Surprise

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Part 1. Part 2.

Surprise

Adam, Pan, and Bredik road in the van in silence. Bredik, a husky black man with glasses rode in the back, his face illuminated by his phone, while Pan rode up front, next to Adam, who drove, keeping his eyes on the foggy road.

“Man, I can’t believe that place,” Pan said, as he leaned his head against the window. “We got denied out of three clubs.”

“Yea,” Adam said, shaking his head. “That was crazy. We drove an hour to Manheim only for the bouncers to tell us we can’t come in. Crazy.”

Pan shook his head and lifted his phone. “The first club, the bouncers asked if we had a reservation. I’ve never been asked if I had a reservation at a club before.”

“Yea, and the second one—”

“The second one was trash,” Bredik said, shouting from the backseat. “Pan, that was your fault. You was like, yea, one of the bouncers is black, we should be good.”

Adam chuckled. “When we got to the front of the line, the dude looked at us, shook his head and said no, absolutely not.”

Pan shook his head. “That dude was a hater man.”

Adam rubbed the back of his head. “The third club was even worse. We approached and those 3 bouncers were like, ‘Hey, guys, where’s the girls?’”

Pan laughed. “Yea, and your dumbass told ‘em we didn’t have any girls.”

Adam laughed. “Bro, that’s why we were going in the club! To get girls.”

“Yea,” Pan started. “Then the bouncer said there were no girls in the club, it was all dudes.”

“And you turned around and left!” Bredik shouted.

“Because!” Adam said, squeezing the steering wheel trying to hold in his laughter. “They said it was all dudes in there.”

Pan shook his head. “He was being sarcastic.”

Adam started laughing. “He ain’t sound sarcastic.”

The van filled with laughter, as they all recalled their terrible night in Manheim.

“What’s the plan now?” Pan asked. “I’m trying to get beligerant drunk tonight.”

“We can go to K Town, where our kind is wanted,” Bredik suggested.

Adam, who was the designated driver for the night, shrugged. “Fine with me.” He picked up his phone, put in the coordinates for K Town, and they drove the rest of the way, talking about the girls, Manheim, and racist bartenders.

A sigh escaped Adams lips. Quiet enough no one else noticed. The last thing he wanted was for Pan and Bredik to have the time of their life in Manheim, while he was sober. Was that hating? Maybe. It wasn’t that he didn’t want them to have a good time, its just he didn’t want to be left out, so he was a bit relieved nothing happened in Manheim, since he hated being in the club sober or without a girl. It had to be one or the other, and since he was the designated driver, he had to find a girl. He looked at the clock on the dashboard. 10pm. The night was still young.

 

***

They arrived in K Town around 1100pm and parked, probably illegally, in what may have been someones driveway. Adam wasn’t really sure, and at the end of the day, it wasn’t his van, and there weren’t any no parking signs, so he could feign ignorance and get away with it. He stepped outside and was immediately grateful for his thick jacket with the fur around the hood.

“It might as well snow of its gonna be this cold,” Pan said, as he stepped out of the van. “Right now, its just cold for no reason.”

Bredik grunted in agreement, and the three walked down the streets. Empty, as they were away from all the activity. They crossed the street, the music, talking, laughing and shouting grew, and Adam sighed. He mentally prepared himself for a rough night, as he was the DD, he’d have to endure Pan and Bredik’s drunken antics. He watched a group of women walk by, thinking perhaps, if he’d be less bored if he found himself a girl, and just like that, he was no longer thinking of a rough night, instead, thinking of how to make it a good one.

“Bro, I’m hungry,” Pan said as they stopped in front of a fried chicken restaurant. Adam and Pan knew the one, because they’d come here last week. Adam hated it. The food was decent, but the owners always played the same song on repeat.

“Same,” Bredik said, and they walked into the restaurant. It was small, a group of black men wearing matching fraternity outfits sat in the booths to the left, while another group of men huddled in a group to the right. As soon as they stepped in the restaurant, the T.V mounted on the wall began to play Hot Nigga by Bobby Schmurda. Pan laughed.

“Yo, Adam. They playin the song again.”

Adam shook his head. “I was tired of that song when it came out 5 years ago,” he cast a glance at the man behind the counter, a hairy, brown skinned middle eastern man. “They’re about to make me tired of it again.”

Pan laughed and ordered a meal. Twenty minutes passed, Pan and Bredik finished their meal and stepped out.

“Cloud Hookah?” Pan asked.

Adam shrugged. “I’m the DD. Ya’ll choose.”

“Cloud, then,” Bredik said, and they made their way to Cloud Hookah. Compared to last week, the people were sparse, leaving Adam to wonder if its packed during the winter. They walked into the small room, climbed the stairs and opened the tinted door to Cloud Hookah. To Adams surprise, the DJ was playing R&B and there weren’t a lot of people. They walked up to the bar. Pan and Bredik ordered drinks, while Adam was studying a group of girls sitting in a booth at the far left corner of the lounge, when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned and, to his surprise, saw Hippo.

