That Night....Part 4

"Just another night in LA for a single girl," Zara says to no one in particular with a heavy sigh. She finishes the rest of her drink in one swallow. "At least I can burn off some of this energy on the dancefloor." Zara shrugs off everything that had transpired in the previous 3 hours and settled on making the best of the remainder of the night. Zara refused to let this night be a bust. The disappointing date, the fruitless flirting, and the possessive "friends" all amounted to nothing but irritation.

Sweat started to form around Zara's brow. For a straight 45 minutes, she danced through a number of old school hip-hop songs from the 90s and early 2000s. Once the sweat started to drip down her back and chest, she decides to rest her legs for a bit while the DJ indulged in a set of lesser-known West Coast hip-hop. She glances around the bar which, by that time, was filled with people of various ages and races. She spots Eve near the front of the bar chatting with a cute, Asian guy with tattoos covering his right arm and shoulder. Zara giggles to herself. She admired Eve's charm. Eve could enchant any man and, from the look on Asian tattoo guy's face, he was surely the next victim to be cast under her spells.

Zara envied Eve's freedom, confidence, and carefree attitude. Zara was the opposite in many ways. Of course, the ladies had their similarities. Zara was at least confident, but she was far from carefree. Zara cared too much to be honest. She cared too much about what her family thought of her being unmarried and childless at the ripe age of 35. She cared too much about the opinions of her former classmates from law school, college, and even high school, so she meticulously curated her social media profiles to prove that her life in L.A. was fabulous. Above all, she cared too much about the nagging possibility that she would spend the rest of her life without love. Even worse, she would spend her life chasing it and continue being let down again and again and again until her heart's broken pieces were shattered to dust particles. She cared too quickly and too deeply about the undeserving men in whom she made the mistake of investing despite the red flags. In this very moment, in the middle of a bar and the blaring music, Zara cared too much that she sat alone in the corner while everyone else seemed to be connecting with another human. Zara felt the tears forming in her eyes. She blinks them back and grabs her purse, heading outside to get some air.

As soon as she steps out the patio door, Zara takes a deep breath of the cool night air. Something had come over Zara's spirit and she desperately needed to shake it off. She took a few more deep breaths trying to suppress the incoming wave of emotions. Zara was determined not to have another episode tonight. Her eyes started to sting. She leans her head back so the tears pooling in her eyelids would retreat. Her thoughts start running, taunting her, asking the dreadful "why" of everything.

Why did I let that woman get under my skin?

Why do I waste so much time with the wrong guys?

Why don't I attract the good guys?

Why am I still single?

Why?

Zara surrenders to the tears as they start to fall. She covers her face with her hands to muffle her sobs.

"Get it together, Zara," she commands herself as she wipes her face and swallows the remainder of her cry. She takes a deep breath and looks around to see if anyone had seen her in her moment of weakness. The patio was empty aside from a couple making out in the corner like no one else in the world existed. She feels a pang of envy. Before the couple's passion has an opportunity to pull Zara back into sorrow, Noah interrupts her thoughts. "You look like you could use one of these," the owner says, offering her a cigarette.

Zara blushes from embarrassment, wondering how long he'd been watching her. She didn't even hear him approaching. By his sympathetic tone, she knew that he was aware that she had been crying.

"Thanks," Zara replies as she slips the cigarette between her lips and leans forward for him to light it.

"My pleasure, beautiful. You having a good time tonight?"

"I am," Zara exclaims with too much cheer in her voice to be believable.

Noah chuckles. "Yeah I can tell."

The two stand there on the patio, smoking cigarettes and looking out at the night sky, in silence. It was exactly the comfort Zara needed in that moment. Just by his presence, Zara's loneliness faded and her tension eased. After about five minutes or so in silence, Noah flicked the butt of his cigarette out into the alley.

"I will tell Bella your next drink is on the house. I want to see those sexy hips moving in the next 10 minutes, alright?"

"Yes, sir," Zara giggled.

Noah turns to Zara and looks down into her eyes suggestively. "You let me know if you need anything else." He gently caresses her cheek with his finger. As Zara begins to melt where she stands, Noah smiles, pinches her chin, and heads back into the bar, leaving Zara in a trance.

Zara finishes her cigarette. Luckily, she happened to have a pack of those chewy mints in her purse. She pops a couple in her mouth to cover the taste and smell of the Marlboro Light. She silently prays that her clothes haven't picked up a smoky stench.

"Zara, there you are! I was looking for you. Noah told me you were out here. You good?" Eve pops out onto the patio.

"Yeah girl, I'm good. What's up?"

"Mina's here! Her bday is tonight. They are about to cut the cake and sing happy birthday. She was asking if you were here. I think she's trying to hook you up with one of her coworkers who just moved here from Detroit or somewhere. I think his name is Sean or something. He's cute too." Zara says with a wink.

"Girl, I do not want to be somebody's hook up like some charity case. Lowkey, I'm kinda over men for the night. Maybe even for the rest of the year."

"Girl bye. Come get some cake and meet the boy. Nobody said you had to get married. He seems cool. Come on." Eve waves Zara to come with her. "Oh and stop by the ladies room first and check those puffy eyes. Freshen up your lips and your mascara while you're at it. Looking like a sad puppy," Eve adds with more judgment than Zara appreciated.

"Whatever. I will be over there in a minute."

"Hurry up," Eve shouts to Zara as the door closes behind her.

Zara sighs and begins mumbling to herself, "I don't need no damn hookup. I'm gonna entertain this Sean person for 10 minutes and then I'm out."