If she’d won, than why didn’t she feel better?
Chapter Sixteen
“This bites the big one,” Mae muttered as she raised her Kahlua and cream to her lips and took a sip. One shiny black pump hung precariously from her toes as she jiggled her right foot. Over the top of her glass she watched a low-riding Chevy slowly roll past, bumping out bass and spewing toxic fumes. She waved her hand in front of her face and wondered if she hadn’t made a mistake in choosing to sit out front. From her small bistro-style table, she had a clear view of anyone walking toward the funky old jazz bar. The melodious flow of saxophone poured through the open doors and out into the dusky sunset of downtown. Around her, couples talked of what concerned most people in Seattle: rain, coffee, and Microsoft.
She set her drink back on the table and glanced at her watch. “He isn’t coming,” she told herself, and shoved her foot back inside her shoe. It was Friday night. She didn’t have to work for a change, and she’d put on lipstick and mascara for nothing. She’d even put on a dress. A nice little black slip dress with nothing on under it. She was freezing and her latest lover, Ted, was a no-show.
He’d probably gotten detained by his wife, she thought, and reached for her purse. She usually didn’t carry a purse, but she didn’t have anyplace to put her money tonight, not even her underwear. She pulled out a twenty and set it on the table. She wasn’t going to wait any longer for him. She wasn’t that desperate.
“Now, what’s a girl like you doing all by yourself?”
Mae looked up and opened her mouth to tell the guy to buzz off. Instead she frowned and said, “Just when I thought this night couldn’t get any worse.”
Hugh Miner laughed and turned to the men with him. “You guys go ahead,” he said as he pulled out a chair opposite Mae. “I’ll join you in a minute.”
Mae watched the men walk inside and she grabbed her purse. “I was just leaving.”
“You can stay for one drink, can’t you?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Because I’m freezing, she thought. “Why would I want to?”
“Because I’m buying.”
Free booze had never been an incentive for Mae, but just then, a red-haired waitress walked up to the table and proceeded to make a fool out of herself. She cooed, rubbed up against Hugh?
??s shoulder, and did everything but fall down and give him oral pleasure. She was pretty with big blue eyes and a nice body, which she asked Hugh to autograph, but to his credit, he declined.
“But I’ll tell you what, Mandy,” he said to the waitress. “If you bring me a Beck’s and…” He paused and turned his attention to Mae. “What are you drinking?” he asked her.
She couldn’t leave. Not now. Not when Mandy was sending jealous daggers her way. Other women weren’t usually jealous of Mae Heron. “Kahlua and cream.”
“If you bring me a Beck’s and a Kahlua and cream, I’d be real grateful,” he finished.
“How grateful?” She looked around, then leaned down and whispered into this ear.
Hugh laughed silently. “Mandy,” he said, “I’m not real interested, being that what you’re asking is against the law in some states. But listen, I came here tonight with Dmitri Ulanov. Now, he’s a foreigner and doesn’t know he could get arrested for what you’re suggesting. You might get him to take you up on it.”
As she laughed and walked away, Hugh leaned back and glued his gaze to Mandy’s behind.
“I thought you weren’t interested,” Mae reminded him.
“Nothing wrong with looking,” he said, and turned his attention to Mae. “But she’s not as pretty as you.”
Mae was so positive he said that to every woman he met that she wasn’t the least bit flattered. “What did she want to do?”
Hugh shook his head and his hazel eyes shined. “Now, that would be telling.”
“And you don’t ever tell?”
“Nope.” He shrugged out of his leather bomber jacket and handed it across the table to her. His shoulders appeared wide beneath his cream-colored dress shirt.
“Are my goose bumps noticeable from across the table?” she asked, and gratefully accepted the jacket. It was huge and warm draped over her shoulders. It smelled of musky male.
He smiled at her. “Your bumps are very noticeable, yes.”