9. Club Fever

**Maeve**

Not once, twice or thrice...but multiple times it happened. It was like a giant stack of cards stuffed into my brain, and every time I bumped into someone, it got pulled out and flashed before my eyes. I knew the visions got triggered by stress because the second I had run away from Xander’s apartment, it started.
Five out of four resident doctors left no stone unturned to display their displeasures for my inattentiveness, and I forgot the number of times I had to say sorry to people I had bumped into. Finally, into the little break, I quashed from the hours of duty and sat down on a quiet desk and burrowed my head into my hands.
“Are you okay?” A hesitant voice questioned as I looked up and found Heather standing with a clipboard in hand.
“Yes.” I sat straighter, almost tiredly. “So, umm, how’s the Shack?” I asked before she could ask me about my state of self.
“Ugh.” She made a face, rolling in a chair to sit beside me and plopped the clipboard on the desk. “Don’t ask. Marianna’s boyfriend is an ass.”
I chuckled a bit and drawled, “Okay. I am going to need al little more information.”
Heather sighed beside me with a mixture of exasperation and anger. “He was cheating on her and she found out.”
“That’s terrible,” I whispered.
“No, terrible is when your friend begs you to take her out and you have no choice but to agree on it.”
Yeah, everyone needs an escape route. “Well, Shacks is always an option,” I suggested but immediately met with a scowl.
“Not exactly,” Heather rejected. “It is co-owned by Marianna’s ex and that’s the last place she wants to go. But there’s another club called Fever that I found out, that’s pretty good.”
“You guys can check that out too.”
She threw me a narrow-eyed look. “Seriously, you are going to turn me down today as well?”
“I haven’t really—”
“C’mon, Maeve!” The rest of my words drowned into her whine and inducement. “I am not exactly a great advisor when it comes to post- breakup situations. Trauma injury, yes, but definitely not relationships.”
Like I was an expert. The morning’s incident almost made me chuckle mirthlessly. What kind of a girl turns down a hot guy when he kisses the hell out of her?
“What makes you think I am?” I laughed, shaking my head.
“I don’t know. Ever since I met you, you are very calm, collected and have never done anything irrational or illogical. So, I am guessing you are one of those magic fairies for these situations.”
The irony of my life. Pushing my face into my hands, I groaned disappointedly. “Wow. You have really some misconceptions,” I grumbled.
As badly as I wanted to go out and spend some time with new friends like Heather and Marianna, I knew what crowded places could do to me or my false-wired brain, but isolation seemed too heavy to bear.
“Please!” Heather squeezed my forearms imploringly. “Besides, this Club Fever has an awesome crowd too. Particularly, the hot kind.” She winked salaciously, like going home with a guy was really an option for me.
“I still have my shift,” I reasoned.
“Oh, c’mon. I heard you over-timed yesterday. We can tell that to the supervisor and go out a little early.”
Between her puppy-face and my indecision of staying home alone, I gave in. The moment I would set foot in the apartment building, the only thought that would crawl into the brain would be of Xander’s. It would be hard not to imagine that he was just across the hall, with his perfect-self, while would have to marinate in angst. No way!
Alcohol and bad decisions only. “Okay, fine. I am in.”
The moment I affirmed, Heather’s face lit up with a thousand fireworks on the fourth of July. Pulling me into a tight hug and a promise that I should get ready after the shift, she sprinted away as I leaned back into the chair wistfully.
That’s it, Club Fever it is.
****
Club Fever was different from Manhattan clubs. Not that I have been to most of them, but the handful ones I visited looked nothing like the rugged aesthetics around. The music was different, something between jazz and rock, and the crowd was less crazy.
“This place has really cool drinks,” Marianna peeped into the glass like she was trying to find some treasure in it. Needless to say, she was dead-drunk.
Heather snatched it away from her hand, frowning. “It’s sparkling water, genius.”
