My Heart Races for You

I turned the steering wheel and pulled into a small, half full parking lot that belonged to a small bar called Angelo Brothers’ Bar. It wasn’t the cleverest of names considering my friend Chris Angelo and his brother Oscar ran the place. It brought in a relatively large crowd on nights with sports going on.

Strangely enough I have never set one foot into this bar in the nine months that I’ve known Chris. We first met after he assisted me in changing two flat tires. I knew how to change a tire easily. He happened to be driving by in his 2006 Ford F150 and asked if I would like to use his floor jack. This was back when I was still relatively new to the Los Angeles area.

I loved living in Los Angeles. Warm weather, beautiful beaches, even the palm trees. I don’t know why, I just love the way they look. They’re not full like every kind of tree back in Boston. Never having to shovel my way through snowstorms is a huge plus too. It was different here, but it definitely suited me.

I opened my car door and hopped out of my car. I stretched as I closed the door behind me. I pressed the lock button on my keys and turned to admire how my car looked in this lighting. It was a beautiful 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT8. The sunset complimented the colors. Orange with two black stripes running from the hood to the trunk. It was the car I always wanted. I smirked and walked into the bar.

I glanced around a bit as I made my way to the counter to take my seat at a stool. The place was pretty nice. Large TVs hanging on the walls around the room displaying multiple games of baseball and ESPN talk shows. The room filled with tables in booths made of wood with a clean and smooth looking finish. Each booth had a picture of Chris and Oscar with a celebrity that came here at one point and wrote over it with their signature.

“Well well, look who finally decided to pay me a visit,” A familiar voice called from behind me. I spun in my stool to see Chris behind the counter in front of me, wiping down a glass with a piece of cloth.

“It’s a nice place you got here. I kind of wish I came here months ago when you first asked me to,” I smiled scanning the room again. I didn’t actually mean that. The place was nice, but bars aren’t really my idea of a fun hangout spot.

“Thanks brother. So what can I get ya?” He leaned on his hands awaiting my answer. “First one’s on me.”

“Actually can I wait a little longer?”

“If my brother wasn’t working with me tonight I wouldn’t mind. But he’s pretty strict about people not ordering drinks when they sit at the counter. So just order something for me to put in front of you and you’ll be able to sit as long as you would like,” Chris leaned backwards to find his brother, who was making conversation with a middle aged couple.

“Well tell Oscar he’s an ass,” I chuckled waiting for Chris to at least crack a smile. He didn’t. He looked back at me with slight disapproval. He knew I was joking. He also knew I didn’t really like his brother. Oscar really is an ass, to me at least. I don’t know what he has against me. I haven’t done anything to him nor have I ever really talked to him.

“Please? My brother is being extra bitchy tonight. I don’t want him to come back over here and chew me out,” He took out a glass ready to fill it with my choice of drink.

“Can I just have a water?” I murmured feeling kind of awkward. Chris furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. He opened his mouth to say something but stayed frozen. “I don’t drink,” I added to clarify. He shrugged his shoulders and walked away to fill the glass.

“You come to a bar to have water? You’re either weird or just confused,” A woman’s voice spoke to my right. I turned my head to lock eyes with a dark haired, tan girl. Her eyebrow was raised and she was giving me a kind of nasty look. I could tell she wasn’t trying to be rude, but rather trying to joke around.

“Well I’m supposed to meet someone here in about 15 minutes,” I pulled out my iPhone and checked the time. 7:47 it read.

“I’m guessing like a pretty girl or something?” She asked before taking a sip of a bottle of Corona.

“What makes you say that?” I turned to her leaning my elbow on the countertop, smirking. I really got to see her now. Wow. She is one beautiful woman. She looked really fit and wore a black tank top with jeans that were a darker shade of blue. She seems tough. I could tell by the way she speaks that she doesn’t take shit from anybody. I liked that.

