Finding her....

CHAPTER 2

DEAN

I walked into the changing rooms after having finished a gym session with Joe and showered, I felt something in my jeans as I slipped it on and saw a paper with a number written on it. I sighed and folded it into a little ball before launching it into the bin in the corner just as Joe appeared.

“And that was?” He chuckled before walking past me to grab his clothes from his locker.

“Women love me, brother. So much so that they are stupid enough to think that I would actually call them when there are thousands of fish in the sea” I shrugged as I slipped a t-shirt over my head before reaching for my blazer since we had a meeting with our client to get to.

“Of course there are Dean, I'm sure there’s a few in that bag” He mused.

“I’m sure if they could get in. there would be” I laughed and shook my head.

“So, who was your latest conquest?” He asked as he sat down on the bench and slipped on his rolex.

I shrugged, “I think her name was Sandy or maybe Mandy”

He rolled his eyes, “Sometimes I wonder how you even meet these women”

“Not every woman is a Monique, you know? They’re all just desperate for a good lay that they can't even do”

“But you still go to clubs to find them and head to their place every night?” He raised his eyebrow and packed up his things.

“It's better than having an empty bed” I mumbled as I scratched my cheek due to the stubble growing in.

“It might as well be the same thing, Dean.” He called out as he picked up his bag and started moving towards the door.

I sighed as I quickly packed up my things, knowing he was right. Once I finished with my pick of the night, they never complained. I would just roll onto the other side and sleep and then head out with a hangover the next day while they were still passed out.

“You heading home with me tonight?” Joe asked as I caught up to him in the parking lot and I shook my head. “Clubbing yet again?”

I nodded as he opened the backdoor and threw his bag in while I did the same, “I would rather stay in a lousy hotel than have your daughter and wife see me drunk off my ass”

“You know she is over that, you know?” He glanced at me as he pulled out of the parking lot and I put my shades on to block out the sun that seemed to be showing off today.

“It doesn’t mean that I am though. I don’t know, I will see how the night goes after this meeting and try and drop by tomorrow to see my two favourite ladies”

“Try? You better get your ass over there. Cassie asked about you last night”

I laughed as I missed that little girl, “Sure thing”

I wasn’t planning on heading home with some stranger tonight anyway.

“She really doesn’t hold it against you, you know? If she had, you wouldn’t have been a guest in our house several times after that” He narrowed his eyes as I nodded before closing my eyes to rest them for abit.

“Shut up, didn’t I make it clear to you that this wasn’t my house?” I whispered as we stumbled together and I tried guiding her to the guest room.

“Oh, f**k it!” I pulled her down onto the couch and she giggled which annoyed me while I dug into my pockets.

Are you kidding me?

I forgot to slip a condom into my pocket before I left, smart Dean.

“Just wait here” I whispered to her and made my way to the hallway closet where I had dropped my bag earlier in the day. I grabbed my key item but when I got back to the couch I saw no figure in the darkness and I wanted to call out for her but couldn’t remember her name.

“Blondie… Girl with Blo…”

“Aaaah!” I heard Monique screaming followed by Joe cursing and I immediately ran up to their room.

As soon as I got to the room I saw Joe standing next to the bed while Monique sat up and the woman who actually had red hair was seated on the floor.

“Is this one of your w****s?” I heard Monique and I was surprised because she had never spoken to me like that before.

“Er…” I began but she cut me off.

“I want you and your bimbo out of my house!”

“Excuse me, I am not…”

“When you try to seduce my husband while I am asleep right next to him, you certainly are!”

“I thought it was…” She looked at me but I knew she probably didn’t know my name either. “Him”

She lifted herself to her feet while I looked at Monique, “I am so sorry”

She knew about what I did but never judged me for my promiscuity but the look of disappointment in her eyes made me feel like s**t. She was like a sister to me and I had disappointed her.

“Don’t. You are so lucky that my daughter is at her grandparent's house.” She pushed past me while Joe approached me.

“I love you, brother. But I am trying my hardest not to come over there right now and punch you. So please, leave and take her with you before my wife comes back”

I bought her so many bouquets of lilies because it was her favourite and chocolates. After awhile things became normal with us again and I was happy because I didn’t know what I would do without my family.

●●●

Two glasses of Bourbon later and I had yet to see Dimples from the previous night, not that I was looking for her but I was observant and the guy Lou was serving me.

“Hi.. Er.. Lou..” He didn’t respond and I felt a hand on my shoulder just like I had the night before and turned and glanced over the woman. “Not tonight, darling. Find some other tree to climb up”

She rolled her eyes and turned away while I focused on the guy. “Yo Lou!”

He finally looked at me and seemed ticked off, “Its Luke.”

