Untitled Sexy Romance Story, Part Two
Sep 19 '03 (Updated Oct 29 '03)
The Bottom Line Keep reading........
Well, all the characters have been introduced, and interesting things begin to happen............
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“I can reveal to you right at this moment that Iraq has never had any weapons of mass destruction.”
Rebecca unloaded this dull, heavy brick of a conversation starter on the wobbly, wooden table, surrounded by individuals whose notion of deep conversation began with Which club are you going to?, and ended with, How many more drinks are you having? Everyone at this table could swear that they faintly heard the rattling of beer caps as the prose slammed the beer-stained surface.
There were four people who encircled the table. Rebecca and Frank were two. The other two worked alongside Rebecca at a research company. The research company had charities and other non-profits, organizations whose job it was to attempt to mend some of the unfairness and problems of the world and of the people who lived on it, as clients, but, once the coworkers vacated for the day, thoughts of good and evil in the world were forgotten. Except, apparently, when Rebecca became heavily intoxicated.
“After three drinks,”, Amanda scowled, “, suddenly she’s an expert on the Middle East. Two more and she’ll be Yassar Arafat.”
“Another pitcher!”, Rebecca slurred frantically, drooping her head, as she attempted to find another bartender, or at least a bartender’s feet. “.... another pitcher!”
“Okay....”, Mark began, wanting to see where this would go, egging her on. “.. why do you say that Iraq doesn’t have any weapons?”
“They would have used them by now, wouldn’t you say? Thousands of dead Americans and Brits, brought about by nuclear weapons.”, she said callously. “But he... he was just a weak-willed dictator, a bully in a playground - he wanted to lounge around at his palace, and behead people who looked at him funny. Didn’t have the time or the smarts to build any weapons of mass destruction, I wouldn’t say.......”
“You’re drunk, that’s what I would say!”, Amanda snickered, not bothering to penetrate the meanings behind the words.
“But I’m right! Aren’t I? You’re just trying to distract everyone from the real issue, aren’t you?”, she playfully sneers from across the table.
Everyone else just wanted to have fun, but she just had to spoil the occasion.
“What’s the point of this?”, Mark asked, outwardly amused, but holding to himself a few ounces of frustration. “Just ... just drink your beer.”
Rebecca felt hurt in her heart, yet the pain was synthetic, created by the ingredients of alcohol. Nevertheless, she vocalized it. “Oh, I’m sorry.”, she sighed. “I only wanted to say what was going on........ “
Amanda turned her head away from the debacle, watching the other bodies wander the premises. She then noticed the owner of the club approaching the table.
“Hey, it’s Thomas.”, she briefed to the rest of the group.
Thomas was your standard businessman who was chummy with other like-minded, including the boss of the company whose staff sat around this very table. The boss of the club felt that he was doing a good deed by sucking up to his friend’s employees, indirectly pleasing his business associate.
“Hello, people!”, he gruffed, attempting to be friendly. “How’s this table this evening?”
“Great... we’ve found one of those elusive weapons of mass destruction.”, Amanda said, pointing at Rebecca, who was comfortably resting with her fourth drink. “When she is drunk, she puts entire populations at risk. And it stinks a*s!”
“Ah, don’t knock her now... I wouldn't want Trevor to bump into me and say how much friction is there between staff.”, he said, with phony concern. “Why, I’d feel responsible.”
Amanda laughed, unsure of the seriousness of Thomas’s tone. “Oh, it’s okay... we just like to pick on her. Rebecca’s not the worst of the bunch.”
“Well, that’s the spirit. There’s enough fights that go on in this place!”, he said in a voice that wavered between contempt and a cynical boastfulness. “Imagine the City Police visiting my place a consecutive ten weeks in a row! They might start considering Prohibition.”
“God no!”, Amanda soured. “That would be worse than getting ovarian cancer! How would ... how would we function! We might start having to devise ways of having fun without alcohol. And thinking about stuff is hard.”
“Well,”, the boss says laughing, “don’t think about it. People would get smart and sober up, and put me out of business, before anything like that happens on Prince Edward Island.”
“I’ll drink to that!”,Rebecca slurred.
The rest of the table finally found something about Rebecca this evening that was agreeable.
“Great!”, Thomas said. “Well, I’m off. See you guys around.”
The members of the table responded in their own ways.
“You know....”, Rebecca began to insinuate, moments after Thomas walked away. “, beneath that skin of his lies the soul of a killer.”
Amanda’s face turned into a question mark.
“Maybe if he serves you too many shooters.”, Mark joked, confused.
