Face the Music

Chapter 1

I sat down at an outdoor table at the beach side burger joint. A moment later a cute, twenty-something waitress walked up and laid a menu down in front of me.

"Hi." She said, and gave me a friendly smile. I smiled back. "I'm Ella and I'll be your server today. Can I start you off with something to drink?"

As this girl stood in front of me I realized that she wasn't just cute - she was absolutely stunning. She had bright blue eyes with freckles sprinkled across her tanned nose. He hair was the color of caramel and she had her curls wrestled back into a braid. She wore a white, sleeveless blouse that showed off her sun-kissed shoulders. There was a name tag over her left breast that said, "ELLA" and the words "Burger Joes" were embroidered on her shirt. I didn't let my eyes linger seeing as I didn't want to come off as a pervert.

I ordered a Coke and a cheeseburger all at once, and tried not to stare as she walked away. I distracted myself by observing the beachcombers. It wasn't difficult to distinguish tourists from true Californians. The tourists generally had cameras, big bags, and nasty sunburn.

I moved on to scoping out the restaurant, finding exits, dark corners that could conceal a person, and I identified the guy that would first start swinging if any sort of shit went down. He was sitting at the bar, was only about 5 foot 10, and weighed around 175 pounds, but he had an aggressive manner about him, like he was looking for an excuse to break someone's nose. I could have kicked his ass.

I was not a small guy, closing in on 6-foot-2, 200 pounds, but I was young, only 26, which often threw people off. I also had received an abundance of government training that allowed me to incapacitate any threat in under 2 seconds, using a variety of methods.

At that moment, a group of rowdy college guys strolled in. They looked to be between 23 and 25 years old. I probably just looked like another spring-breaker next to them. The 3 of them took a seat at a table leaving one between mine and theirs. My mind automatically put them at the top of the "First to Start Swinging" list, and the guy at the bar was pushed into 4th place. They looked like they'd jump right into any fights that got going. I was pretty sure that nothing was going to happen but it never hurt to be prepared.

The waitress, Ella, returned with my drink and set the Coke down on the table. She rolled her eyes as one of the newly seated guys whistled to get her attention. She ignored them and said,

"Your burger should be out soon, but can I get you anything in the meantime?"

"No, thanks. I'm just fine." The guys at the table 2 down from me whistled again. I turned, slowly and deliberately, and stared them down. They didn't really notice me though, because the waitress was making her way towards their table. Needless to say, their attention was elsewhere - like on her body.

The 3 of them were a bunch of pretty boys. All wearing cargo shorts, designer sandals, and surfer-boy tank tops, and each of them had more gel in their hair than I'd used in my entire life. I picked the blonde one out as the ringleader. I didn't like him much. The guy to his right was wearing a backwards ball cap and sunglasses that probably cost more than my first car. I figured he was the sleazeball of the group, and the whistler. I didn't like him much either. The third guy had a buzz cut and had spent plenty of time in the gym. I pegged him as the unintelligent brawler of the trio.

Ella kept it short and sweet, not giving them the courtesy of a friendly hello, or her name.

"What can I get you?" She asked.

The kid in the ball cap said, "C'mon, Ella baby." They'd obviously met before. "You know there's lots of things you could give me," he said suggestively.

I hoped to God that she'd wind up and sock him right in the nose. Mr. Sleazeball reached up to grab her ass and she danced lithely out of his reach.