“Really?” Marianna, the fiery redhead among us, squeezed her eyes. After the cocktail of drinks, she had injected into herself and almost started to strip herself naked in the bar area, Heather, and I had to stop it. We distracted her with conversation and sparkling water, but it didn’t last very long. In the last hour, she blabbered about the countless times when her ex reacted like a jerk, and she let it go because he was supposedly ‘charming.’
“I wanna dance!” she shrieked out suddenly, causing the Cosmo I was cradling in my hand to almost spill.
“Oh, no, no!” I swung my head from side to side and pulled her back to the barstool. “I am not doing this at all.”
“But why?” she pouted, reaching for my Cosmos, and I pulled back like a kindergartener. “It’s supposed to be fun!”
“Actually, that's the only way we can keep her away from the alcohol,” Heather laughed. “Otherwise, we will be eighty-sixed, and the next thing I know that some burly bouncers are dragging our asses out of this place.”
“Fine by me.” I raised my hands in surrender. “But I am seriously not hitting the dance floor.” something I haven’t done yet, and I was sure not to start now and embarrass myself any more than necessary.
“C’mon, you guys!” Marianna was already dragging Heather by the arm as I sat back and waved, savoring the last drop of the Cosmos. I watched them weave through the crowd of swaying strangers and finally disappear into it.
“Can I buy you a drink?” a voice behind me asked.
I swiveled to find a stranger, charming one at a glance, standing right beside me. He has a lean body, more of a sportsman than rugged features of a bulky bodybuilder, and immediately my mind started comparing him to Xander. God, I was a complete idiot.
Masking the inner thoughts, I quickly smiled. “No, thank you. It’s a girls’ night out.”
“Really?” He grinned around. “So why are you sitting all by yourself?”
“I am not.” I pointed at the dance floor. “My very-drunk friend and the other one are somewhere in there.”
“Ah, I see.” He smiles brilliantly, nodding. “So, is this a celebration or breakup party?”
It was my turn to smile. “So, do you do this often? Walking up to a random girl and try to play the shrink?”
Mr. Charming chuckled under his breath and leaned in towards me a little. “You got me. So,” he straightened back, making himself a bit too comfortable on the seat like he has no plans to move—“can I buy you that drink you refused?”
“You never give up, do you?” Generally, at this point, I get up and leave, but today, I was happy to be distracted by a lame conversation.
“Tell you what: when your friends return, I will be a perfect gentleman and let you have that girls’ night.”
My gaze dragged to the dance floor, then back to him, and I sighed. “Fine,” I allowed. “One drink.”
Ugh. It’s going to be a bad idea; my brain screamed.
Mr. Charming leaned to the other side and whispered something to the bartender, who simply nodded and returned to his task. In record time, he prepared something different—something I haven’t tried—and passed on to this guy.
“Here, try this,” he offered a glass full of weird pink liquid and decorated it with a rim of salt.
“Thank you, Mr...?” I looked at him expectedly, watching the grin spread wider.
“Matt.”
“Right, thank you, Matt.” I took a sip of the drink, and to my surprise, it’s actually great. A good blend of lime, tequila, and other things. It was like a margarita but different.
“And what do I call you?”
A took another sip and shook my head. “Nothing. I don’t go by—”
My vision went blank for a moment, and a series of images flipped away like a video on fast forward. I could hardly make anything out of it except for that it was some kind of danger.
“Are you alright?” A gentle shake on my shoulders suddenly brought me back, but the reality was even more frightening. This guy—Matt—his mouth was dangerously close to mine.
“No!” I tried to push him away with all the might, but my shove was as weak as my head. It was almost spinning to the point I could hardly see straight.
“Oh, c’mon. A little fun never hurts.” His hand snaked around my waist, sliding lower.
“What do you—”
Whatever happened after that was a blur. One second this guy was all over me, and in the next, he was sprawled on his ass on the floor and groaning.
“Maeve! Are you okay?” An anxious male voice penetrated my ears, but I couldn’t see anything else. “Maeve!”
“I…” My legs were boneless, and I was almost going to crash when a strong arm draped over my shoulders and caught me mid-fall. It was then, and only then did my vision cleared a bit. And it was the sight I least expected to have.
*“Xander?”*

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