Falling in Love Again: A Valentine's Day Proposal

You were just supposed to carry my baby.

And now, you’ve stolen my heart.

What am I going to do?

Well, I’ll fake it till we make it!

You are mine and mine forever,

And I won’t let you go – not so easily!

Chapter 1: Sophia

I tie my long dark curls back and get ready to go to work. The chatter around me blends together into a cacophony of slurred voices. Everyone is already wasted and they are yelling over each other, over the music, and over the buzzing in their own ears. God forbid you ever have a headache when you have to work.

I’ve been working in bars for almost three years now and the scene is always the same. There are groups that come in and sort of interact with each other at a distance. You can almost pick out which guy is going to talk to which girl by the group of people they came into the bar with. One of my favorite games is “Will they or won’t they?”

I notice someone is either trying to talk to, making eyes at, or buys a drink for someone else. The other bartenders and I then make up the things they are saying to each other and what potential deal breakers can be. The reasons they won’t make it out of the bar and on their way to love town get completely ridiculous. Like he had a snake in the bathtub and wanted her to feed it rats.

Another long evening is ahead of me and I take a deep breath before going out for the start of my shift. I stand just in the storage room where I can see everyone but they can’t see me and I can certainly hear them. The flat screen televisions in high-definition line the walls playing the latest game. There’s never any sound playing on the TVs because there just wouldn’t be a point, no one would hear anything. The bar is packed and with all the shoving going on, I knew it was a matter of time before this happened.

“I’m going to kill you,” a dyed blond Amazon screams. She’s freaking massive and as I get closer, I think about shying back a little. Maybe it’s not fair to call her that but she had to be at least six two and thin as a rail. She could definitely take me out or at least break me in two, with a half-hearted college try.

“You just freaking try,” a short brunette with earrings that should be causing her to topple over swinging from her ears. I know she’s a D list socialite because she’s in the bar all the time and I’ve listened to her go on and on about her supposed fame. The Amazon will indeed kill her if I don’t step in. The last thing I want is to get in the Amazon’s way or be noticed, but the shorter blonde here wasn’t giving me much of a choice. The tall woman’s whole body is rigid as if steam could come from her ears and it would be mingling with all the vape and overpriced cologne in the air making my eyes tear.

As predicted, the shoving starts, and people clear out from around them, scattering like mice away from the feral pair of cats. The bystanders escalate the situation by turning around to watch, blocking my view. After I make my way around the edge of the bar, I move into the fray to try and separate the two extremely drunk women. I shake my head at Gary, disappointed. The bouncer won’t break up girl fights. He worries about roughing up women too much and getting sued. He should be worried about our boss getting sued instead. But, that’s why I step in. Despite everything, I actually like my job.

That leaves it all up to me to be the hero. I’m not out of shape, but I’m not the strongest woman. At five feet five, I hold my own. Going to yoga a few times a week really pays off as does running, when I can. Perhaps it has made me bolder than I should be because once I get into the middle of the women I realize this is a mistake. The Amazon woman looks about seven-foot-tall and the socialite swings right when I get in front of her catching me in the eye.

Stars explode around my vision as a throb begins. It’s not the hardest of punches, but it is enough to stun me for a couple of seconds. The jarring force propels me out of the fray for a second cupping my hand to my face. The blonde slings several more drunken slurs. Now I’m starting to get pissed. I regroup jumping back in and reaching out. I grab her by her slicked-back ponytail and give it a sharp tug.

Okay, maybe I’m not fighting fair, but at this point, I don’t give a shit. I just can’t have bloodshed during my shift, and judging from the rage coloring Amazon’s face, there is the potential for bloodshed. She’s the kind of girl who probably writes REDRUM in the steam of her bathroom mirror after a shower. She has a look in her eyes that I’d definitely be afraid of if I were the other girl.

I tighten my hold on her hair, pulling her away from the tall Amazon before we are both slung over the top of her mountainous body. This would go down easier if she would co-operate with me rather going against but I doubt she realizes I’m trying to end this as quickly as possible.

“Regina,” I yell to the other bartender, “help me get them out of here.” Regina looks at me with a blank stare. I give her a curt nod which seems to get her moving.

With Regina tentatively grabbing onto the larger one, we get the two women out of the bar. They push and pull against us but they can figure it out in the street if they need to fight.

“Shit,” Regina says, “she got you good in that eye.”

“Of course,” I say and touch a finger to the tender spot. I flinch. I’m surprised it’s swelling up already. The adrenaline ebbs leaving the pain behind and lucky that I didn’t feel exhaustion before my shift.

“Bleach Blond Dumb-dumb got skills?” she chuckles. Regina is a natural blonde and not Amazon tall, but definitely several inches taller than me.

I roll my eyes and wince, boy that smarts. “Nah, it was a lucky shot.” Leave it to Regina to find a joke somewhere within a disaster. Luck or not, it hurts like a bitch. I really hope she trips over something on her way to bed tonight or stubs her toe on a dresser.

Regina chuckles. “Lucky or not, you’re gonna have a black eye.” Regina tries to touch it and I back up not needing the extra pressure on the spot.

I groan. “Perfect. Let me go see if I can cover it up.” I tell her and walk into the bathroom. It’s already starting to turn black and I have a good feeling my eye is going to swell up.

I walk to the lockers behind the bar to find some makeup and see if I can salvage my look. I depend on the tips I make nightly to survive. It’s going to be pretty hard to tend the bar like a one-eyed pirate. I’d borrowed some money one time for rent, and that was a mistake that has haunted me since I did. Rent was coming up again and I needed to be able to flirt with the best of them, not look like a horror movie extra. Luckily, I keep enough makeup to cover six girls faces with me at all times.

Regina came back to check on me. “Second shift is here. George is entertaining the crowd for a minute.”

I look in the mirror, dabbing concealer around the darkest part of the bruise. I decide to make the most of a smoky eye before its swollen shut. At this rate, I’ll be lucky if I don’t accidentally stab myself with a mascara wand. “Yeah, I think I can cover up the darkness for tonight anyway. Not telling what it will look lik

e tomorrow.”