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Walker laughed, “What the hell for? I get it, she’s hot, but she’s probably also done half the guys who have walked in these doors.”
“So,” I stated.
Whitney spun around and pegged me with a look. “So that’s your type? You like sluts?”
I glared at her, “She’s not a slut.”
“And you know that how?” Whitney asked with a raised eyebrow. “Wait,” she jerked back, “don’t tell me you’ve been with that piece of trash.”
“Really?” Walker asked as he leaned forward. “You’ve been with that? Was she good?” Walker turned to study her. “She looks like she’d be a wildcat.”
“You know, you guys are crude. You have no idea who she is or what she’s about. Don’t judge.” I turned to watch her again, and she met my gaze. I really did wonder what her story was.
She pushed the guy out of the booth and followed him, grabbing him by the hand and pulling him out the door. Maybe someday, I would find out, not by taking her to bed, hell no, but maybe by striking up a conversation.
“Hey, isn’t that Ward Young?” Whitney asked as I turned back to the table.
“Yeah, it sure is. I haven’t seen him in a while. I heard he was holed up getting some new game ready to launch,” Walker replied. “Don’t you know his sister, Wilma?”
“Yeah, I know them both, Wilma more so. She was modeling at a benefit I was hosting for kids.” I watched him sit down in the vacated spot of the woman I’d been watching. The interaction between him and the other woman was pretty intense. “I’d go say hi, but he looks a bit busy.” I glanced at my watch, “I should get going. I have an early day tomorrow.”
“My turn to pay,” Whitney declared and pulled her wallet out of her purse. “What time do you need me at the office?”
“Why do you always get to pay when it’s only three of us? Colt and I always get stuck paying when we are all here.” Walker whined.
Whitney grinned at him, “You two doctors make more money than us nurses do.”
I squeezed her shoulder, “I have some reports to get finished in the morning. I don’t think our first patient is until seven-thirty.”
I said my goodbyes to them and headed toward the exit. Outside, I paused and took a deep breath of fresh air. It felt great outside, and I considered walking instead of hailing a cab. Just as I was about to turn and walk towards my apartment, I heard giggling and then saw the guy pulling the blue-eyed girl from the alley beside the building. The two of them staggered along the sidewalk arm in arm, and I shook my head.
She deserved better than some no-named guy from a bar. I turned to leave but found myself spinning back to watch them. Maybe I should follow them to make sure they got to where they were going safely. Jesus, Colt, what are you now, a knight in shining armor?
Even as I thought the words, I slowly began to walk in their direction. One of them lived a few blocks away in an old building that probably should have been condemned. The gutters were hanging away from the sides, and the fire escape on the left didn’t even look like it went all the way up the building. The woman stumbled to a stop at the door and dug out a key. I leaned back against the wall behind me and crossed my arms as she took a few seconds to get the key into the door. The two of them stumbled into the entry, and I lost view.
So that’s where she lives. I noted the building number and turned towards home.
Why the hell did I just follow her? It wasn’t like I was interested in her. Well, maybe I was interested in knowing why she was always picking up different guys. Did she have a sex problem? Maybe she was a prostitute. Somehow that didn’t feel right.
Did she do it because she had no choice? Maybe she was a sex addict that had to have it every few days. Who knew? She might go out to a different bar every night and find a new guy each time she went out.
I dwelled on the issue the whole way home. When Henry, the doorman, pulled open the front door to the lobby of my building, I paused. How different we were. Her building was falling down, and mine was state of the art. I nodded a silent greeting to Henry and headed to the elevator.
I’d been lucky to grab a condo in this building when I had. A guy I had known from college had had to sell quickly and get out west to a new job, and he’d sold it to me for a song. My unit was on the tenth floor, one floor down from the penthouse. My view was incredible, and many nights after a grueling day, I would sit on the balcony and stare out over the city.
Tonight, as I pushed open my balcony door, I faced not the view of the water but toward her apartment.
I didn’t understand why I was so interested in knowing about her, I just knew that I wanted to find out more, maybe just to settle my curiosity and to try to understand why someone would do that to herself.
As I leaned on the metal railing around my balcony edge, I knew that there was a reason I wanted to know more, and eventually that reason would come to me. For now, I was going to have to figure out what I could do to get her to open up and talk to me.
I stared out over the city for a while until an idea began to form in my mind. As I climbed in bed that night, I had solidified my plan, and I grinned to myself as I turned out the light.
