Heather gave J.T.’s cheek a resounding slap then turned on her heel and walked away.
“Stay here,” he ordered Aria, and took off after Heather.
Aria smiled to herself and felt good for the first time in days. It had been very nice to see that man slapped. Across the street was one of those drugstores. She waited for the light just as J.T. had instructed her then crossed the street and went into the store. Several people, young men in uniform and girls in thick socks and brown and white shoes, were sitting on red stools.
Aria sat on an empty one.
“What’ll you have?” asked an older man in a white apron.
She searched her memory for the word. “A coat?”
“What?”
A handsome young man in a blue uniform moved down to the stool beside her. “I think she means a Coke.”
“Yes,” Aria said, smiling. “A Coke.”
“Cherry?” the man asked.
“Yes,” she answered promptly.
“You live around here?”
the soldier asked.
“I live—I am staying at the Waverly Hotel.”
“Plush. Listen, I got a few friends in town and tonight we’re going out to do the town.”
“Do the town,” she murmured, just what Miss Addison had said. The man served her a Coke in a strange glass that was metal with a paper cone in it. There was a straw in it. She glanced at the teenage girls and mimicked them. Her first sip nearly choked her, but when her mouth and throat adjusted to the bubbles, she found the drink delicious.
“What do you say?” the soldier beside her asked.
Another soldier walked up behind her. “A babe like this to go out with scum like you? Listen, honey, I know a couple of nightspots where we can dance ‘till dawn then—”
A third soldier moved behind her. “Don’t listen to them. Neither one of them knows how to treat a real lady. Now, I know a place over on G Street that—”
He broke off as J.T. shoved his way between them.
“Take your turn, buddy, we saw her first.”
“You want to eat all those teeth of yours? I married the woman yesterday.”
“Don’t look to me like you’re taking very good care of her.”
Aria kept her head bent over her Coke but she was smiling. Oh how she was smiling. She glanced down the bar toward the teenage girls who were also smiling. One of them winked at her and Aria decided that this was a part of America she rather liked.
“Come on,” J.T. said angrily, grabbing her arm. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Wait! I have to pay for my Coke.” After her bout with the police, she knew she had to pay for everything.
“That’s all right, I’ll do it,” the soldiers said in unison.
“No, no, I must learn your money.” Deftly, she moved out of J.T.’s grip and made her way through the hovering soldiers. She asked the man behind the bar how much the Coke was then took her time opening her handbag and her change purse. “A nickel is this one, isn’t it?” she said, holding up a quarter.
The men fell all over themselves helping her find the correct coin.
“You’re French, aren’t you? I knew it the moment I saw you.”