I nodded, “Where’s the er.. other waitress.. Blonde”

He eyed me skeptically before answering, “She’s off for the night.”

“Only one blonde working in this entire club?” I frowned because he didn’t even have to think who I was talking about.

“Well if you haven’t noticed, she’s the only woman working in this place” I looked around and realized there were only waiters walking around in t-shirts and jeans.

“Oh, well another Bourbon” I raised my glass and he took it.

“She will be here soon though, she owes me something” He seemed pretty proud of himself while I rolled my eyes not needing to hear about her owing him s*x. “So why do you want to know?”

“I don’t, all I did was ask!” I snapped as I suddenly didn’t like the guy and grabbed my drink and made my way to the other end of the bar.

He walked past me and made his way to the stage while I checked my phone for any sign of communication other than business. I shouldn’t have been surprised when Joe and Monique were my only contacts apart from a few other colleagues.

“Hello ladies and gentleman! It's Monday night and you all know what Lunar is special for on Mondays and Tuesdays right?” I heard Luke on the mic and rolled my eyes.

“Open mic! Open mic!” I heard the idiots cheer while he laughed into the mic. I sent a text to Joe to give a hug to Cassie for me before he spoke again.

“Open mic it is. Our special lady for tonight is someone we are all fond of, well if you are a regular you will know her. She rarely performs unless I force her to, I don’t think she realizes just how much we love her”

“Wooooo!”

I rolled my eyes as these people were crazy and that was coming from the lunatic.

“Come on, give some love to Zoeeeeeee!” They started clapping and I was pretty sure whoever she was wasn’t that special and…

“Hi guys…”

Her.

Her name was Zoe.

I turned to stare at the stage and saw the dimpled blonde smiling as brightly as ever, but she looked different from last night. She didn’t have the jeans or the t-shirt but had on a tight mini dress that fit her quite well.

Zoe…

“Tonight I am in a good mood so even though I love doing ballad covers.. I will be performing tomorrow night as well so” She playfully narrowed her eyes at Luke who stood off the side, smiling like an i***t.

In that moment I realized that I was the only i***t because that is what she owed him, a performance.

Not everyone is like you, Dean.

“But tonight, lets have some fun. I am sure you all know Confident by Demi Lovato?” She smiled and they cheered and soon the beat filled the club while she slowly swung her hips side to side.

I watched as she slowly started singing but watched as she pulled Luke onto the stage, “Come on, you’re the reason that I am up here so I will be torturing you”

He laughed while the crowd chanted his name as he walked onto the stage to join her and I felt my annoyance rise.

She started singing again and I watched as she pushed him down onto his knees while she swayed in front of him and I clutched the glass in my hand. She then playfully kicked him and he laughed as he fell back while she turned back to focus on the crowd and placed the mic back into the stand again.

“Its time to get the chains out

Is your tongue tied up?....

She made her way down the steps and the spotlight followed her as she made her way onto one of the dancer’s platforms and danced with them. She bent down as she did a high note and as she stood up and flipped her hair, her eyes fell on me before she made her way back onto the stage to finish off the song.

Luke ran onto the stage and hugged her and I felt jealousy fill me because I heard faint shattering and glanced down to see it came from my glass and my hand was covered in blood.

“Fuck.”

I saw her kiss his cheek and wondered what was going on between the two of them.

“Woah man, what happened to you?” I saw him in front of me and remembered my hand. “Zo! We need some assistance over here”

She appeared from the back, “What now? I was already forced to…”

“I think he got into a fight, the last thing we need is blood everywhere…”

She looked over at me and then back at him and he spoke, “Come on, you wanted to be a paramedic”

She glared at him before she reached behind the bar and walked around to me.

Waitress, singer, dancer, paramedic…

“Congrats, Zoe!” I heard some guy and she quickly thanked him as she reached me and stood between my legs as I held my hand up for her.

I tried to shake away the thoughts of having her body pushed up against mine as she put latex gloves over her small hands and took my hand into hers and she disinfected the cut.

I felt a chill as she touched me but a good one as she seemed to be concentrating on what she was doing. She then took a bandage from the box and slowing wrapped it around before securing it.

Once she was done she finally looked at me, something I hadn’t stopped doing since I saw her. She had blue eyes like me but with a hint of green but were mostly blue, definitely blue. She was really beautiful, hot and sexy too but really beautiful.

“What did that poor glass ever do to you?” I glanced over at the glass and felt no words leave me. “Uhm.. okay. You will live but next time spare the glass, ordering new ones are a pain.

She was gone before I could say anything, not that I could but I watched as she disappeared to the back and traced over the bandage on my hand.

“Want another Bourbon?” I heard Luke and realized he had cleaned up all the glass.

“Yeah why not.” I sighed.