Sixty-fifth and Broadway, just up from Lincoln Center. It was an old-fashioned Irish bar called County Cork, all dark and comforting on the inside, an ancient bar worn and lovingly shined that curved around, and a smell that permeated the place—welcoming and old and mellow.
She slid into a booth that was done in black leather, worn and soft and smelling of beer and whiskey with just a hint of salted peanuts. The large room was dim, nearly empty at this time of day. It was just before four o’clock in the afternoon on a Wednesday. Everyone was still at work. Except her. She’d just quit her job and felt relief and depression in equal amounts.
She looked up at the bartender and called out for a white wine. She looked down at her beautiful new suede boots, the stains now drying and ugly as slash marks on the soft golden brown.
She wanted to gulp down her wine when the bartender brought it, but she sipped it, slow and easy. She brooded, looking at the scarred, beautifully polished wooden table. She thought about her boss, the weak-chinned Nathan, and wished she had punched him out when she’d quit an hour before. But she’d been calm and very adult, she’d handled it well, telling him to find another poor soul with a psych degree to pimp for him. She’d left, only to wonder if he would see she was paid for the two days. Who cared? She was out of there. It had been part of her job to play escort and companion/guide to visiting authors, seeing that all nasty and inconvenient twigs were swept from their paths. She was the smoother-over. The last guy was a golfer who was writing a book about the scandals on the pro golf circuit. She’d removed every proverbial rock from the road, smiled at his stories, kept his spirits buoyed. And then he’d tried to get her up to his hotel suite. When she’d walked and reported what the jerk had wanted, her boss had told her to get back there and keep the man happy. She’d said that being a prostitute wasn’t part of her job description.
Well, it was over. During the interview with her boss, the golfer had called in a snit, complaining about her uncooperativeness. She had gotten to laugh then in her erstwhile boss’s face. She could smile for real again. She was free for a while until she found another job. She looked around the bar. She nursed her wine, looking up to see a man at the bar, by himself, tossing off a Scotch, if she wasn’t mistaken. He was carrying on a desultory conversation with the barkeep, a big-gutted man with an apron wrapped around his middle and up under his armpits, and sporting a big brown mustache. The barkeep wiped beer mugs with a soft white cloth, his movements slow and hypnotic. His dark eyes looked dreamy and old. She wondered if he was really listening to the man or was off into space somewhere.
The man was talking about his BMW and how the sucker hated the snow and slush and how it was rotting underneath from all the salt the city laid down after a snowstorm. The barkeep just nodded and kept wiping those beer mugs. The man drank down the rest of his whiskey and ordered another. He spoke again, but Lindsay couldn’t make out his words. He was mid-forties, olive-complexioned, a head thick with black curly hair, slender. He had boyish features and his smile held charm. His clothes were expensive. His voice was as soft and mellow as her white wine. She was distracted, and found herself listening without really intending to. Just to pass the time, she told herself, until her boots dried. No more walking on the sidewalks in this weather. She was going out to dinner with Gayle Werth, to her favorite Mexican restaurant on Seventy-first Street, and she still had a couple of hours to wipe out.
A woman came sweeping into the bar—no other way to describe her entrance. Lindsay could only stare at her. She was swathed in black mink and high-heeled black leather boots. She wore a huge mink hat and carried a Sharif bag, which probably didn’t hold more than a lipstick. She was gorgeous and self-assured and obviously on a mission. The man turned when the woman came to him and lightly touched her gloved hand to his shoulder. “Ah, redhead,” he said, turning to smile up at her. “I’m glad you’re here. You want a drink?”
“Yeah, thanks, Vinnie, a ginger ale. Then I want to talk to you. Glen told me you’d be here.”
“Glen’s got a big mouth. Dickie, make it a Perrier for the redhead. No calories. Look at those thighs, Janine. I can see the fat dimples through the coat. No more nothing for you today, sweetie, you got that?”
It was then that Lindsay recognized the woman. She was a model. Lindsay had just seen her on the cover of a woman’s magazine at her dentist’s office a couple of days before. She wasn’t quite so beautiful right now. She was fighting mad at the man. She was speaking angrily at the man, her voice rising with each word.
