Chapter 2

For a moment I am simply lost in the smells. I stand there and take in this place, gaudy and tacky to me. I would much have preferred a spot at my favorite pizza place where Mario the chef knows I love mushrooms, but my date insisted upon this place. It is almost happy hour, but I scold myself for thinking that. A woman shouldn’t have more then 2 drinks on a date. I state my last name, and who I am supposed to be meeting to a wafer of a fragile creature. She looks me over without a grin, even though I am giving my mega watt smile a flip on, and says to follow her.

As I reach the table there is an older man there. Not bad looking. He sits with his hair greased and combed into a pony tail. His suit is dark grey, and his tie is a nice off white. He is leaning back, and when I follow his glance it is to a petite blond woman a few tables over. I sigh, knowing this won’t go as good as it did in my mind.

“Hi, I am Amatrix.” I pipe up after I clear my throat and he is still looking at the slim blond.

“Oh, hello. I am your date tonight.” He doesn’t stand or offer his hand, and takes a sip of his dark concoction in his glass, sneaking one last peek at the blond.

“Right, what was your name?” I say as I sit down, bending a bit to make eye contact clear to him.

“Oh, sorry… my name is Jason.” He quickly adds and motions for the waitress.

Throughout drinks things go from odd, to strange, to worse. He stares at my breasts, and suggests the salad for me… when I correct him and place my order with the waitress she snorts and turns on her heels like I shouldn’t order real food. My frustration grows. When he says he likes women with meat on their bones, and women who know what they want as he winks, I want to hurl.

I ignore this and pretend as if I am doing him a favor by acting like he has something in his eye. Into my 3rd Electric Long Island Iced Tea, things seem smoother. Everything looks shiny, and my laughter comes quicker then the dinner we ordered.

“It is a busy place tonight. Food is taking awhile,” he manages after I make a joke about his profession, comparing a shark to a lawyer. At this moment, I would rather swim with a shark then this jerk. I really thought he would have smiled, but even as I made the fish face he didn’t budge.

“Right, it is taking awhile.” I excuse myself and head towards the bathrooms, with cute little signs of female and male ducks on the doors. These doors are insanely close to the damned kitchen…

And there he was. This tall, handsome man was in there grabbing dishes of food, adding sauce to them with skill and attention of a professional chef. In the cold metal of the kitchen and the white linen of the other chefs I knew he was a waiter here. He was about 6’ 5” tall, dirty blond or light brown. His voice was youthful, and his smile was just as happy as the jig he did while grabbing plates for his customers. I happened to catch his eyes, a mixture of color and emotions came over me. I forgot to breathe; he saw me and he made a noise…

Things got kind of bad for me right then. The doors to the bathrooms opened out, right into my face. He was trying to warn me as I stood gawking right at him. Was this really lights out?

Then before I knew it I was in a small office, with this man. A bag of ice wrapped in a clean white cloth against my cheek.

“Well there is my Sleeping Beauty!” His face comes into focus and I wince as the pain does as well.

“Take it easy, you got bonked.” He smiles at me, like a sunset. He places his hand on my knee, right where the skirt ends, and I can’t feel anything but fire. He looks down and sees what he did, and actually blushes.

“Sorry.” Is all I can push out of my mouth. I think then the booze, and lack of fun in my life lately pushed me to look him over, and touch his name tag.

“Thank you Alan.” When I say his name I look him straight into his eyes. He lets out a strange giggle and asks me my name. When I let him know this, he explains where I am.

“This is the office, I get my paycheck here. It was the only place I could think of that was quiet, and umm… secluded. … Not like I am trying to keep you from your boyfriend, just didn’t want you to come around on the floor, in front of the bathroom.”

“Thanks Alan. He, that guy, is not my boyfriend.”

“Well I heard some pretty good belly laughs from you, so I just figured... I am sorry. I was worried he might be worried about you.”