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She just glared at him in disbelief, then chuckled. “What now?” he asked with annoyance.
“Nothing,” she said. “If you say that me never talking with my family is normal, I’ll take your word for it.”
He sipped his scotch bitterly, annoyed by her dismissive comment. “Anyway, we should probably set aside some time tomorrow so I can coach you on basic things.”
“Basic things?” she asked. “What basic things?”
“Like how to pronounce certain words, the names of designer brands. That sort of thing. I can probably put together a list or a document binder--”
She scoffed. “I know a lot about expensive stuff. I happen to own a Guccianda Louis Vuitton purse, thank you very much.”
He smirked at her and shook his head. “All right. Stella Ar-toyz.”
She narrowed her eyes at him as he drank his scotch. “Fine,” she said. “Do your little due diligence or whatever. A walk-through couldn’t hurt, I guess.”
They just drank in silence for a moment as Richard looked around the bar at the few others that were there. He noticed that there was a couple a few feet away from them, holding hands across the table as they sat and watched the pianist. Looking at them without knowing anything about them other than the clothes they were wearing and their approximate age, it was clear that they were together.
Richard started to wonder how they looked together right then. They were in public, after all. What if someone he knows should happen to walk in? Would they look at the two of them and think they were together?
He reached across the table and touched her hand. She recoiled. “What are you doing?”
He cleared his throat. “We are in public,” he said. “We should, at least, look like we’re a couple.”
She raised an eyebrow at him and stifled a belch from the beer. “Now? I thought we weren’t starting until tomorrow.”
“We might as well start tonight,” he said. “Imagine if someone I know sees us together right now. We want to make this look good don’t we?”
She sighed, then thought about it for a moment and said, “All right.” She scooted her chair around the table until they were sitting practically side by side, then with a smile, she looped her arm with his, lacing her fingers with his on the table.
He sat next to her awkwardly for a moment, then he got a whiff of her perfume. Powdery and soft. Almost undetectable under the scent of her beer and his scotch. He liked it though. It had almost a sweet smell to it, like a hint of vanilla.
She leaned her head on his shoulder and said, “How’s this?”
He felt himself getting warm being this close to her. His mouth was suddenly dry, so he took a sip from his glass.
“This is good,” he said. He looked down at her just in time to see her looking up at him, her eyes twinkling like stars. A sort of unconscious smile appeared on her face and he smiled back at her without thinking.
“We should probably know some things about each other’s personal lives, too,” she said as she turned her head towards the piano player.
“True,” he said. “We should definitely go over that sort of thing.”
They drank and talked, comparing the notes of their lives to the tune of the piano music. They were both divorced, which Richard knew already, of course. Neither of them had ever had any pets or children, a fact that Stella found to be strange since he was older than she was. The age difference was also something they batted back and forth but didn’t stick too long on. She was twenty-nine to his forty-five, which made him feel a little like he was playing from his father’s playbook. She, at least, didn’t carry the look of a stripper as Rebecca did.
“What about college?” he asked her.
“What about it?”
“Well, have you been? Do you have a degree or…?”
“Can’t we just say I do?”
He sighed. “No. We can’t just say you do. If you have a degree in something, then you might have to back it up with some knowledge of some sort.”
She looked over at him sorely, unlacing her fingers from his. “What?”
“You think I’m not college educated?’
He blinked dumbly at her. “I don’t know if you are. That’s why I asked.”
