Hope she was worth it.
Thing is, there’s more than a little bit of me that kinda thinks she was.
Buddy is mid-story, “So then Muffy turns to Taffy and is like –” when I see her.
“Holy shit,” I blurt out.
“I know,” Buddy says, thinking I’m actually listening to his gossip.
“No,” I say, “it’sher.”
It’s Natalie. She’s passing by at a clip and is past me before I can call out her name. I stand up from the table and hop over the short wrought-iron fence that surrounds Maria’s outdoor dining area.
Probably best not to shout her name, given the situation. Never know who’s around. So, I catch up to her as quickly as I can.
I mentally rifle through my opening lines. Do I go casual? Flirty? Collegial? I settle oncoy. Coming up alongside her, I say, “Hello, stranger.”
Whap!
The slap comes quick and stinging. Her hand flies from out of my field of vision and catches me across the face with military precision. I’m so surprised, it takes me a few seconds to register what happened. “Ow,” I finally say like a dope.
“You asshole.”
I rub my stinging chin, and ask, “Did you not get the wine?”
Coyis proving to be a bad choice. She’s fuming.
“I know that sleazy stories are great foryourimage,” she says through gritted teeth, “but they suck pretty hard formine.” She looks like she wants to wring my neck. Considering the athleticism she displayed last night, I have no doubt she could make quick work of it, too.
“Wait a second,” I hold my hands up, “you think I’mhappyabout this?”
“For all I know, I was your latest target! You needed some smut for your press this week, you saw me in the wine shop, and figured, ‘She’ll do. I’ll ruin her life for the sake of making it into this week’s celebrity gossip news cycle’.”
“That isnotwhat happened at all.”
“I almost lost my job today because of you.”
Oh, shit.In a blink, her manner goes from pissed-as-hell to verging on tears.
Not everyone’s got the luxury of your lifestyle, Roger, I tell myself. If there’s one thing my kind of money often makes you forget, it’s the concept of ‘consequences’.
“Natalie, I’m so sorry. But you have to believe me, I had nothing to do with those pictures. This is all some stupid misunderstanding. Seriously, I’m as nonplussed about it as you are.”
She looks me up and down. I’m in some expensive casual wear. Then she glances back at Maria’s, where Buddy is leaning over the little fence. He’s got his cocktail in one hand and is waving at us with the other. Altogether, it’s hardly the picture of a man in distress.
Natalie stares me down again. “Yeah, you look like you’re really bent out of shape about this.”
“I am. I just… process this sort of thing differently, okay?”
Her face softens a little. It’s a lovely face. She stares at her shoes. For a moment, I consider lifting that lovely face and kissing her. Probably a dumb idea.
Damn, this girl’s in my head in a crazy way.
“C’mon,” I say, “Let me buy you lunch to make up for it.” I gesture back toward the restaurant.
She looks up at me again, and I see a glimmer of the woman I was with last night. I watch her calculate whether she wants to be seen with me or not. Finally, she relents. “It better be expensive,” she says.
“Trust me, everything at this place is overpriced.”