“Because guys don’t go places they don’t want to be unless a pretty girl makes them. You’re all the same,” She shook her head while turning to me. She raised her eyebrows a little, probably at the fact that I was a lot taller than her. I was 6’2. She couldn’t have been any taller than 5’5.

She was exactly right. I was here to meet a girl. One I barely knew. One of my roommates set me up with his coworker’s sister. At first I was against the idea of what was practically a blind date, but when he showed me photos of her on Instagram I had a hard time saying no. I got to know my blind date a little more prior to tonight. Her name was Sasha and she was a model for a local shop that sold beach attire. She was 26, a year older than I am.
“Well then I guess you can say I am,” I responded, hinting that she was exactly right.

Who is this girl? Is she friends with Chris or Oscar? I need to know her name. I also need to not sound like a creep while trying to get it out of her. I feel weird. She intrigues me and I don’t know a single thing about her.

She shook her head, smiled at the satisfaction of figuring me out, and turned back to the counter to sip her Corona again. I pursed my lips and started to think fast. I need to get her attention again.

Chris returned with my glass of water after what seemed to be forever. “Here you go my friend. And like I said, this one’s on me. Don’t have too many. You still need to drive home,” He pointed at me while pretending to be a concerned parent. It made me chuckle. I wanted to say something in return. But I couldn’t think of anything clever to say. Not with her on my mind. I really needed to know her name at least. “You need another Corona, Letty?” Chris asked looking in the direction of the girl next to me.

“You should know me by now Chris,” She smiled and nodded.

Chris nodded in return following with a “Coming right up.” He walked away to fetch her drink.

“Letty,” I repeated the name, unintentionally out loud. I noticed her turning to me again out of the corner of my eye.

“Is there a problem?” She furrowed her eyebrows as she probably assumed that I was insulting her name.

“No, not at all. I’ve just never heard that name before. I like it. It’s unique,” I sipped my water hoping that it calmed her.

That must’ve caught her by surprise. She looked somewhat guilty for how she responded. “Thanks…I guess,” she murmured as she looked down at her hands that rested on her lap.

I gave a half smile and a nod. My phone buzzed in my pocket. I took it out and read the notification. It was a text from Sasha. It read, 'I’m going to be a little late. My photo shoot went longer than expected. I’m going to get ready now and I’ll be there in about 30 minutes. I’m so sorry!!!'

I’ve already been sitting here for about 20 minutes, and we agreed to be here at 8. I looked back up at Letty, who was no longer paying any attention to me. I took the opportunity to admire her. I really do think she is stunning. Everybody else in the room seemed to disappear for a moment. She had me in a trance. I could’ve gazed at her for the rest of the night. But that’s considered being really creepy, so I blinked three times and turned my attention back to Sasha’s text.

'We can do this some other time if you want,' I typed. Immediately after I sent it the gray bubble appeared telling me that she was already typing a message.

'No I wanna finally meet you!'

I sighed and pressed my fingers against the screen of my phone to type out a message quickly before she puts her phone down. I said, 'I’m not really in the mood tonight. So can we please do this some other time?'

Sasha is really fast at typing on a phone. Before I could even hit the lock button on my phone, a paragraph popped onto my screen.

It read, 'What the fuck? I’m just gonna be a half hour late because of work and you’re just gonna cancel on me now? Fuck you! I have an extremely busy schedule and I took the night off for YOU! So have a nice fucking night.'

My roommate did warn me about her being a drama queen. I just didn’t realize she was this crazy. To be an ass I replied; 'Thank you, and I will.' I ended the message with a kissy-faced emoji. Girls always hated when I did that. They would get angry with me and when I respond with a message like that accompanied with a happy emoji, they just got angrier. In this case I didn’t really care. Sasha was pretty, but she wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Plus she took at least 3 hours to respond to every text. I don’t like that. I couldn’t ever call her either because she was always so ‘busy,’ According to my roommate; she just went to parties every night. After getting to know her a bit, I didn’t really want to meet her. She just didn’t seem like the type of person I want to be around. But my roommate begged me to at least give her a chance.

