Tamra and Nico's first meeting.

  It was a cool night early in the year, made all the colder by the brisk ocean breeze. Nico had been somewhat surprised at just how cold it was. Cold ocean wind was nothing new to him at his home in North Carolina, but being in Miami, he thought he’d be in for some early year warm weather. Seems even miami gets some chilly nights during the year as well, making this outing even more annoying for Nico as he followed the group of guys he was with on their drunken, bar hopping, bachelor party adventure. The lucky bachelor was a guy named Ronaldo, who was to be wed the next morning to Nico’s cousin Lola. Nico had come all the way down from North Carolina with his aunt and uncle and some other family for the happy occasion, and tonight, Nico had been dragged out from his hotel by Ronaldo and his friends for a last big hurrah on the town before Ronaldo “Gets tied down” as his other friends put it. If it was up to Nico he wouldn't have been out at all, but Lola had asked him specifically to watch over her husband to be for the night. Nico was known in the family to not only be a fun loving prankster around the younger family, but also one of the most trustworthy and levelheaded of the cousins when he needed to be. So in the end, this was more of a favor to Lola than anything else. It’s not that Nico doesn’t like a good party, but considering he didn’t know Ronaldo much, this seemed more awkward than anything else. It didn’t help that the only other person he knew in the group was another more estranged cousin named Ricardo, and the rest were complete strangers he’d never met and whose names he kept forgetting. (Robert, and Johnathan maybe?) Still, Nico isn't much of a drinker to begin with so he was the obvious choice for the job of dealing with with their drunken antics. Luckily Nico’s never had much trouble talking to strangers so he was able to stay in the conversation for most of the night, but it was plain to see his interests didn’t align at all with these people. At least they’d been behaving so far.

  In any case though, it was close to one in the morning now and he could see everyone was starting to slow down. It wouldn’t be long before they decided to head back, in fact, he was pretty sure the next bar they were now heading too would be the last. As the pleasant thought ran through Nico’s head, the bars sign came within sight. It was a medium sized place with an oversized neon sign out front that read “The Ace”. Nico had plenty of time to take in the scenery while his tipsy, inebriated crew was catching up. The bar was situated, like all the other places they'd been to that night, right across the street from the beach. Standing near the front door waiting for the others, he could easily look out to where the ocean opened up. From this angle the water was hidden by the sand dunes and line of palms, but he could still feel the same familiar strong ocean breeze he’d get in North Carolina, and the full moon was hanging majestically in a pitch black sky above the ocean. For a moment he wondered if he could sneak away to the beach to decompress by the surf, but in the end it was just a pleasant thought. He couldn’t betray his cousin Lola’s trust afterall.

  “You coming in, or what?” said an angry female voice behind Nico. He quickly turned around back in the direction of the club's door where the voice had come from. To his surprise he had to look down a bit to see the person the voice had come from. It was a young woman, probably around Nico’s age, who spoke. She had dark red brown hair done in a braid that lay to the left of her face and mocha colored skin just a shade or two darker than Nico’s own. She was definitely hispanic, he could tell that much at first glance and from the sound of her voice, though her eyes were a somewhat unusual, yet beautiful, sea green color for a hispanic. Nico’s first thought was that she was a very attractive woman, but the thought was quickly forgotten when he noticed the dark clothes and the ear piece she wore. This girl was an employee at “The Ace”,  and a bouncer at that considering her position at the front door. She stood there glaring daggers at him while waiting for a response. A name tag with the name “Tamra” was stuck on her shirt.

  “Yea, sorry, I was just waiting fo-” was all Nico managed to say before he was interrupted by Ronaldo who  just then caught up.

  “Of Course we're going in lil lady! Gotta keep this party going, right guys?!” Said Ronaldo, slurring most of the words. Behind him the other 3 guys roared their approval, and together they all made for the door, leaving Nico to follow. He took another glance at the angry bouncer.

  “Sorry about them, they’re not so bad when they’re sober. I think anyway.” he said to the woman jokingly hoping to soften her glare.

  “Get in or get lost.” was her only response as she turned away, towards the ocean where Nico had been looking before. It seemed the conversation was over. Can’t win em all, i guess was his last thought before heading in.

  Once inside he was met by blaring lights and loud music that shook him to the core with every low note. Their was a dance floor which was packed with attractive women and the men trying their best to grind up on them. Nico wasn’t a fan of this type of dance or party. If he was going to party he preferred it to be with close friends where he could relax and laugh openly, and if it came to dancing, bachata was his preferred style. A fast, fun, and only moderately sensual style. He found the mosh pit of dancers he was seeing now much less appealing and somewhat disturbing. Though maybe it was just the song now that was causing it. It was some hit, half pop, half rap mix that he’d always turn off when he heard on the radio. He didn’t consider himself to have any real musical preferences as he listened to almost all type of music, but if he did, rap would be pretty low on his list.

  “Hey Nico! Get yo ass ova here, primo!” Came a loud yell from Nico’s right. It was Ricardo, who was sitting at a table with the others, all of which already had a beer in hand. They move fast for drunks, thought Nico as he headed over to them. This section of the club was all tables with booths with a large open bar that was packed at the moment on the far wall. The decor of the entire place looked pretty modern, but was upstaged by the blaring rainbow lights flying everywhere from the dance floor. As Nico sat down they passed him a beer and the long night of drunken gossip continued.

  To Nico’s surprise, as the beers emptied the guys just asked for more. At each of the other bars they'd only had a small drink each, but it looked like this was going to be where they went all the way. Soon they were slurring their words and barely able to keep from laughing. They got louder and louder and when Nico mentioned they should quiet down they only laughed harder. Soon Nico noticed people looking at them and he knew it was about time to end it.