“. . . No more, Vinnie, no more, you hear me? Damn you, it was enough!”
No more what? Lindsay wondered, her hearing tuned to high. Then the man cut her off with a wave of his hand, saying quite clearly to her, “Look, babe, you play by the rules, or you fade into obscurity.”
The barkeep handed the glass of Perrier to the woman. The man said now, “You’re getting lines around your mouth with all your tantrums and whining. Cut it out. No more frowns today, you got that?”
The woman threw the Perrier into the man’s face. The twist of lemon fell onto his lap. “Another thing, Demos, I’m marrying Arthur Penderley III and I’ll be able to buy and sell you, you no-cock little pansy bastard.” She pulled her gorgeous mink coat around her, tossed her head back in a magnificent gesture, nearly losing her mink hat, and walked from the bar.
“Wow,” the barkeep said. “That’s some lady. She must be wearing ten thou on her back.”
“She’s a lot of things,” the man Vinnie said as he wiped off his face, “but a lady she ain’t. At least this stuff doesn’t stain. Ah, hell, Dickie, I’m glad she’s getting out of the business. She’s tired of it, burned down to her wick, and it’s starting to show in her work. I’ve even gotten a couple complaints about her attitude, you know? When a director or a photographer starts to notice a model’s attitude, you know you’re in trouble. Usually they’re so wrapped up in themselves, they wouldn’t even notice God if he arrived on a set. Well, that’s that. Give me another towel, will you? Thanks.”
He was wiping at his pants when the bartender called out, “Hey, lady, you want another glass of wine?”
Lindsay, fascinated, and not wanting to leave just yet, called back, “Yeah, make it a double.”
The man slowly looked up. He paused in his wiping. He looked at her for a very long time, then nodded, raising his whiskey glass in a silent salute.
Lindsay smiled at him. Nothing like a little drama to make one forget one’s woes, she thought, delighted at what life unexpectedly dished up on rare occasions, and gave him an unconscious wide smile.
Vincent Rafael Demos couldn’t believe his eyes. It was too much whiskey, he thought. That was it. That smile of hers was something else. Electric, yeah, that was it. And that damp mop on her head—unruly as Medusa’s hair, but thick and filled with colors from the lightest ash to dark brown, colors that seemed to absorb all light, made more intense with deep natural waves. As for her eyes, well, he’d soon see. “I’ll take her wine to her. Oh, Dickie, put it on my tab.”
Lindsay watched the man approach, her wine in his right hand, his whiskey in his left. He was looking at her, no longer smiling, and up came a rush of fear. She quashed it. No more fear. At least no more unreasonable fear. If the man wanted to buy her a glass of wine, who cared? She was the one out of a job. It didn’t mean he wanted to attack her. Besides, she was depressed.
“My name’s Vincent Demos, or just Vinnie if you heard Janine yelling at me. Or just Demos, which I prefer. Here’s your wine. I bought it for you. Can I join you for a few minutes?”
“As long as you don’t talk about your BMW, sure.”
He grinned and slid into the booth opposite her. He raised his glass and she clicked hers to his.
“You a student?”
“Not anymore. I’m a full-fledged professional, newly-out-of-a-job adult. I just quit my first job this afternoon and a taxi ruined my new suede boots. My name’s Lindsay Foxe.”
They shook hands. His were dry and narrow, his grip firm.
“Nice to meet you, ma’am.”
She nodded.
“You have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen. Sexy as hell and intelligent, a new combination.”
“And that’s a new line.”
“No line. Fact. They aren’t colored contacts, are they? No, I didn’t think so. How much do you weigh?”
“My fighting weight or in my Reeboks with thick socks?”
“Fighting weight.”
“One hundred and thirty pounds. What kind of prize do I win if I answer all the questions right?”
“You’re how tall?”
She cocked her head at him. “Just about five-foot-eleven.”
“I didn’t think you looked overweight. You got long legs?”
“To Mars.”
