Vintage Rob

Chapter 10 - All is Fair in Love

Alan pointed across the boulevard. "There." The entire length of the skyscraper's first floor was a dark glass wall that half-obscured a bar's interior. Gregarious drinkers near the glass blurred together like an underwater landscape, but one woman's long smooth legs, crossed on a stool and against the glass, stood out gloriously. Looking sharp in his black pin-striped suit, Alan reached the door first. He pulled it open for two women lugging bags. "I want to meet Connie, but I can't stay long," he said.

The black and white walls of the bar matched the geometric designs on the tabletops. Connie sat at a table in the back with her two friends, Shalini and Kim. She noticed them approach and smiled. Shalini, an Indian woman whose dress exposed lovely bare shoulders, chatted excitedly until Rob and Alan surrounded the table.

"Ladies," Alan said. "Hello. Nice to meet you."

Connie's other friend, an Asian woman in a black pantsuit, raindrop earrings, and a slim silver necklace, patted her thighs. "We don't have enough chairs, Mr. FBI Guy. You'll have to sit on my lap. It would be an honor."

Alan would crush her. He smiled. "Splendid. You can bench press me as we talk."

Kim laughed and opened her arms.

"Sorry, love, I've got to be going. I just wanted to make sure Rob is in good hands."

Kim play-pouted.

"You've hurt her feelings," Rob said. "You have to stay."

"Sorry." Alan looked from one hurt face to another. "I'm going home to my wife and her rebellious brood. You're all lovely though." He glanced at the women one at a time. "Connie?"

She raised her hand. "Here."

Kim raised one eyebrow. "Are you going to pat her down?"

"Don't let Kim rattle you," Connie said. "She's good at it."

Alan did not look rattled. "I like feisty," he said, and bit the air.

The women laughed. Rob gladly ceded the stage. It gave him a chance to watch Connie among her friends. She sat far enough from the table that he could see her crossed legs and flaring black skirt. Her long gold earrings swung when she turned to Shalini. Connie was bigger-boned, as they say, than many of his past lovers. Warm memories of massaging her back and kissing her breasts overcame him. As she sparred with the others, he realized Connie and Jennifer, his brother's girlfriend, shared a blunt, friendly intelligence.

Connie turned to Alan. "I beg your pardon?"

Rob did not have the impression Connie or her friends romanticized creative types, especially ones approaching fifty like him. He wondered how her friends would react if he invited Connie to join him in Los Angeles. He had not planned to mention it in front of them, but since he doubted she was going to the hotel with him this evening and he was flying to Japan tomorrow, he thought he might.

Connie's boisterous laughter brought him back to the moment.

"What a sweetheart," Kim said.

A few tables away, Alan bowed slightly and blew kisses. As he slipped away, Rob waved and took the empty seat. Kim held out her hand, which he took, kissing her warm, scented skin. Connie did not look at him as he kissed the top of Kim's hand. Her eyes were on Kim.

Hesitating at first, Shalini offered her hand too. Afterward, she withdrew it with a polite smile. She might be demure while Kim was a provocateur. She might be more likely to support his bid to domesticate Connie, though that did not matter. Connie followed her own counsel, for sure.