‘Right,’ I said, ‘a show at the Metro, or maybe just have a cup of coffee someplace and talk for a while.’
‘Just a cup of coffee.’
‘Sure, if that’s what you want.’
‘No, it’s not what I want, but I’m thinking if I go for a cup of coffee with you then you might leave me alone. Is that hoping too much?’
‘Yes, that’s hoping too much. If you come for a cup of coffee with me then I’m gonna want to come back and go someplace else next time.’
Angelina said nothing for a moment, and then she nodded. ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Come back at four.’
She closed the door.
I went back at four. I beat on the door until someone in the adjacent house leaned out of the window and told me to
Angelina was either out, or she was hiding inside.
I wasn’t mad, not then, not ever; I was just determined.
I left it ’til Tuesday evening, a little after seven and I called at her house again.
She came to the door. She was dressed smart, a skirt, a woollen jacket, a pretty pink blouse that made her complexion warm and inviting.
‘I was ready last night and you didn’t come,’ she said.
‘I didn’t say I would come last night.’
‘You’re right, you didn’t, but seeing as how you came the day before and the day before that I figured you were gonna come every day until I gave in.’
‘If you’d said you were gonna be ready last night I would have come last night. You just shut the door on me and then when I came back on Sunday you weren’t here.’
‘I was here, I just didn’t come to the door.’
‘How come?’
‘I wanted to see how persistent you were.’
‘And?’
‘And you’re very persistent, though I’m still surprised you didn’t come yesterday.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Apology accepted,’ she said. ‘So where you gonna take me?’
‘Where d’you wanna go?’
‘Up to Avenue of the Americas on the subway, and find the most expensive restaurant and eat stuff I’ve never eaten before.’
‘We can do that.’
She paused for a moment as if contemplating something, and then she nodded. ‘Okay, give me five minutes and I’ll be down.’
‘You’re not gonna shut the door and then go hide inside the house?’
She laughed. ‘No… give me five minutes.’
I gave her five minutes. She didn’t come down. She left me standing there a further two minutes and then I heard her footsteps behind the door.
She opened up and came out. She looked great; she smelled great, something like violets or honeysuckles or something, and when I gave her my arm she took it and I walked her to the car. I opened the door for her and drove her to the subway station. I didn’t ask her why she didn’t want to drive. She wanted the subway, she got the subway. Had she asked me to
I took her to the Avenue of the Americas. We found a restaurant, and whether it was the most expensive one on the Avenue I don’t know, didn’t care, but I spent two hundred and eleven dollars on dinner and left a fifty-dollar tip.
I didn’t drive her back from the subway station to the house when we returned. I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could. I walked with her, it took a good twenty minutes, and when I stood on the stoop and told her I’d had the greatest night of my life she reached out and touched my face.
She did not kiss me, but that was okay. She did say I could call on her again, and I said I would.
I saw her most every day, except for those few days I was out of town on business, for the better part of eight months. In July of 1976 I asked her to marry me.
‘You want me to marry you?’ she asked.
I nodded. My throat was tight. I found it hard to breathe. The girl did the same thing to me as Ten Cent would do to someone who welched on a payback.
‘And why d’you wanna marry me?’
‘Because I love you,’ I said, and I meant it.
‘You love me?’
I nodded. ‘I do.’
‘And you understand that if I say no then you can’t ever come round here again. That’s the way it goes in this business… you ask a girl to marry you and she says no, then that’s the end of the matter. You know that right then it’s dead and gone to Hell. You understand that, Ernesto Perez?’
‘I understand that.’
‘So ask me properly.’
I frowned. ‘Whaddya mean, ask you properly? I just did ask you properly. I gotta ring here in my jacket pocket and everything.’
Angelina turned her mouth down at the edges and nodded her head approvingly. ‘You gotta ring?’
‘Sure. You didn’t think I’d come down here and ask you to marry me if I didn’t have a ring?’
‘Let me see it.’
‘Eh?’
‘Let me see the ring you brought.’
‘You’re serious?’ I asked.
She nodded. ‘Sure I’m serious.’
I shook my head. This wasn’t going according to plan; this was getting an awful lot more awkward and complicated than I’d imagined. I reached into my jacket pocket and took out the ring. It was in a small black velvet box.
I handed it to Angelina.
She took it, opened it, removed the ring and held it up to the light. ‘Real diamonds?’ she asked.
I scowled. Now I was beginning to get pissed. ‘Sure it’s real diamonds. You think I’d bring something to get engaged that was some cheap piece of shit-’
‘Language, Ernesto.’
I nodded. ‘Sorry.’
‘And it’s legit?’
‘Angelina, for Christ’s sake-’
‘I gotta ask, right? I gotta ask. I’ve been living around people like you all my life. Don’t think there can be more than three or four things given to me in my life that weren’t stolen. Getting engaged is important, getting married even more so, and I wouldn’t wanna be making any vows to God and the Virgin Mary on something that was stolen from some poor widow down on 9th Street-’
‘Angelina, for fuck’s sake-’
‘Language-’
‘Screw the fucking language. Give me the fucking ring back. I’m going home. I’m gonna come back tomorrow when you’re a little less crazy.’
Angelina held the ring in her hand. She closed her fist around it. ‘But I thought you came down here to ask me to marry you?’
‘I did. I came down here to ask you to marry me, but you’re just standing there busting my goddamned balls for no reason.’
‘So do it properly,’ she said.
‘I just did for Christ’s sake!’
‘Down on one knee, Ernesto Perez… down on one knee and ask me properly with no cursing or taking the
