Alise waved over a waitress and ordered a glass of red wine. “Can you drop in a few ice chips,” she was saying to the waitress when she was interrupted.
“Excuse me, Miss—Alise,” a tall white man touched Alise’s shoulder as he spoke. “Can I have a dance with you?” he asked with a huge, weird-looking smile plastered on his handsome face.
“Hello….no, I don’t feel like dancing right now. Just got off the stage, so I’m going to hang out with my girls for a while before I have to get back up there to sing again. Thank you though,” Alise said with a genuine smile and friendly tone.
The man tugged on her arm. “Come on, Alise. Just one dance, sweetheart.”
She tried to pull her arm away from his grasp while saying, “I don’t feel like dancing.”
The man didn’t let her go. Instead, his fingers started making a raging imprint in her arm as he gripped her tighter. Alise tried to pull away again, but it was obvious he was stronger than her and had no intention of leaving her alone.
“Let her arm go!” Janye yelled as she slid down off her barstool.
“I come here every Thursday and Saturday to see you, and this is how you treat me? Give me just a few minutes, please,” the man pleaded with Alise. “All I want is a dance.”
“But she doesn’t want to dance with you,” I spoke up for my friend who looked like she didn’t know what else to say to the man.
“Did I ask you anything, bitch? So you need to stay in your place. No one is over here for you anyway.” He turned back to Alise. “Please, I can give you everything—”
“Who the hell are you calling a bitch? You crusty little asshole,” I snapped into the old Tameka in zero point five seconds as I stood from my seat as well.
“Is there a problem here?” Jeb’s bouncer, Bruiser, walked up beside the man and stood in take down position as the muscles in his neck flexed. “Sir, would you mind taking your hand off the lady?” he said in a booming voice.
“Fuck off, and find your own girl,” the man said. He was clearly not as built as Bruiser, and his medium build standing up to Bruiser’s intrusive six-foot tall, heavyweight stature made me fear for his life. Him being smaller didn’t have an influence over the man. He stood there, poking his average-sized chest out, talking smack and standing up for his right to harass my friend. “I said get lost,” he growled at Bruiser before pushing him in the chest.
Bruiser grabbed the man and with little effort slammed him to the ground. He put his knee in his back and held him there as the man screamed, “Get off of me! Help. Someone get this man off of me!”
Jeb noticed the commotion and left the bar area where he had just went to do a cash pull and came over to kneel down beside the man. “You causing trouble tonight, buddy?” he asked as if he knew the guy.
“Jeb, I come in here every week to buy drinks. Tonight, I only wanted to meet the singer, but she was acting stuck up, and your muscle took it upon himself to floor me. I should sue this place,” the guy whined.
“He grabbed Alise and wouldn’t let her go,” I said to Jeb in Bruiser’s defense.
“Time to take out the trash.” Bruiser patted the man down then scooped him up in one quick motion. He tossed him over his shoulder like a ragdoll and started walking toward the front door.
“Put me down,” the man yelled, wiggling like a little kid as he glared at Alise. “This is your fault! I’ll get you one way or the other, so you can believe this isn’t the last of me,” he said as he glared at her with an evil look in his beady eyes.
“Bruiser’s going to toss him on his face and beat him up while he’s out there,” I said.
“Yeah, I better make sure the douche makes it to his car without losing a rib or an arm.” Jeb sighed as if weighing the outcome of his paid employee beating a man to death while on the clock before he walked behind them out of the club.
Just then, Channing walked toward the table from the bathroom.
“What’s going on? What did I miss?” he asked as he looked at the stunned looks on everyone’s faces.
“A crazy man just tried to force Alise to dance, and Bruiser had to get him off of her and drag him out the club,” Jayne said.
“Did Jeb go out there with him? Because you know Bruiser is going to put a hurting on him if no one is there to stop him,” Channing stated.
I nodded. “Yes, he’s out there with him.”
“Let me go see if my cuz needs my help,” Channing responded.
Kemara touched his arm. “Be careful, baby.”
“I will.” Channing pecked her cheek before he walked toward the door.
I turned to my friend who was rubbing her temples. “Are you okay, Alise?”