The Crab Girls

  Within weeks of Rachel started, we were connected at the hips. Hanging out all of the time both at work and after. Others around us were getting annoyed with it all. Lori didn’t like the fact I was infatuated with another girl. Co-workers didn’t see this ending well for me even though I insisted to them we were only friends. In truth, things progressed more than ‘just friends’.

  Around this time, my friend Eric who was living in Texas had gotten some secret hush-hush job that he couldn’t tell me the details on. Something about government computers and exploding parts. I didn’t know what to make of this almost comical and cryptic job he claimed to have and didn’t even want to know because it sounded almost cartoonish. Whether there was any validity to his claims or not, some company sent him and another co-worker of his to Colorado Springs for a few days to work on some computers at the military bases. Even though it was the middle of the week, I was anxious to see him and drove down there as soon as I got off work. It was a Wednesday, and I met up with Eric at his hotel. His co-worker wanted to the “Hooters’ for dinner that was right across the hotel parking lot.

  We went there and were having a grand old time. Eric had just broken up with a girl that he was crazy about and this guy was trying to break him out of the funk he was in. His solution was to hit on the Hooters waitresses big time. It was rather embarrassing and I kept feeling like I should apologize for him.   After Hooters, the guy wanted to take us to this dive-bar he knew of and meet up with a friend of his. He asked the two waitresses he was ‘flirting with’ what time they got off and to meet us at the Chili’s that was next door. They told him between 11 and 12. Then we left.

  The bar we went to was indeed a dive-bar. The bartender was a really old man with one functioning arm. It may have been a stroke, but that is only speculation. We stayed for a drink or two, and decided we should go back to Chili’s on the slim to no chance the two girls would indeed show up.

 As we were leaving the bar the old bartender called to us, “You aren’t leaving yet, are you? The crab girls will be here soon.”

  Eric sarcastically replied, “I don’t know why you think that would be something that would entice us to stay…” The old man just smiled and said it would be worth it. We conferred for a bit and, our curiosity peaked, decided to stay for another round.

  It was worth it. A group of very attractive girls came in and we hit it off very well. We would end up playing random bar games with them for drinks. We asked them why they were called “Crab Girls” and they told us that they work at “Joe’s Crab Shack”, a nearby seafood restaurant.  One of the girls boyfriend showed up and even he was cool. At one point, I looked around and Eric was missing. Lisa, Eric’s ex girlfriend finally called him back or answered one of Eric’s calls to her. At that point it didn’t matter, he was miserable and the mood would be killed if we stayed. We headed back to the hotel and I tried to console Eric as much as possible. Eric’s friend was of the philosophy of ‘get as far away from the pain as possible’. Myself, being in the situation I was in was, was more sympathetic. Truth was, Rachel was on my mind most of the night as well.

  When we got back to the hotel, Eric was in a better mood so we decided to go to the Chili’s that was in the same complex anyway. The girls had waited for us. It was shocking to me as I didn’t think they had any intention of showing up and was only humoring the guys advances. Three of them showed up and I guess one of them was into him. Ironically I spent the remainder of the evening chatting with the very pretty blonde Hooters girl about Rachel. Eric wanted to know about Rachel. I told him everything from her boyfriend to my co-workers opinions. He wanted to meet her and find out for himself what she thought of me. I told him I would bring her down if I could.

  When we left the blonde girl gave me her phone number. She thought I was the sweetest thing, but I remember looking at the piece of paper with her number on it while at work the next morning wondering to myself, why in the world did she think I would need or use her number?

  Of course, I used her number to show my co-workers I was not going to get my heart broken by Rachel any time soon.