(Memoir) Seedy Eve...

I get a call from my friend C. He's in town from NYC and wants to grab a drink - fantastic! I've missed him terribly. We meet at Claim Jumper's bar for drinks. As we start to catch up on life, here comes Enrique. "This is a friend of mine from when I worked at Z-Tejas a while back". Enrique is a large gentleman with thick dark brown hair and a thick mustache. We say hello, and he buys another round of drinks. Sweet! We all wander outside to smoke. C whispers in my ear as Enrique wanders off to make an erratic phone call. "He's one of the head drug cartel guys from Mexico". I laugh. Bullshit. "I'm serious! He came into work one time showing us a picture of his brother on the front page of the Times above a story about a huge bust!". I glance over and Enrique's phone conversation has gotten more heated. Whatever.
A few min later, he re-joins us saying "Lets go to another bar!" and as he turns around a large black SUV pulls up with tinted windows and he climbs in, motioning for C and I to join. Oh hell no. C swears its fine, but I say I'll follow in my own vehicle. I haven't had too much to drink yet so I should be fine. We drive just down the street to Bristol. This little bar I never even knew was there. As we walk in, we're greeted by an older asian man who bows and leads us to a corner of the bar. The place is very very dim. I cant see much of whats going on around me, but no big - we're bar bound. As we sit down food is brought to us immediatly. Little snacky foods of things I cant identify. The bartender asks what we want - I order wine - since I'm being a good girl and not mixing and thats what I was having earlier. Enrique says "Bring her a bottle!". Oh no no no I say. C tells me to let him buy me what he wants, this is how he is and it'd be an insult not too. I agree. The bartender brings over - not a normal size wine bottle - but one of those gigantic bottles that dont even look real. Good lord no! I cant drink all that! "Its ok" Enrique says "Look at that wall over there, you just put your name on it and its yours whever you come back". I look to my right and there's a giant wall with half filled bottles of alcohol and people's named scrawled across them. So I succumb and start drinking my keg of wine. C and I start catching up again, yapping and drinking and laughing. I cant help but notice out of the corner of my eye - Enrique talking secretive things to the owner. It doesnt look like the conversation is going well. Every now and again a lovely young asian gal would come up to us and ask if we were ok.
Too much wine later, I'm startled when Enrique leaps to his feet and exclaims we're going somewhere else. C grabs my arm and we follow. "But I'm not done with my wine, and I haven't paid and our scary snacks are still there and the owner is following us out and...." C says not to worry and I'm shuffled into the black SUV that has magically appeared again. "We may come back later" Enrique says as if to assure me. I've now made the mistake of having enuff to drink where things are somewhat fuzzy and my reactions are a bit too slow. Because now I find myself in the back of this black SUV with tinted windows driven by a very large man whose eyes are shaded by his cap and from what I can see of his face it looks scarred and angry. C looks at me with eyes brimming with excitment - "Nights like this are always interesting!" We pull away from the bar and I'm told we're going to pick up another friend whom I do know - K. We drive all the way to Orange, pick up K who hops in the back and laughs at the look of mortification on my face. "You never know whats going to happen on nights with Enrique" he says excitedly. Are you fucking kidding me!!?? We drive back to Costa Mesa and pull into a shopping center that looks all closed up. I mean it is like 1am after all. We pile out and walk up to a door. They knock. I'm thinking - are we that drunk that we're now knocking on doors that are obviously empty? Oh no. It opens and an older asian man bows and leads us down stairs. We round the corner and are now in a underground karoke bar. WTF! We're seated at a booth and immediatly brought booze, food and about 3 or 4 lovely asian women join us. C and K tell me to relax. I figure fine, its just a karaoke bar. So I drink and snack (apparently if I dont its an insult, but I'm trying to nurse it at this point). We're there about an hour or so - C sings some karaoke, I laugh and try to figure out what the hell is happening. I make a comment that we havent seen Enrique this whole time....before I finish the sentence here he is at the top of the stairs hollering at us to come on. I'm starting to fish in my wallet to pay and C grabs me and says no just go...."But I haven't paid!" "Enrique will take care of it" he says and drags me up the stairs in into the god forsaken SUV again. The owner and Enrique are chatting heatedly about something as we're shoved into the car.
We head back to Bristol. Ok...at least we're going where my car is. Not that I'm in any condition to drive - but I can sleep in the damn thing if I need to. We roll back in around 3 or 4 am I want to say, back to our spot at the bar with our snacks and my keg o' wine. I'm now chatting with K and C is chatting up one of the lovely asian gals. A while later he turns to me beaming saying "Kiwi" is going to take him home. Kiwi smiles shyly at me and draws me a picture. I look at C - he says "She's drawing you a picture of where she lives and where I live - I guess we're really close!" I look at her drawing of a childlike map and she excitedly points to the X's I'm assuming are her house and C's. She then asks me to show her where mine is. I draw a picture of a cat instead. She laughs a bit confused (arent we all at this point) and they head out. I look at K. He smiles. "It's alright" he says. Enrique hops up and annouces he's got some biz to take care of and goes in back. My head is full of fuzz and clouds from too much drink, snacks and confusion. The lights start to come up in the bar. I start to look around now that I can see. There's a man at a table with a little asian gal on his lap, laughing. 2 tables over there's another guy with an asian gal kissing. At the other end of the bar is 2 guys with 2 asian gals talking very intimatly. As I survey the place, this is all I see. I turn to K - "Are we in a brothel????!!!!!" He laughs and tells me its no big deal. "I have to get out of here!" I jump up, K follows and I stumble out the door. The owner and 3 asian gals follow us out thanking us and bowing to us. "Please dont bow, please stop" I plead as I struggle to get out the front door. I get into my car, with K and peel out of there. I drop him off at home and return to my own. I feel dirty. How the hell do I end up in these random situations. Lord.