“Adam!” she exclaimed.

“Yo, Hippo,” Adam said, and gave her a quick hug. “How you doing?”

“I’m good, and guess what,” she turned and looked toward the far right corner. “Frenchie’s here.”

“Cool. Tell her I said whats up,” Adam said, doing his best to sound cool. Something must have betrayed him, because Hippo tilted her head in concern.

“What’s wrong?”

Adam fixed his face in mock confusion. “Nothing. I’m not trying to interrupt her. She her with her man?”

Hippo pouted. “Are you mad?”

“Nah,” Adam said, shaking his head.

“Go talk to her!” Hippo urged.

She was clearly drunk, because no sober girl would tell a side fling to go talk to a girl when she’s with her man. Adam smiled. “I’ll go say hi, gimmie a sec’.”

Seemingly satisfied, Hippo made her way to the corner, just as Pan and Bredik turned around, drinks in hand.

Before he could protest, or direct them somewhere else, Pan and Bredik made their way to the right corner of the lounge, while Adam, preparing himself for an awkward moment, followed behind. They sat down, Pan and Bredik beside each other, while Adam sat down across from them, and in doing so, caught a glimpse of Frenchie laughing at something a tall, skinny, black guy with glasses said.

Pan and Bredik began sipping their drinks, while Adam did his best to keep his attention away form the right corner of the room. He found himself, once again, focusing on the group of girls sitting in the booths at the far left side of the lounge. He turned to say something to Pan, when, to his surprise, he saw, Frenchie approaching in his peripheral. He turned toward her and smiled.

“What up, girl?”

“Hey,” she said, arms open for a hug.

A hug? Strange, Adam thought.

They embraced and he watched, with more confusion than surprise this time, as walked to where he was sitting, grabbed her jacket and purse, brought it over with her, sat down, and snuggled up next to him.

“You good?” He asked, putting his arm around her.

“Yes,” she replied.

“Ain’t that your man?” Adam asked.

“It’s complicated,” she responded.

He leaned in, the aroma from her perfume filled his nose. “I’m not trying to fight no one, Frenchie.”

She shook her head. “He won’t fight. Especially not you.”

This woman clearly doesn’t know how crazy love, or even lust, can make someone, he thought. He gave the guy another once over. Didn’t look like he cared very much. Just roll with it.

“Alright,” Adam said, holding her close. “I’ll tell you what. We can be together for tonight.”

She pulled away, he eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Adam flashed a grin. “I meant, we can be a couple. Get your mind out the gutter. Tonight, we can pretend that whatever happed on WhatsApp didn’t happen, and we’ll just be a couple tonight.”

She smiled. “Aww, that’s sweet.”

Adam and Frenchie spent the next two hours snuggled against each other, speaking in hushed tones, barely audible over the Hip Hop and R&B playing in the lounge. He made her laugh, while she massaged his shoulders, hands, and neck. Occasionally, the Hippo would sit down and say something, but, Adam simply enjoyed his time with her.

“Crazy how the universe works,” he said.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well, me and my friends got rejected from three clubs in Mannheim, which you told me was a good place to party.”

She looked up at him, her brown eyes full of mischief. “It is.”

“Then how’d we get rejected?”

“Because, you didn’t have any girls.”

Adam opened his mouth to respond, then closed it.

“You get it now,” Frenchie said, smiling.

“Yea…you said it was a good place to party because you and I were supposed together.”

She nodded.

“And we wouldn’t have been rejected because—”

“You would’ve had me with you,” Frenchie said, leaning against his chest.

Adam shook his head. “I thought the bouncers were racist, but…they were turning away white guys.”

“Yea, the ratio wasn’t right. The bouncers like to have more girls than guys.”

“Yo, we fin to head out,” Pan said, standing up. “We’re going to the club.”

Bredik stood up, downed the last of his drink, and they left, the lounge, leaving Adam and Frenchie on the couch, snuggled up.

“You not gonna go with your friends?” she asked.

“Nah,” Adam said, watching them leave. “I have to be sober, and they’re going to the club. I won’t be missing much.”

“You were talking about the universe?” Frenchie asked, rubbing Adams hand.

“Yea. I didn’t think I’d see you again, much less here with you, like this.”

“I thought you’d be mad at me,” she said.

“Why?”

She began tracing circles with her finger on the back of his hand. “Because I rejected you. Men don’t like that.”

Adam shrugged. “It is what it is, Frenchie. You got a past relationship and it came up. I can’t expect you to just drop everything after one date, a video call and some text messages.”

She nodded.

“Plus,” he said, holding her close. “Out of all the girls I’ve been talking to since I’ve been here, you’re the second best.” She pulled away, but Adam continued. “You’re real cool, cute, smart, artistic and are into things I have no idea about. I like that.” She punched him on the shoulder, then lay her head on his chest again. “And yet, here we are…”

She was silent. He wanted to ask more questions, but that would complicate things. It didn’t matter. It was as he said. Just enjoy the time.