  “Hey guys, settle down alright, you're drawing too much attention” said Nico to the group in a more stern voice than he’d meant to. Nico liked to be the center of attention, but only by his own choice. Being dragged into it by people making a fool of themselves was not his style and it seemed it was starting to get to him.

  “Too much attention? Hows this for too much attention?” Said one of the unfamiliar members of the group as he grabbed an empty bottle and smashed it on the floor. The table erupted with laughter again but Nico knew this was the last straw. All eyes were on them now and behind the open bar he could see the barkeep touching his ear piece.

  “Alright guys time to go, Ronaldo you have a wedding to get to tomorrow, you need some sleep” said Nico as he prepared to get up.

  “So what? The night is still young and I still have plenty of fine women to check out before i tie the knot” he said while laughing with the others. “Here comes one now” he added as he pointed behind Johnathan. Nico looked just in time to see a petite, angry looking girl stomp her way over to them. It was the bouncer from the front of the bar, and she looked even more pissed than she had before, if that was even possible.

  “Alright pendejos, either you settle down or you call it a night.” She said to the entire table as she came to stand next to Johnathan. Before Nico could react, the fourth guy, Robert, who was sitting to Nico’s left decided to answer.

  “Why don't you call it a night instead honey, and let the men have their fun?” He said somewhat angrily while proceeding to quickly put his hand on the womens hip and give her a solid shove away from the table. Clearly she wasn’t expecting that as she stumbled backwards a few steps. Had Nico been watching he would have seen the rage flash in her eyes and her hands ball up into fist, ready to retaliate. As soon as she caught her balance she she was ready to pounce back on the guy, but when she looked at the table again, it seemed she was too late.

The moment the guy had touched her, Nico had flown out of his chair, sending it flying back from the table, and had reached over to firmly grab Robert by the arm. Anger equaling the woman's was visible in his eyes as well, and she decided to watch for a moment and see how it played out, readying herself for a brawl just in case.

  “Is that any way to treat a lady?” He said angrily to the man, “that was completely uncalled for. This night is over” he  finished, now addressing the whole table. Robert shook Nico’s hand off angrily and stood up, now glaring at Nico. The guy was drunk and Nico had directly gone against him. Nico knew this was more than enough to warrant a fight in a drunks mind, but Nico was no stranger to fights himself and he held his ground, glaring at the man and daring him to take him on. Nico felt his blood was coming to a boil and he would not lose here. After few tense moments though, the guy soon looked away and headed towards the door.

  “The rest of you should go too” said the woman, who was still standing nearby watching the table, now with arms crossed.

  “You heard the lady, lets go. It's late anyway and Lola will be waiting Ricardo.” Said Nico in a stern voice to the rest of them. They all gave him a bit of an angry glance, but soon they were getting up and walking out, not exactly in a straight line but they were walking at least. Nico turned to the woman before he left and looked her over. She did the same.

  “Excuse me miss. Look I wanted to apolo-” was all Nico could say before she cut him off.

  “Got it, now get going.” She said. It sounded like she might almost be grateful but the look on her face screamed I will gut you like a fish if you cross me now. Talk about mixed signals. Just then though, Nico had an odd thought cross his mind. That look she was giving him through those sea green eyes seemed almost…. familiar.

  “Do I… know you from somewhere?” He said, without even thinking or meaning too. As soon as the words left his mouth he regretted them. He hadn't been to miami since he was a kid, how would he know her. The woman turned to face him as he said it, a look of genuine surprise at the question coming over her face. The blaring music seemed to lull at that moment as she stared into Nico’s eyes and he stared back. At that moment he was so sure of it, he knew this person. The moment didn’t last long though, she was the first break eye contact, shattering the thought. Though she managed one more angry glare before she did, and as she turned to walk away he heard her speak one last time.

  “You’d better be gone the next time I look at this table.” was the last thing she said to him. Nico watched her go till she was concealed by the crowd, then headed out the door to find the others. All the while trying to shake the nagging feeling he got from her.

  He found the bachelor party sitting on the curb outside, apparently waiting for a cab. They were all laughing like idiots again so maybe there were no hard feelings, not that Nico cared really. At that moment and for the rest of the night though he couldn't help thinking about the lady bouncer, Tamra. For some reason he felt their was something to that odd feeling he'd gotten when talking to her. Like he had really known her at some point but couldn’t seem to find the right memory. No matter how much he scoured his memories for her, he kept drawing a blank. Everything pointed to them never having met, and yet he couldn’t shake the feeling for the rest of the evening.

  Maybe it was in a past life, he thought jokingly to himself as he got into bed at the hotel later that night, chuckling at the thought. Ah whatever, not like i'm ever going to see her again anyway he told himself as he finally drifted off to sleep that night.

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Tamra slipped into one of the offices located behind the bar area, thankful the deafening music was muffled by the door.

“Long night?” A voice sounded from the desk in the corner. She glanced over at Andrew, who had escaped long before her and was clicking away at his laptop.

With a heavy sigh Tamra collapsed onto the couch. “You have no idea. And you...how long do you plan on hanging out back here?” Tamra questioned, stretching out with a yawn.

Andrew mumbled a reply before speaking up, “Anyway...did I miss anything interesting?”

Tamra peered over at him with a smirk. “You always miss everything because you’re back here all night. But...no, not really.”

Andrew muttered a reply, but Tamra had already blocked him out. She wasn’t being entirely truthful, but it’s not like he would understand anyway.

That one group, the group that tested her patience more than others. The group with a member that was so familiar to her, she was sure she’d met him before. She couldn’t place when, or where and she was too exhausted to figure it out.