from Chapter Ten: Home Again

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That night, I took Liz to the Flamenco for dinner. Though she knew I was a regular, I had never taken her there and she never asked why. We arrived dressed like we were going to a cocktail party. I was wearing navy trousers and a burgundy shirt. Liz wore an asymmetrically cut, midnight blue dress and heels. Her hair was up, revealing her long, slender neck. Pearls hung from two-inch gold chains on each ear. The matching gold chain around her neck had a pearl every two inches. Liz was beautiful. I opened the car door for her, offered my arm and walked her the short distance to the entrance. The security guard stood up as we approached and greeted us with a huge Cheshire cat smile. “Good evening Mr. Xavier, good evening Madame.”
I wondered why he was acting like such an idiot, but politely I said, “Evening Max.”
Liz just smiled at him as we walked in. Heading down the hall, I got a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. Maybe it was a big mistake bringing Liz there. But it was already too late. We descended the steps down to the bar, and everyone turned to look at us. The place was full of regulars. I knew just about everyone there. Bryan and Roland both smiled from behind the bar; in fact, all the men were smiling. Many of the women were smiling too, but a few weren't as they sized up Liz. I walked past the bar with what I hoped was a neutral smile, and gave a general wave as I continued walking with Liz.
My intention had been to walk past the bar and straight into the restaurant, but Roland came around the ban with a big grin and cut us off as he extended a hand to Liz. “Welcome to the Flamenco.”
Liz shook his hand as I made the introduction. “Liz, this is Roland, one of the owners and one of my best friends. Roland, this is Liz.” By then, Liz had put her free hand back on my arm. After an awkward pause, Liz squeezed my arm and I realized she and Roland were both waiting for me to elaborate. “Liz is my girlfriend.”
“Oh, that's wonderful,” Roland said with an even bigger smile. “No wonder we haven't been seeing you as much lately. Now that I've met Liz, I can see why you wanted to keep her all to yourself. Let me get you guys a waiter.”
Liz was all smiles as Roland signaled for a waiter to come forward. Even with our backs to the bar I could feel several dozen sets of eyes boring a hole in the back of my head. By the time we were seated, it had only been a few seconds, but it had felt like an hour. After helping Liz with her chair and putting a menu in front of each of us, our waiter was about to go but I stopped him. “Paul, please bring us a bottle of Concha y Toro.”
Before Paul could answer, Liz interrupted, “Honey, we don't need a whole bottle of wine,” then she turned to Paul, “Two glasses will be fine.”
“Yes Madame,” Paul answered.
“Wait!” I said, “I'm gonna want more than one glass.”
Liz put a hand on my arm. “Baby, you can have another glass, but you don't need a whole bottle.” She looked at me with pleading eyes and said softly so only I could hear, “Please baby, for me.”
Turning to Paul, who couldn’t help smiling as he stood there waiting for us to finish, I put on a fake smile and said, “Well, there we have it, two glasses of red wine.”
Paul nodded. “Right away Mr. Xavier,” he said, and then turned and left us.
Liz moved her chair closer to mine and put a hand on my knee. “Baby, please don't be mad, but you don't need to drink so much.” As her hand moved up my leg she continued. “You don't need alcohol, you have me. Drink me baby. As much as you want, anytime you want.” She leaned forward and kissed me on the ear.
I turned towards her and kissed her. It was a little kiss with very little feeling behind it. “Okay baby, you're right. I'll try to drink less.”
Somewhat appeased, Liz said, “Thank you baby.”

.../...

Copyright © 2007-2008 Xavier Pierre Jr. All rights reserved.

2 comments:

    hey man, i wanted to hak u directly for your prayers, just the thought means alot

    hey, gave u a shout out in comment section on 4 on 40, i was teaching class when colema appered, thanks for representing us folk, i mean scholar