Flashes;

Elise tossed back her third shot of the hour, while scanning the busy dance floor with hopeful thoughts. She kept thinking that maybe, just maybe, her friends would show up at any minute with happy smiles and sincere apologizes about not getting there sooner. With every passing second, her hope started to decline as she thought about the tequila she had just swallowed.

Flagging the tan bartender down and waving her empty shot glass in the air, she watched as he reached for her favorite bottle and strutted in her direction. As he reached her, she placed her glass heavily on the counter and drummed her fingers on the dark granite surface impatiently.

“You’re all set,” his accented voice purred towards her before he settled on his elbows, eyeing her.
“Are you one of the girls that came with the bride?”

Glancing around the club once again, she spotted one of the few women in pink who at the exact moment smiled and waved in her direction. Elise gave a smirk and waved back, before turning back to her glass and the man in all black still waiting for an answer.

The smooth glass touch her bottom lip as she mused her momentary friend, “Did the giant, pink ‘I’m with the bride’ pin give it away?”

He chuckled as she took her swig, all while she noticed how his eyes lingered over her pin and the strap that it was attached too. “Maybe.”

Elise wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, knowing that it was not at all lady like, and not so lightly placed her glass back down while enjoying the warm simmer starting in her chest. “I could have sworn you were going to say something about being a great people reader.”

“Ah,” she heard his tongue click the roof of his mouth. “Well that I am.”

“Oh?”

A quick review around them and the bartender crooned his index finger, drawing her ear closer to his lips. “I saw you at the door earlier, all alone, you are not really with those women,” Elise backed away a slightly, startled. “You saw them get in because they were on the list and were also so drunk that you could slide on in without anyone questioning it.”

She stood back up and straightened her back the best she could while staring down the bar native. “I don’t have any idea what you are talking about.”

Dark lashes covered his cheeks when his eyes closed and he chuckled lightly to himself. “Fine,” with his hands up in defeat, he started to back into the shelf of liquor behind him. “Your secret is safe with me, pretty lady.”

A shudder ran through her spine as she made a move to cut through the dance floor and to where her new “friends” were waving her over. Once last glance behind her and she saw that her shot glass was still waiting patiently in the exact spot she had put it down and the creepy bartender was no longer watching her.

“Hey E!” The bride to be slurred as she struggled to get up from the overly plush chair that could only be found in the VIP section of the club. “We were just getting ready to play my bridal games!”

She watched as all the other women in the group grew more excited while the woman in white rummaged for something in her clutch. Not that she cared too much, she didn’t even know the bride’s name or who her bridal party was. Elise had decided that she did not need these girls looking for her when their night got out of hand, so she just gave them her nickname that she had as a child.

“There are games for these kinds of things?” she spoke quietly to herself.

Apparently she was not quiet enough because the blonde giggling next to her, turned and stared at the party crasher with wide eyes. Elise held her breath in fear that she would be found as the intruder of the group, but the woman broke out in a crooked smile and clapped her hands over her shoulders.

“Of course, silly!” Blonde shook her slightly. “Every bride has a list of dares that she can do herself or make someone in the party do. It’s ‘For the Bride.’”

Elise forced herself to fake an excited smile until Blondie turned back around with an enthusiastic skip, allowing her to cringe to herself. I would pick the one gaggle of women who are polar opposites of me, she thought bitterly.

After a moment of heavy internal battling, Elise decided that maybe she should just call it a night. She did the one thing she said she was going to do and that was going out alone; a big achievement in her book.

Taking another look at the overly excited group of friends, Elise began to unpin the button hooked to the strap of her little black dress. She gingerly placed her false identity on the closest table to her and began to turn on her heels, but not before the bartender from earlier caught her eye with a domineering smirk.

“Hey!” Someone from behind, who sounded more sober than the rest of the bunch, called out over the squeals of laughter. “Where do you think you’re going E?”

Her shoulders slumped in utter defeat as she turned back around, but not before shooting a glare in the direction of the bar. “Um, ladies room?”

A raven-haired girl with heavy eye makeup scoffed at her excuse before leaning over to whisper something to the bride. The bride’s happy smile seemed to disappear as her gaze turned towards Elise, causing the pit of her stomach to drop with the oncoming embarrassment of being caught in her lie.

With the help of the two girls sitting next to Bridezilla, she was able to get up on her feet and wobble unsteadily in her stilettos in the direction of Elise. When she reached her destination, she grasped the outer rim of the table for balance and turned her begrudging glare to the pin sitting on table only inches from her well-manicured hand.

“Do you think you can get away from this?” The bride hiccupped slightly.

