Guardian Angel

5 Dinner

She traveled to the second floor of one of the nearby hotels to the restaurant. She was the only one in the elevator surprisingly, save for the reflection of herself in the mirrored walls. She was dressed sharply, as it was dress code for the steakhouse. She wore a simple, dark black dress reaching her knees with black simple heels. Her long blonde hair was brushed. The elevator opened for her, signaling her entrance to the restaurant with a bing.

    Her eyes grew wide as she took in the décor of the restaurant. It was dark with purple lights glowing down from the ceiling. Along the right of the room was a long row of windows looking over the Las Vegas strip, lights pulsing like a heartbeat. The music was low and was drowned out by the chatter of people for the restaurant was extremely busy. A small group of young looking people were crowded around the large wooden desk at the entrance to the room. Some were lip singing to the music in the background while others seemed to be a heated exchange of words. SHe slowly made her way toward them and one of them looked up at her with a bright smile.

            "Goodevenin', ma'am," the young man replied, his eyes running over Harley's body quickly and Harley didn't quite like the way he looked at her, "How many?"

            "I am meeting some people here," Harley replied, "Reservation under the name Aaron?"

            The man looked down at a piece of paper of the desk and grabbed a highlighter, drawing a yellow line over the pen. He then looked up at Harley, "This way, ma'am," and Harley followed the young man over toward the windows, her eyes searching for Zak and Aaron amongst the crowd.

            Suddenly, a voice called out her name, "Harley, Over here!" and she looked ahead toward the back of the restaurant, a hand waving above the bobbing heads. Harley smiled as she eyes connected with the two men as she came to their table. The young man nodded to Harley, a flirtatious smile on his face, and left her.

            Aaron stood up first, his hand reaching across the table to him, "Hey, Harley! Good to see ya again," and Harley's body shook as the larger man hammered their connected hands up and down. Harley couldn't help but laugh at how joyous this man was. Harley's eyes roamed over him as she did so. Aaron wore a silk, grey shirt with a black tie and matching slacks.

            As Aaron sat down, Zak stood up and shook Harley's hands. Harley almost pulled back though when she felt an unknown electrical charge shoot through her arm. Thinking it was nothing, Harley smiled, "Hey, Harley," Zak smiled warmly as if he didn't feel the electricity, and sat down in his seat, Harley following behind him. Harley looked over Zak as the man picked up the menu in front of him. Zak wore an odd outfit and completely black, but it was elegant in the way that black was elegant. He wore a felt, trench coat that was covered in a gothic theme; silver buttons and straps covered every inch of the fabric. Underneath, he wore a plain black shirt and Harley could see Zak's muscles shift underneath it as he flipped the menu over.

            "So, whatcha thinkin' 'bout for dinner?" Zak asks, a smirk on his face as he looks up at Harley catching her looking at him.

Harley looked away quickly hoping Zak didn't catch het, "Not sure," she eyes ran over the words on the menu, but they were blurry, "What do you suggest?"

            "Never been here before," Zak replied and looked back down at his menu.

            "First time, actually, being in Las Vegas," Aaron replied and just then the waiter came up, a tired look on his face.

            "Hello, my name is Erik," he sighed out, "I'll be serving you this evening. What can I get for you to drink?"

            Zak cleared his throat, "Whiskey, please," the waiter nodded, not even pulling out his notepad to write their orders down, and looked at Harley.

            "Just a water, please," she replied, she didn't like to drink and so one beer for her that day was enough.

            The waiter turned to Aaron who looked up at him with a goofy smile, "Coke, please, and can I have a cheery in it?" Harley laughed at the waiter's confused expression and Zak simply rolled his eyes.

            "Alright, I can do that," the waiter responded it, "I'll have your order out shortly," and left their table.

            Aaron turned to Zak, who looked at him with an amused expression, "What?"

            "Nothing," Zak smirked and turned to Harley, "So, Harley, tell me a bit about yourself?"

            "Well," Harley cleared her throat, quite alarmed by how quickly this conversation turned to her, "I grew up on the East Coast, in Salem, New Hampshire, though I was born in California," at Zak's confused look, she said, "Long story. Ummm...," Harley thought for a moment on where to go with her life story, "Fell out of a tree when I was eight, felt like I died and I believe it was that moment that made me realize about the world around me," she elaborated more on the topic, "When I was nine, I began to... see things," her hands moved as she explained and Aaron watched Zak watch Harley with a look of longing and amusement. Aaron knew he would have to ask Zak about it later and he would get his answer no matter how much Zak may protest, "You said before, Zak, that you and Aaron were paranormal investigators, right?"

            "Yes," Zak nodded slightly.

            "So, yea, you know what I'm talking about when I say that?" Harley said.

"Yea," he replied and shifted in his seat so he leaned toward Harley, elbows resting on the edge of the table slightly, "What kind of things do you see?"

            And, of course, the waiter had to come up at that exact moment with their drinks in hand. Taking the tall glass of water, Erik the waiter placed it down in front of Harley who mumbled 'thanks.' He then grabbed the small tumbler glass full of whiskey and placed it in front of Zak. And, last came Aaron's Cola with a single cherry floating at the top of the fizzy, brown liquid. Aaron was practically bouncing up and down in his seat at the sight of the marinated fruit and said a quick 'thank you' to the man. Erik then pulled out his notepad and asked for their order. Once their order was taken, Zak turned back to Harley.

            "So, what kind of things did you see?" he repeated his question. Aaron plucked the cheery from his soda glass and placed it in his mouth. The cherry stick stuck out of his mouth and twirled as his tongue swirled around the fruit. Zak glanced at Aaron and scoffed with a smirk on his face. Aaron gave Zak a look of confusion as he pulled the leftover cherry from his mouth and on the paper coaster beneath his drink.

  However, Harley's mind flashed to a memory she had hoped to forget, "It was little things at first, voices and noises, but then it grew bigger. I began to see people and flashes of another time. I thought I was crazy. Then, my father and mother began to believe me as they also began to see things and my mother was affected by it and not in the good way."

"You said exorcism at the hotel, was that what happened?" Zak asked; his fingers cupped around the whiskey tumbler.

            "Yes."