Being annoyed with almost having to meet Sasha wasn’t even the bigger reason for me canceling our little meet up. I honestly wanted to sit here and get to know Letty. She amazes me and she’s only said 5 sentences to me. I wanted to talk to her. No. I needed to.

“Was that your little girlfriend?” Letty teased, saving me from having to think of a way to spark a conversation with her.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” I sounded almost disgusted. I shoved my phone back into my pocket. I ignored it’s vibrating, knowing that it was just Sasha trying to get the last word in.

“Whatever you say-“ She paused, furrowing her eyebrows. “I think I deserve to know your name since you know mine.”

“Caleb,” I responded, stretching out my arm for a handshake. “Nice to meet ya” I joked.

She raised an eyebrow at me with slight amusement and shook my hand to play along. “Caleb. I’ve never heard that name before,” She said mocking my comment earlier about her name.

“Shut up,” I chuckled. Letty smiled in response. What an incredible smile.

It was now approaching 9PM, meaning I’ve been sitting here with Letty for almost an hour now. We’ve been talking the entire time, getting to know each other a little more. She acted a lot more friendly towards me once she realized I’m not just some random guy trying to fuck her. She’s 28, single (thankfully), and seems to have a huge interest in cars. That made me all the more interested in her. It’s not everyday you meet a girl that knows her cars.

“So where’s this girl you’re supposed to meet up with?” She asked.

I bit my lower lip and answered, “Um…” I paused to look around the room, acting as though I was actually looking for her or expecting her. “I don’t know. I guess she blew me off,” I shrugged my shoulders trying to convince her I was a little upset. It seemed to work. She gave a look that made it seem like she felt bad for me.

“It’s whatever. You wouldn’t mind sticking around and talking to me for a bit longer would you?” I smiled hoping she would say yes. I wasn’t sure how long she was planning to stay here.

“I guess I could stay for a little longer,” She pulled her hair back behind her ear.

A ‘little longer’ turned out to be a lot longer. We stayed there discussing random things about ourselves, joking around, and making fun of people in the bar. I loved every moment of it. At first I thought she would be acting tough the entire time. But once she lowers those walls she put up to keep horny men away when she came here, she was actually really nice.

The bar eventually cleared out and eventually became empty. Before I knew it, it was 1 in the morning. “Alright you two, it’s time to close up. And do it quickly before Oscar gets cranky again,” Chris sighed out of exhaustion.

I gave him a disappointed look, not really wanting to leave. “Awww man,” I dragged on the words to sound like a whiney kid.

“What? It’s Thursday night! If you want to be able to stay later, come back tomorrow night,” He said beginning to shut off the lights in the backrooms.

“I don’t know Chris, he might have had too many drinks tonight,” Letty started chuckling and Chris followed with a loud laugh.

“You guys are assholes,” I smirked while standing to my feet. I hear those jokes quite often because I don’t drink. I don’t care though. You start to get used to it after a thousand times.

Letty and I walked out together. Our cars were parked only two spaces apart. I don’t know how I didn’t notice her 1973 Jensen Interceptor. She has an interest in American muscle.

“Hey,” She called from her car. My head shot up a little too fast. “I’m sorry about your date.”

I chuckled under my breath, “It’s fine. Thanks for keeping me company,” I gave her a wink, being a bit bold. She didn’t say anything to that. She just smiled and shook her head while getting into her car. In a split second she backed up and sped off onto the highway. I stood leaning against my car listening to the fading sounds of Letty’s engine roaring.

I didn’t really know what to do. I felt like a puppy that was left in a box, just anxiously waiting for someone to come and take him. Being with Letty made me feel so different. We connected so well. Her absence just left me craving more time with her. I’ve never looked forward to seeing someone again this much ever. But then it hit me. “Fuck” I muttered under a sigh. “I forgot to get her number,” I shoved my face into the palms of my hands. I shook my head in disappointment with myself, got into my car, and headed back to my apartment.