Elise was not entirely sure what she was talking about, but she did know those tequila shots from earlier slowly start to work their magic on her fermenting brain. “Um -”

“Just because we are about to start of the best part of the night, you think you can just pretend you are not a part of it?”

Now she was even more confused about what was happening. Was she being yelled at for trying to leave the group or was she getting snubbed for pretending to be a part of this party, when she really was ditched on her own birthday?

“I was going to make sure that I do the first thing on this list,” Stilettos turned back to her entourage and threw her hands up in act of rallying more excitement out of them. “But now I am thinking that you should be the first to go.”

Elise let go of the breath she was unaware that she still was holding. All along she thought that she was going to have security called on her and have to be taken past the bar and thrown into the alleyway like they do in every movie she has ever seen. Instead, it looked like she was still being given a way out of this awkward situation.

“Fine.” Her answer aroused more excitement from the girls and she was pretty sure that one of them let out a bat like shrill. “What do I have to do?”

Bridezilla gave a menacing smile and held up a single slender finger. As she stumbled her way back over to the other women, they formed a barrier, much like a football huddle, around their friend leaving Elise completely out of earshot. Even the music seemed to have gotten louder at same moment their arms linked together.

She could have sworn that they shouted, “Break!” before turning their attention back to the black sheep of their group. Every single one of the women gave her the exact same smirk and she could have sworn that raven-haired girl was throwing daggers at her with those brown eyes.

“Are you sure you can handle this?”

Elise rolled her hazel eyes, causing herself to get momentarily dizzy. “There is only one way to find out.”

With a deep breath, Bridezilla took a step closer to her. “Your dare for the night is to get at least two drinks and a number out of whatever guy we pick out for you.”

The drunken slur she had mere moments ago seemed to have gone all the way out the door, causing a something uneasy to settle deep in the pit of Elise’s stomach. Even though her face was starting to feel a little tingly in places, she made sure that she kept it vacant of any expression.

“Alright,” she stared back at the women in front of her, some of which still had their arms hooked together. “Who’s the lucky guy?”

Raven laughed, but it didn’t actually sound like she thought Elise was being amusing. She stepped out from behind the bride and it was in that moment that Elise caught a glimpse of the Maid of Honor sash thrown across her shoulders.

“Turn around E,” she said curtly. Doing as she was told, she faced the bar that she had been at maybe five minutes before and saw the bartender chatting excitedly to a man in a suit. “You see that man over there?”

“The bartender?” she asked hesitantly.

There was a snicker close to her ear, “No. That would be too easy, considering he was all over you earlier.” Casting a sideways glance at her possible opponent, she saw Raven had her mouth in a thin line. So she turned back to her hunting grounds, “The man he is talking to is the one you will be conversing with.”

There was a group sigh from behind, even Raven seemed to be a little awestruck by this stranger they were all staring at. Elise cleared her throat and leaned over to whisper to Raven. “What if I can’t get his number?”

Another devious smirk from her, “Well then you might have to find another way home, E.”

Of course, that wouldn’t be an issue for her. She didn’t want those girls to know where she lived, especially when she does not show up for the wedding. With a slight shove, Raven sent her on her way, making sure to inform her that they would all be watching from their section above the dance floor.

While making her way through the moving crowd with several unheard apologies about running into strangers, she reached her destination. Much to her surprise though, a different bartender came straight towards her with a double shot glass of tequila and a simple wave of the hand when she tried to give her name for the tab.

“Someone already put it on theirs,” he shouted over the loudest part of some techno song.

“Who?”

The man pointed somewhere to her right and when she followed his outstretched finger, she had to brush some stray hair out of her face just to make sure she was seeing things semi-sober. A fit of flutters coursed through her veins and the only way she knew how to quiet them was by downing the shot like her life depended on it.

With a quick thank you to the bartender, Elise took a steady breath and headed in the direction of the man with the suit, who just so happened to be same man who just bought her drink.

That would count as the first one, she thought to herself. That actually is making this a little easier.

She knew that the tall man must have seen her heading in his direction, but once she found herself standing aimlessly in front of him - he showed no interest in her presence. At this point, the liquor seemed to be hitting Elise harder than she had expected, so she used the moment to gracelessly stare at the very handsome stranger before her.

This stranger was easily six feet tall with a very broad body frame and arms that seemed to strain at the sleeves of his suit jacket. His sandy brown hair looked to be a tad messy for someone as well dressed as himself; like someone had spent the night running their hands through it. His chin was squared off in the direction that she had come from and when she followed his gaze, she saw the women she had snuck in with staring at them with wide, expecting eyes.

She gave them a shy and sloppy wave before turning back to her person of interest whom now seem to have completely focused in on her. Her mind was so muddled with Cuervo that her mouth couldn’t understand proper manners.

