Alex buttoned the cuffs of her blouse and pulled on her jacket. She gathered her hair into a ponytail at the nape of her neck and looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes, gray on that particular day like the clouds that filled the sky, gazed back, studying her image. Black trousers, blouse, and jacket: her work uniform as a bouncer at Blackout. She put on her black leather jacket and picked up her helmet. Luckily it wasn't raining.
***
She set her helmet and jacket in her locker when she got to the club and went to Mike who was at the bar. He opened his lips into a smile, showing off his white teeth which stood out against his dark face. Tall and strong, he wore his hair super short and had a closely-trimmed beard. "Let's go," he said, and together they went to the nightclub entrance. Alex shivered in the cold air. Mike lifted his face when he heard thunder. "I'm afraid it's going to be a long, wet night."
"Yeah, looks like it." The first drops began to fall as confirmation.
It was past midnight on a Sunday and the queue had grown, Blackout was one of the hottest nightspots of the moment. Mike and Alex stood in front of the entrance and, every so often, opened the plush velvet rope to allow access to a few lucky souls. The club had been full for several hours and the people waiting were beginning to get restless, and the cold and rain didn't help.
A group, made up of three guys and two girls, left the club, laughing. The girls, a brunette and a blonde, stumbled drunkenly along the street, hanging onto the men for support.
Mike approached the people waiting in the queue and gestured to a group of four girls.
"Hey, it's our turn!" a man said, stepping forward toward the bouncer.
Mike looked the guy over, eyed his black leather motorcycle pants and jacket, and then checked out the other three guys with him. "Not happening tonight," he replied as he released the rope to let the girls in.
The man grabbed the arm of the last girl, a redhead, as she passed and pulled her toward him. "We were here first," he growled at her. The girl screamed and tried to pull away.
"Let her go."
He released the redhead and she ran to catch up with her friends who were waiting near the door. Together they scurried inside. Then the man pushed Mike.
Thanks to his sheer bulk, Mike barely moved and stared at the man with cold eyes. "I think you'd better leave."
The man looked at him and smiled, showing off his teeth. His friends gathered closer, and so did Alex. The people waiting behind them jostled, moving as a single group.
With a quick movement, the man grabbed the lapels of Mike's jacket and punched him in stomach. Mike took the hit without flinching then took hold of the man's collar and threw him backwards. Shouts and complaints rose from the people standing in line and the crowd shifted to give the brawlers some room. One of the man's friends put his hands on the metal pole that was left free when Mike released the cord and lifted it over his head. He let out a yell and brandished it toward Mike. Alex was quicker than the guy and blocked him, yanking the pole out of his hands, which made him lose his balance. In the meantime, the other two men turned on Mike, who lifted one of them off the ground and heaved him into the street. His friend struck Mike on his side and in exchange Mike punched him in the face, which made the guy fall back onto the ground, his nose bleeding. The first man, who was getting up from where he'd fallen, noticed the trouble his friends were in and, without another word, ran away. The others stumbled to their feet and limped after him.
Alex approached Mike. "Everything okay?"
He nodded and set the pole back in place and reattached the rope.
The people standing in line returned to where they'd been waiting against the building with the overhang keeping them out of the rain, as if nothing had happened.
***
Alex dumped her wet clothes on the floor of her apartment as soon as she got home from work and headed straight for the shower. When steam began billowing in the bathroom, she stepped, shivering, under the scalding jet of water and waited for it to send away the freezing dampness that had overcome her.