Hippo sat down, her eyes glazed over, and she started to speak to Frenchie in what Adam assumed to be German. It was difficult to tell, because her words were slurred. Frenchie sat up and they began to talk, and judging form the tone, it seemed to be more of an argument, although when it came to German it was hard to tell, since the language seemed so aggressive.

Frenchie rolled her eyes and turned to Adam. “I have to get Hippo home. Can you help?”

Adam watched Hippo walk over to short, husky, black man with a grill. “He ain’t trying to take her home is he?”

“No,” she said, standing up putting on her jacket.

“Alright, because I’m not fighting for none of that,” Adam said, standing up and grabbing his jacket.

They walked over to the booth and Adam watched Hippo practically beg this man to take her home. Frenchie walked over to Hippo, grabbed her, and stood her up, the entire process such a balanced of delicacy and firmness. Something Frenchie had done 100 times.

Hippo stood up, looked at me as if for the first time, and smiled. “Adam? Am I drunk?”

“Absolutely,” Adam responded.

Frenchie apologized to Adam, then cast a sharp glance at Hippo. “Come on, time to go,” she said, her voice curt.

Hippo shook her head and walked over to the DJ booth. Frenchie took a step forward, and shook her head. “No. Give her 5 minutes, she’ll back.”

Sure enough, about 5 minutes later, Hippo wondered back, babbling about her and the DJ having an on again off again relationship. Frenchie, nodding the entire time, guided Hippo to the door, who, surprisingly, was able to walk straight.

Adam opened the door and kept an eye as Hippo and Frenchie walked down the stairs until they stepped out into the alleyway.

Adam looked at his watch, it was only 2:45am. He looked in the direction of the club and sighed, he still had, probably another 2 hours. He turned and gave Frenchie a hug. “Alright, Frenchie. I’ll see you around.”

“You leaving? Can you help?”

“Sure,” Adam said. “Anything’s better then standing in a club sober.”

“DAMN ITS COLD!”

Adam and Frenchie turned around to see the husky black man step out of the room onto the street, wearing only jeans and a blue short sleeve shirt.

Hippo turned, smiled, and walked up to him, her face inches from his. “Please…lets go to your house…” she said, in what she thought was a whisper, but was really her normal voice.

“I told you, Hippo. If we do that, it’ll end bad for you. I’m super toxic, girl,” the man said.

Frenchie shook her head, gave Adam a hug, and lay her head on his chest. “I love her, but times like this, I hate her so much…”

“Yea,” Adam said, looking down at her. “I got friends like that too. Don’t worry though…” Adam stepped forward and extended his hand to the man. “I’m Adam.”

“Jamal,” the man said, shaking Adams hand. “I’ve been trying to tell her she don’t want none of me. I’m super toxic.”

Adam nudged Hippo. “Hear that, Hippo…” his attention went back to Jamal. “Bro, you ain’t cold with just a tshirt?”

“Yea,” Jamal said, hugging Hippo, most likely more for warmth than anything else. “I had a vest, but it’s at the club. It won’t do much, but its better than nothing. I gotta go. It was nice meeting you bro.” He turned and ran toward the direction of the club.

“Thank you,” Frenchie said.

“Easy work,” Adam replied, knowing he didn’t really do anything. When in doubt, just act confident. Always worked.

The three made their way down the alleyway and stopped outside of Hippo’s car. After arguing with Hippo that she was indeed drunk, despite her protests, Adam and Frenchie were finally able to get her into the car.

Frenchie wrapped her arms around Adam. “It really was nice to see you tonight.”

“Yea,” Adam said, looking down at the top of her head. He stepped back and looked at her. “Ay, fuck that other dude. I’m officially shooting my shot right now.”

She nodded. “I respect that…but he was first, I have to give him a chance.”

Adam shrugged. “All good. Alright girl…”

She smiled, stepped forward, stood on her tip toes and they kissed. “See you later…”

He threw up the peace sign. “Until we randomly run into each other again,” he said, as he watched her walk around the car and get into the driver’s seat.

He turned and walked away and looked at his watch. 3am. He sighed, his breath a white plume of steam in front of him, and walked toward the club. The rest of the night went as he expected, sober and miserable in the club, but his thoughts lingered on Frenchie, and in an rather poor attempt to forget about her, he walked up to a rather large women and tried to dance with her, but she rejected him. He’d had enough. He told Pan and Bredik he was leaving.

“Nights still young,” Pan said.

“You got 15 minutes,” Adam said.

Pan just ignored him. Thankfully, another coworker was there with a car. After making sure the coworker was sober and had enough room for Pan and Bredik, Adam left the club, his racing thoughts on Frenchie, the scent of her perfume still lingering in his nose. He was surprised he’d seen her, even more surprised she abandoned whoever she was with to spend the entire night with him, but in the end, that’s all it was. A night and time spent. It was fun, and who knows, they’d probably run into each other again.