“Think of that guy who owns Big Momma’s down the street?”, Rebecca commented. “On trial for manslaughter, hmmm? He didn’t stop with words about all the fights that happen at bars, he started one himself, with one of the drunken clientele, upped with booze and drugs. And he killed him. “
“I don’t see what that has to do with anything....”, Amanda questioned.
“..... after becoming involved with those sorts of people, that attitude is going to rub off on you, isn’t it?”, she claimed. “He probably thought, Oh, god, another stupid a*shole bringing shame to my business, without thinking that, hey, this is my business.”
Suddenly she stopped drinking, perhaps sensing the hypocrisy of her statement.
“Everyone.... everyone argues what happened outside that night. Who started what? But does it really matter at the end? Nobody was really innocent there..... I don’t think.”
Everyone was speechless.
But then Amanda decides to gasp a few terms. “Christ. You... just destroyed my purpose for living.......”
Frank hadn’t said a word for the last few minutes. He couldn’t. The atmosphere choked him, making it difficult to breathe. Was it the cigarette smoke? Or was it the company?
Slowly, he got up from his seat, and shuffled his feet away from the table.
“Where are you going to, love?”, Rebecca questioned, surprised by her friend’s manner. “The fun’s just getting started.”
“Ah, I’m just... just going to let my legs move about and circulate a bit, that’s all.”, pushing his chair back underneath the table.
“Are you trying to tell me that you’re going to dance? With those embryos? You’re out of date, my friend.”
The others laughed in tune to Rebecca’s absurd commentary.
“Why do you say that?”, he grinned.
“We’re a culture of instant gratification. Ten minutes from now, those girls are going to reevaluate everything about themselves. Do you think they are going to appreciate anyone who is stuck in his ways already, being almost a full decade older than they are? I think not.....”
“Hey, you never know.... they might decide to all go for what I have!”, he joked.
“Oh sure, now, Frank...... those kids’ brains aren’t fully formed yet. They don’t have the brains that someone like myself has!”, before grabbing the pitcher of beer, and pouring yet another glass. “You see, I’m the better one. I’m staying in my seat!”
Frank wasn’t truly attempting to join in the mix of twitching figures on the dance floor. He desired nothing more than a reprieve from the ramblings of his woefully intoxicated friend. He didn’t accompany her to a noisy bar just to hear her talk about Saddam Hussain.
Sure, Rebecca was a decent person. She was good company. But occasionally, she would teeter on the string of respectability, perilously close to slipping in to the din of the intolerable. It wouldn’t happen too often. Maybe only a few times a month. Not necessarily over liquor, although it didn’t help.
It must be natural to demand an occasional break from your best friend. Isn’t it?
He walked alongside the rows of tables. He was too busy attempting to brush aside the cobwebs of this most recent experience to notice anything specific. He didn’t take the chance that he may have recognized any of the other dwellers at this club. He would not have heard anyone who may have been calling out for him.
He stood behind the row of people alongside the bar. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to order anything else to drink. Or if he was just going to stand there, unsure of where to go.......
“Hey.”
That voice. Some intuition allowed him to separate that one, lone voice, from the raucous noise of the club. The voice had such clarity.
He turned around.
That voice pulled him, moved his body around.
A woman, alone at a table. Her hair was dirty-blonde, in a ponytail. She wore glasses with thick, but practical, appealing frames -- her face wasn’t particularly stunning, but it was cute. Cute enough to gaze at for lengths at a time.
“I think I know you from somewhere.”, she said, clearly. “Maybe.... maybe you can help me out.”
Frank felt a surreal twinge within his stomach. “In what way?”
“There’s a math problem that I’ve been wanting to solve. I’ve worked out the right answer, I believe.... but I need a second opinion.”
“Go ahead.....”
“What’s one plus one?”
He laughed gently at the absurdity of this question, but he somehow realized that there was a deeper meaning to this request. “Um, well, now, one plus one would be two, I believe.”, he said. “Well, I hope, anyway.”
Her smile brightened the shadows lurking behind her. “That’s what I thought. Nice to know that we agree on one thing this early in the game.”
Her eyes hinted at many sorts of enigmatic ideas.
No words were necessary. The two of them intuitively agreed to sit around the same table, having solved the problem of two lone figures in search of another.
“So, this is where you hang out after work, then?”, Frank began.
“Well, tonight at least!”, she sighed, nervously.
After a few seconds, “Any other questions you would like answered?”, he smiled.
Only one, right now. “Yea.”, she said. “What’s your name?”
“Frank.”
“Janice.”
“Cool........”
“Sure!”, she drawled, sardonically. “I bet you so wanted to pick up a girl like me tonight!” Her voice was sarcastic, but the warmth was still there. Her tongue wasn’t laced with poison, unlike a certain friend of his.
