Strangers When We Meet

by Ri

There was silence in the dark bar as she entered, She was tall and dressed in basic black. She strode to the bar and ordered her drink. Her voice was strong and yet quite femine. As she took a shot of her straight whiskey she glanced around the bar. There was the usual bunch of low lifes she had come to expect. They slowly began to speak and move about the place once again.

She took her drink and moved with cat like grace to her booth. She sat down on one side and put her long legs up settling her feet on the other. She leaned back and nursed her drink as she watched the activity around the bar with bored amusement sparkling in her bright blue eyes.

Then those eyes caught golden hair at a booth across the bar. The first thought that crossed her mind was, 'That kid doesn't belong in this joint.'Her sharp eyes took the young woman in considered perusal. She was petite 5'4 with short golden hair and beautiful blue-green eyes. Right now those eyes flashed in anger at the guy in the booth with her as he tried to get closer
to the young beauty. What ever the guy was whispering to her seemed to make the young woman even more outraged.

For some strange reason watching the young woman's pretty face redden in anger started to feed a rage of her own. Suddenly she stood up and stormed over to the table where the small war was taking place.

She towered over both the occupants and she couldn't decide if the man was drunk or just crazy. For some unknown reason he looked up at the tall dangerous looking woman with contempt and said, "Get lost."

"Excuse me?"

"I said get lost. I know the rest of these wimps are scared of you for some reason, But I sure as hell aint!"

A feral grin crossed her face and she bent down till their eyes were with in inches of each other, "The reason the other patrons are not antagonistic toward me is that they know by experience my strength and capabilities far out weigh their own."

"What?" He replied stupidly.

She noticed the blonde smile at her and she winked back at the pretty woman. Turning back to the idiot she said, "They know I can whip their ass, Dog breath."Her voice was low and calm. There was no movement in the room once again, They were all watching the confrontation with intense interest. It appeared they all knew a fight was about to begin, One that the pretty blonde had a front row seat for whether she wanted one or not.

"What did you call me?"

"Dog breath."

"I..." suddenly the tall beauty had the man by the collar and was dragging him to the door of the bar. Ignoring his gibberish she briskly threw him out and nodded to the bouncer, She knew he would not let the little man back in. She then headed back to the booth with the beautiful blonde and smiled at the girl, "How did that idiot get you out alone? And how on earth did he talk you into coming in here?

The blonde smiled back at the tall beauty and replied quietly, "I work with him. He's been begging me for months and I finally agreed to a drink. I never expected him to take me here. I also stupidly thought I could handle the little twerp."

The tall woman's mouth curled into an appreciative smile. She held out her hand and in a friendly voice said, "My name is Randy."

The blonde's smile brightened and she gently took the offered hand and shook it, "Brittany."

For some reason Randy couldn't bring herself to release the little hand. So she asked with an unaccustomed shyness, "May I sit down?"

Brittany still holding Randy's hand nodded and replied quietly, "Please."

Randy gracefully sat down beside her. She realized she still held Brittany's hand and tried to release it but found that she really didn't want to, She swallowed a couple of times and said, "Can I buy you some dinner? I mean...someplace where they didn't catch the food in the kitchen?"

Brittany really didn't want to let go of Randy's hand and was glad that Randy let her keep the elegant appendage in her own. "I'd be happy to. Where would you like to go?"

** ** ** **

They sat across from each other in the nice restaurant not really able to do more at the moment then smile and stare at each other.

Brittany's heart was flip flopping but she knew she had break the ice or they would never get off the ground. "You didn't really seem to fit in with that crowd either. What were you doing there?"

Randy raised an elegant eyebrow and said quietly, "Its a motorcycle bar and I drive a motorcycle. One plus one equals two. Pretty simple really, huh?"She asked with lopsided grin.

Brittany returned the grin, She was ready for the challenge, "Yes, that makes sense, But why would you go there. Your way too smart for those people, Your beautiful and....well they were scared of you... your not a scary person, so...I..."

Brittany was shocked by Randy's next reaction. Laughter, "To answer your questions in sequence. A. I hate regular bars. B. I like being the smartest C. Thanks D. They're scared of me because one of them put their slimy hand on my ass and I lost it. I beat the crap out of him, so suddenly I was feared and respected with out being lethal. I liked that...I was...I was in the army and I was lethal...Brittany, I don't want to be scary...especially to you..."Her voice trailed off and her head dropped her face had reflected her mood change from amusement to worry and deep shame.

A small finger gently lifted the head till their eyes met,"I'm absolutely not scared of you, Randy. What do you do for a living now?"

A tiny ironic smile crossed Randy's lips, She loved the feel of those fingers against her skin. "Graphic design. I do cover art for magazines under the Imperial publications label."

Brittany's face reflected the surprise she felt, "Wow, Thats weird I work for Imperial as a columnist. I freelance mostly,but thats one of my regular gigs,I write for their computer geek magazine."

A huge smile crossed Randy's face and she caressed the hand still resting on her cheek, "I design all their covers and some of the graphics inside. What do you cover?"

"I write how to fix problems on line..."

"Your Tech chick?"

Brittany nodded, Randy smile grew even broader, "I do all your graphics. Your a very good writer."

Brittany blushed and smiled back, "Your art work is magnificent. Randy, we work together..."

"And yet we never met..."

"Till now. "They were staring at each other their food forgotten.

"Uh...Brittany, are you still hungry?"

"Not for food."

"Funny, I'm not either...Check"

To Be Continued....

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