyes not batting against the brunette as she focused on pouring the dirty martini before handing it to a customer, “Enjoy your drink.”
“Actually…” Sandra placed her arms on the counter, her lips drawing straight, “…I’d like to apologize.”
Sandra watched as Lou wiped the counter in one go before the blonde looked at her seriously. The way Lou’s cerulean eyes glimmered against the darkness felt too magical: icy, but somehow, soft.
“What now?” Lou blurted, her arms coming to cross against her chest.
“I’d like to apologize for last night.”
“Okay.”
“Okay? That’s it?” Sandra countered, obviously shocked by the blonde’s answer.
“Well, what do you want me to do?” Lou asked as she approached the brunette on the counter, and when she did, it was when Sandra realized how close their faces were that she could smell the blonde’s perfume, Chanel. No. 5.
“I…” She was not really the type of woman that would easily stutter, but there Sandra was, looking at Lou wide-eyed and stuttering like a godless teenager about to have her first kiss, “I…”
Lou looked at her. Sandra could tell that look was the look she usually gives to everybody else, but how could that look have so much effect on her? Lou looked at her like an irritated person, yet the brunette felt like her heart wanted to get out of its ribcage. It fluttered against her chest and on her seat, Sandra wished Lou wouldn’t hear the beating of her heart.
“Are you here to talk? Or do you just want to freeze there?” This time, Lou shook her head and went back to open the cash register, “…because really, I don’t have time to chat. I have work, you know.” She stated before she started counting the bills.
“I just want to apologize and just want to be friends with you.”
“The apology?” The blonde stopped on her track and glanced at the brunette, “Accepted. But the friendship? My circle is full.” And there, it stung; she said it so casually and even returned to counting the bills on her hand that Sandra wanted to choke on her seat.
Really?
“Did you just…” The brunette shook her head as she got off her seat and went to sit in front of Lou, “…did you just fucking turn down my offer?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Do you fucking hear yourself right now?” Sandra blurted and she knew in herself that her face had gone red out of shame and anger. No one had ever turned her down before.
“Do you really go off to strangers and cry and tell them they are this person and then the next day, you offer them friendship and if you’re turned down, you’re gonna get angry?”
Did she really come off so strong? Sandra gulped. The words that slipped right out of Lou’s lips had hit her like knives on the back. She gulped, heaving a sigh on the process as she felt the embarassment creeping from the ends of her toes towards her face. She should have toned it down because really, despite her convinced that Lou was hiding something, she still couldn’t prove that Lou was Cate, hence, she should be talking to her with a little warmth and less hostility.
“I’m sorry. I just…”
Lou tapped her fingers on the counter as she gave the brunette her ungodly attention, her face looking utterly irritated, “You what?”
The way the blonde spoke emitted so much seductivity and coolness in a good way. She looked mean and sounded hostile, but her eyes – those deep cerulean eyes were soft, too soft that Sandra could feel the intense unfathomable feeling underneath her very skin.
“I’m just…” The brunette gulped, unable to say the falling word on her tongue, but finally, after a few seconds of silence, she did, “…lonely.”
Lou didn’t speak and Sandra wondered if her ‘Im just lonely’Â line had rendered the woman speechless. Nonetheless, the brunette just bent her head, absolutely having no clue on what she should say next, until Lou cleared her throat.
“I didn’t even get to know your name and here you are, asking me to be friends.”
Sandra looked at her. Her ears popping at what she just heard. And there Lou was, in front of her finally with a tiny curve on her lips.
“You know my name.” Lou spoke as she gave her a smile, “I don’t know yours.”
“Oh.”
“So you are?” That question made the brunette smile and she watched as Lou walked back towards the cooler and got some ice before she started to prepare a drink.
“I’m Sandra. You can call me Sandy. Like the beach.”
Lou shook the Boston shaker as she glanced at the brunette on the counter, “Sandy? Cute name. I would want to introduce myself, but you already have seen my identification card. Louise, but just call me Lou.”
“I like Louise, but okay, Lou.”
Lou presented the brunette a Manhattan cocktail, her hand so finesse as she slid the drink on the marbled top, before she sat across the brunette.Â
“So what do you do? Do you just cry at strangers? Hug strangers?”
That was quite a little offensive, but the way Lou asked her seemed playful, like she was teasing her and quite frankly, Sandra was not offended. She liked it.
“Yeah, I do that sometimes. But most of the time, I’m at Aarhus Universitetshospital. I’m the medical director.”
“Woah.” Lou animatedly hung her mouth open, “…so you’re telling me you’re a doctor?”
“I guess so. Why?”
“Nothing. You just look like…”
“Like what?”
“Like a celebrity or something.”
“Oh please.” The brunette muttered, “You? What do you do?”
“Aside from being an asshole, I do bartending.”
“An asshole, huh? So the owner of the bar just accepts asshole bartender?”
Lou laughed. Her raspy voice rattled against her throat and it sounded so sexy. Sandra didn’t want her to stop and silently, she hoped she could make Lou laugh like that once more.
“Apparently, the owner is me.”
“A lesbian bar? Really? You own this?”
“Yeah. My prideful possession as a raging lesbian.”
And with that, Sandra shook her head, disbelief and awe wrapping her in. She looked around and along with that, the music turned into some banger that made the whole crowd go wild. With the neon lights on her face, Sandra smiled. Unbeknownst to her was Lou watched her, with a smile on her face too.
***
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