“Hey, I was just wandering around the bar........ I never thought of picking up.”, he smiled. “You were the one with the math problem.”
She blushed. Her methods were so transparent. She was going to be made a fool of , wasn’t she?, she thought.
“...... but I certainly enjoyed answering it for you.”, he said.
“Oh, really?”, Janice giggled, nervously.
She noticed from the corner of her eye a woman who resembled the individual who accompanied this guy to the shop the other day. “You’re not.... you’re not just being polite, are you, or is your leash a good and long one?”
Frank’s face hardened into confusion. “I don’t get you.....”
“Oh, um....”, Janice’s face flushed, her voice grew sweeter. “.... isn’t that your friend over there?”, pointing to Rebecca.
“Oh....?”, turning to his previous location. “Yes.... Rebecca’s a good friend of mine....”
“How good of a friend is she?”
“Well, we talk to each other a lot, and it’s good for the both of us......”
“So, speech is the only form of discourse, then?”
“Yes,”, he laughed. He couldn’t imagine entering an intimate relationship with Rebecca. “I don’t even remember the last time I hugged her for any reason! So I don’t think you need to worry that you’re treading on any risky ground.”
“Very good.”, calmly. “I feel much better now!”
Frank gazed at her face. She was an attractive woman, in her own way. This was the first time since Christine that he was able to sit, alone, with an available woman. The conversation seemed as if it was going in a desirable direction.
Frank smiled. “So, who are you with?” Now he needed to find out if she were in fact available.
“Well, nobody really..... I have a friend who works over at the restaurant. I took her to work and ate a meal. I’ll probably go home in a little while..... alone.....”
“Ah, yea, on a Thursday night? This is the best night to be here, though.”
“Well, I’m not really a huge bar and tavern kind of gal.”, she mentioned casually. “I usually have specific reasons for going to any bar......”
“What was your reason this evening?”
Janice felt the words bungle up inside her throat. “Ah... ah well, the meal I ate was so filling... that it’s difficult for me to stand up.” Good save.
“Ah yea, what did you eat?”
Those pesky words. “Ah.... ha ha ha!! Burger and fries!”
“Must have been a hell of a large burger.”
“The cook sacrificed an entire cow ... just for me!”, with a fragile laugh. “Let’s hope I don’t get any mad cow disease!”
“If you foam at the mouth and start mooing, then I’ll keep my distance, okay?”, he smirked.
“Deal!”
...... he was laughing with her, she thought. Please keep him around for a while longer........
“I suppose you have a boyfriend that will pick you up soon, though, huh? Carry you home because your stomach is too packed to allow you to move?”, he smiled.
“Ah.... no..... no boyfriend.”, she smiled. Her eyes shone as she said those words, hoping Frank would be dazed by the light.
“Sounds good!”, he let slip from his tongue. The two smiled at each other, knowing instinctively that the cards they were dealt grouped to become perfect hands.
“That was funny what you did at the store this afternoon?”, Frank mentioned. “You’re going to tell me that you’re a mathematical genius, aren’t you?”
“Oh my god, no!”, she laughed. “I just have a talent for figuring that stuff out. Nothing major. Just.... just something that I was always keen on.... since high school.”
“A mind like that ought not to be wasted at a gift shop, though?”, he grinned.
“Hmm..... “, she sighed. Yes, he was right. “Well, someday, someday, I might be able to use it somewhere appropriate!”, she smiled.
“Well, how old are you?”, Frank asked. “You probably have lots of time to figure it out anyway......”
“I am going to be twenty three in a few weeks, so, yes, I’m not too moldy and ancient yet. But I don’t really think I’m looking forward to it , however.....”, trailing off, allowing the mystery to hang.
“.... why not?”
“Well..... no matter what you try to do, you just can’t divide the number 23 into a whole number. It bugs me to no end.”
Frank stared at her. A grin wanted to scamper across his face, yet he was worried that perhaps Janice wouldn’t appreciated the expression.
..... oh sh*t, why did I say that......, Janice thought.
“Wouldn’t... wouldn’t that bug you so much?”, she asked, trying to better emphasis that she had tongue planted firmly in cheek “You know, when you’re bored -- and have little to do on a boring Sunday afternoon -- you’ve got to entertain yourself somehow. Odd puzzles start forming in your mind --- it was fun when I turned twenty-two, of course... I could divide it by two, and sure enough I’d get eleven......”
“But what could you do after that?”, Frank grinned, gesturing playfully. “You can’t divide eleven by anything interesting either..... 11 divided by 11 is one. 11 divided by 1 is 11.”
Janice’s eyes widened. “You know what? You’re absolutely right! Obviously, you know the same games that I do!”
