Veroe
Maestro/Truthseeker
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2009
- Posts
- 63,401
((Closed for Myself and LadyThunder))
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IC: Mark Everett
Mark was in a bad stretch of luck. It had started with the loss of his wife and daughter in a car accident last year and then with the poor economy causing the parent company of the adventure magazine he worked for as a photographer to discontinue it left him without a job. A serious double whammy that left him reeling for months in grief and inactivity. The loss of his job had meant the loss of his home too. For the past two months he had been crashing on an old friend's couch. Moping mostly. Eric, his buddy had finally had enough and had given him an ultimatum. Go out, meet a nice girl, get laid this weekend.
So here he was at some bar or something called The Rock bottom, waiting for Eric to come by and pretty much minding his own business drinking a beer. The place was a bit of a dive close to the freeway. Apparently Eric knew the owner or something for all Mark had to do was mention Eric's name and he got his beer on the house.
Mark swallowed another mouthful of Budweiser. Maybe Eric was right, maybe he needed female company. He and his wife Claire had been in a rough patch even before the accident. How long had it been since he had sex? He couldn't even remember.
He scanned the crowd, noting possible girls to approach to remedy his predicament, but not seriously. They were around his age, but Mark felt older than all of them put together, laughing and chatting with friends. Shallow, two-dimensional, boring, all of them. He didn't have the energy for them.
As a child he craved excitement and danger. While everyone was huddled for safety as a tornado swept through his hometown he was straining at the window to get a glimpse of it. He was fascinated by it, such power, such danger, it was beautiful. It had made him feel alive and addicted him to the thrill of life on the edge ever since.
He became a photographer for Adventure magazine, just so he could make a living sky-diving, bungee jumping, taking assignments in warzones, Seeking out photogenic encounters with grizzlies, sharks, and Tigers. The last one, a tigress had given him a nasty trio of scratches from his shoulder down across to his hip. It had been the last time he had felt anything more than grief and pity since the accident.
He took another swallow. It looked like he was going to strike out tonight, hell with this crowd he wasn't even likely to get to the plate. Then three black SUVs pulled in, their roofs carrying trunks and luggage. Four or five guys walked in wearing casual clothes but something about how they surveyed the patrons of the bar struck his memory. These guys were scanning the crowd like Mark had seen security men do for VIPs around the world, checking for potential threats.
They chose a couple tables close to one corner where they could observe all the entrances for the bar. Mark didn't see what else they were doing for the woman they were gaurding stepped inside then. He could see why they were hired to gaurd her. The woman was gorgeous, supermodels would weep with envy looking at her. Everyman in the bar and hell even the woman took notice of her. Mark expected her to be swarmed immediately but her people were probably there just to prevent her from being crushed by would-be suitors. Not that she needed their help, a good look at her eyes would make most of these guys falter. Those clear bright pools of color reminded him of the look of the tigress that had given him the scars across his back. Hell she even walked like a predator on the hunt. She crossed to the jukebox and bent over it looking to make a music selection.
Well, now time to swing for the fences. He'd probably strike out, hell he may get eaten alive by this hot sexy man-eater, but he'd go feeling alive for the first time in far too long.
He arose and approached her. Handing one of the glowering security men his half-empty budweiser bottle. "Hang onto this for me, would you, bud?" He slipped past him and leaned over the machine beside the woman. Watching the songs she was considering. He pointed at one, "That one." He winked at her, "Let's dance to that one."