The man before her smirked, showing off a dimple in his chin. Elise’s knees started to puddle a bit. “Hey,” his voice smoothed out over the beat of the newest song that had come on.

She managed to muster out something close to a greeting before her mouth started to go completely numb, signaling that she should absolutely not drink anymore tonight or she would wake up completely hating life.

“The names Tony,” he stated loudly, causing the other women at the bar to look in their direction and cast a glare at Elise. She did not blame them, this Tony guy was by far one of the best looking men at the club tonight.

With a surprisingly steady hand, Elise put her right one out in a more formal introduction of sorts. “My name is Elise,” when his hand engulfed hers, she felt a wave of unexpected heat wash over her whole body. “Um, thank you for the drink.”

Once again, Tony smirked and Elise had to look away before she found herself thinking about all the ways she could get her hands to run through that chocolate brown hair of his. This was so not like her to be thinking that way.

“You look like you needed one,” his head jerked in the direction of the bridal party before his twinkling, blue eyes fell back to hers. “Not that I blame you, I would have been drunk long before arriving here with that group.”

That got a hearty laugh from Elise. “You have no idea.”

Tony shook his glass, his ice crunching together causing the one bartender she thought she was done with for the evening, to head in their direction. “Can I buy you another?”

A simple nod of her head and they both had a shot glass in their hand before she felt like she had even blinked. “That’s some impressive service.”

“Ah,” she watched as Tony picked up a sleek looking card and placed it in his breast pocket. “Enrique and I go back awhile.”

“Didn’t this place just open, like last week?”

With a shrug, Tony placed his glass in front of hers and gave it a tip. The clank that came afterwards seemed a bit delayed, having Elise’s head feeling a lot like a fish tank. Regardless of the fact that she knew she really should not being taking another one so soon with no water or food in-between, she threw her had back and embraced the thick burn that slipped down her throat.

She kept her eyes closed for just a moment longer, trying to gauge just how drunk she was. Deciding that after she was done with this lame dare, she was going to get out of this place before something royally stupid occurred.

“Are you okay?” a male voice snaked through her thoughts.

Upon opening them, she saw that Tony was staring at her looking momentarily concerned with two more double shots in each fist. “You aren’t going to throw up are you?”

This caused Elise to give a hybrid of a hiccup and a chuckle. “I think I know how to handle my liquor.”

He eyed her, up and down and then nodded to himself in seeming approval before placing the shots back down on the bar. “I have an idea,” he stated while flagging Enrique down again.

“Hm?”

Elise watched as Tony leaned over the bar-top and mumbled something to their mutual acquaintance, before he took the glasses and started to walk around the bar with them. The pair followed his footsteps with their eyes, watching as he took the couple of steps to the VIP seating that Bridezilla and Raven were stationed at.

Tony turned towards Elise as another loud squeal echo over all other noise. “What do you say we get out of here?”

Elise knew nothing about this man except that she really wanted to feel if his hair was as soft as it looked. Deep down, her more sober conscious was telling her this was a very bad idea and that she just can’t up and leave with a total stranger.

She bit her bottom lip as her thoughts continued their battle. “I don’t think I can just leave my friends.”

Tony was watching her chew on that bottom lip with the up most concern that she has seen in a man for quite a while. “Elise,” her name rolled off his tongue as his gaze moved from her lips to her eyes. “We both know that you didn’t really come with them.”

Elise gaped at him like a fish that managed to jump out of that wave pool her brain had become in the last ten minutes or so. “’Cuse me?”

He let out a sigh like he was starting to get bored. Turning his attention back to where her group of “friends” were, he let out a little smirk. “It isn’t that hard to figure out really.” He glanced at her, almost as if to make sure that she was still listening to him.

“The maid of honor has been glaring at you for the last hour you’ve been here, they are all way more drunk than you are, meaning that they probably were somewhere else before coming here. You are the only one out of the six of them that is wearing all black when clearly you should be wearing that putrid baby pink.

Those must be the bridesmaids dress color. Am I right?”

Once again, she could do nothing, but gape at the very observant man before her. “I – um, wait, I -”

His laugh sort of rumbled through his whole body when he turned his huge frame towards her. “Listen, you don’t know me, I don’t know you, I am just trying to offer you the easiest way out of here.”

Now she knew she really was drunk because her brain wasn’t even trying to come up with a reason not to leave with Tony. In fact, her more sober conscious was cheering for her to go with him. So removing her front teeth from her lip, she felt her mouth split into smile so wide she could actually feel her cheeks start to hurt.

“Lead the way,” she answered.