“Well, I learn quickly, at the very least!”
Janice began to enjoy the man’s company more and more. Hopefully, there would be more to enjoy than just talking about work, and numbers, and she could save herself from the indignity of walking home alone, after taking such a risk this evening.
“Frank, I certainly hope that you don’t think that I’m some cold, emotionless calculator. I’ve thawed out long ago....., I’m a lot more warm-blooded than you realize....... if you give me a chance.”
She rests her chin upon her hands. Her heart leaped repeatedly.
“Hey.... I’m free all evening......”, he replied.
Smile. “Thank you......”, she said.
They talked more. They got to know each other. Her comfort level increased. She would have felt dirty if she picked up an uncouth drunk guy, who had nothing to say except Want to go home and screw? or something beneath any form of class. She wanted to meet someone who would treat her with respect, who would be as interesting and as considerate in public as she hoped he would be in private.
“Guess what?”, she asked suggestively, about thirty minutes later.
“No, I can’t guess.”, slyly.
“I think I ought to leave this place...... before all the people with arrested mental developments haunt the place.”
“Oh okay.” A coat of disappointment painted his face. He didn’t want her to leave. He didn’t want this night to end. But he wasn’t one for aggression. “...... well, I suppose Rebecca is wondering where the hell I am!”, he jibed, masking the minor wound.
“Hey, you can come along if you like?”, she whispered, touching his arm. “I mean... do you want to come along?” She repeated herself, thinking perhaps she sounded better the second time.
Frank was hit with a choice. His feelings at this moment were so novel -- he met an interesting woman at a bar, and she asked him if she would like to leave with him.......
“Where am I going?”, he asked.
“Well, I was ..... I was planning on going home......”
...... back to her place. Many visions fought inside his head of what would lie in the moments after this critical decision would be made.
“I.....,” But, why fight it? Janice was a splendid girl. And who cared about what happened.... as long as it was enjoyable. “... yea, sure, this place is getting a bit too much for me too.”
They departed from the seemingly private confines of their table to the openness of the center of the club.
Natural, yet peculiar. The contradictory feelings meshed together until they became one, interchangeable, indistinguishable. Natural for the the two of them to walk together, yet peculiar, as only hours previous, they were complete strangers to each other and the world they lived in.
Janice and Frank exited the club, far away from the table which was surrounded by three people, two women and a man. one woman and one man never gave a second glance to who was coming and going in this crowed array of people. But the second woman noticed. She noticed when she turned her head toward the table, where her friend has sat at, with that strange woman from the gift shop, and then noticed that they were both no more, replaced by strangers.
The woman incessantly repeated the question, about where Frank could be. The others tried, to little avail, to convince her that, Rebecca, we’re having a great time without him.
The speakers above the darkened storefront, a few doors away from the bar, were still expressing themselves with sounds from the oldies station -- tunes from the fifties, sixties and seventies. Janice and Frank walked past, feeling the lulling vibrations.
The pair would appear to want no business with such vintage melodies. Both the man and the woman were in their early twenties, and an average person of that age would be more interested in the latest synthetic pop group or angry rap group, not classic rock. Yet Janice found herself seduced by those experienced rhythms. The voice was Buddy Holly’s. All my loving, all of my kissing, you don’t know what you’ve been missing, oh boy! Her hips bounced as she walked. Her middle fingers on each hand cracked over her thumb tips, making a shrill pop to every beat. In her imagination, she would have longed to imitate Holly’s vocal hiccup -- when you hear ma-ah heart a callin’!
Her head began to bounce up and down. She didn’t give a damn if any of those tasteless teens, whose musical interests were limited to loud, rythmless dirges, were watching.
“Hey, Frank, take my hands!”, in a mock-romantic tone.
Frank believed that he could have been embarrassed at this moment, yet he barely put up a struggle.
“The sidewalk’s free, let’s have a dance!”, she said.
“To this music?”, he laughed. “I didn’t think that you could dance to this stuff.”
“What do you suppose kids in the late fifties danced to?”, she grinned.
Frank couldn’t supply an answer.
Janice exaggerated her movements. Her dance was not particularly sexy, but it wasn’t meant to be. It was easy-going; it was a physical message to the person she was with that told him that she was her own gal. Either he was to accept it, or let her hands go and walk away.
Frank tightened his grip on her hands.
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END OF PART TWO
Part Three at http://www.epinions.com/content_3513884804
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Epinions.com ID:
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Member: David Macdonald
Location: Prince Edward Island
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About Me:
Alice, a story in nine parts, posted on Sept 24, 2008 - http://www.epinions.com/content_5241348228
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