“Why, thank you kind sir, it’s amazing what a figure-hugging red dress can do.”
“Very funny…” I was smiling at her, even though my words were dry. But she was right, the dress was figure-hugging, it clung to every curve and left nothing to my imagination. Not that I needed imagination, I could still see the image of her on that first night in my mind as she’d lain naked in the bath. Shit, tonight was not the night to be thinking about that.
I reached for my coat, then put it on.
“We’re going on the subway,” she said, hooking her little purse bag over her arm again. “So don’t take your hat and scarf, you’ll only lose them in the club––”
“And freeze on the way home either way…”
“You won’t notice the weather on the way back you’ll be too drunk.” She grinned at me, her devilish come-on-live-a-bit-wild grin.
I grinned back, a sucker for a beautiful woman in a hot dress. “I wish all my friends looked as good as you,” I whispered to her as we went out the door.
She glanced back, flashing me another bright smile. Then she said, “Likewise.”
When we got on the subway train we sat on opposite sides of the carriage, grinning at each other, like a couple of kids. But then my cell buzzed in my pocket as it pulled away.
I took it out.
It was Lindy.
“Yeah.”
“What, not hi, darling, or, great to hear from you.”
“I’m on the subway, Lindy. I told you I was going out.”
“Right. I just wanted to check you’re okay.”
“I’m, okay.”
“You always call me, I just wanted to surprise you and call you for a change.”
“On the one night I’ve gone out for a drink since I’ve been here, cheers, Lindy, thanks for thinking of me.”
I didn’t look at Rachel. It was embarrassing to have Lindy check up on me. She was jealous of Rachel. Lindy had always held other women at a distance from me, it was just part of what she did, and the way she was. I knew it was because she was insecure, but I was a little sick of her insecurity lately.
“Lindy, just give it a rest. Be the one to call me tomorrow if you like, it’s a Saturday, surprise me then…”
She hung up.
She’d be pissed off and angry now.
My good mood deflated like someone let helium out of my balloon. I made a sorry face at Rach and stood up, then moved further along the carriage, and with one arm looped about the bar to hold me steady, I called Lindy back. The subway was coming off the far end of the bridge. I’d lose my signal soon.
“Hi,” she answered, sounding annoyed.
“Sorry.”
“Yeah, right…”
“I’m trying my best to make this work, Lindy. You know I haven’t been out, or really made friends here. Rachel just offered to get me out of the apartment and help me get to know the city a bit, to cheer me up, alright… It’s nothing.”
“It isn’t nothing, Jason. She’s living with you in a one bedroom apartment. She’s after what she can get. She’s taking advantage, and…”
And of course in Lindy’s opinion that could only be about money, nothing to do with the fact Rach might actually like me.
“Think whatever you want to think, Lindy.” I kept my head down so my voice didn’t carry. “I know why she’s staying, and it isn’t to get money out of me. I like her, alright? She’s good company. I’m sorry you’re jealous, but I’m not making her homeless just ‘cause you’re jealous. This has to stop, understand. You can’t keep running her down every night.”
Lindy stayed silent for a minute. Then she said, “You know, Jason, if you were really trying at this, you wouldn’t even be in New York, you’d be here, where you belong, with me and your mom and dad. Bye.”
She hung up again.
I didn’t call back.
I slipped the cell into my inside pocket where my wallet was and went to sit back down opposite Rach again.
“How’s Lindy?” She gave me a sweet smile. I looked for sarcasm in her expression and found none. She understood. I could see it in her eyes. She knew I felt like trash because I could do nothing right for Lindy.
I smiled back as her smile turned sympathetic. “Fine.”
“It’s alright, tonight’s gonna cheer you up and put a smile back on your face, Jason Macinlay.”
I got up and shifted to the seat next to her and then started asking her about the club she was taking me to. I wanted to lighten the mood again. I’d felt good when we’d left the apartment, now I was feeling all small-town-guy-in-a-big-city.
She had me laughing by the time we got off the subway, although it wasn’t a belly laugh. I still felt a bit down over my argument with Lindy. I wasn’t sure Lindy and I would ever work out now, and yet we’d been together forever, and I’d thought it would just go on like that. I couldn’t see my future anymore. It was ridiculous, I’d been so sure of everything until I’d come to New York. Or perhaps Lindy had just been sure of everything and I’d fallen in line…
“Do you wanna go to a bar first?”
“You’re the party planner…” Lindy’s call was seriously flattening this for me.
“Then we’ll go to a bar, and I’m buying the first round, and you’re having a shot, not just beer.”
I smiled at her, my hands in my pockets again.
“Come on, cheer up,” she said. “A girlfriend who wants to take over the world won’t end your life.”
“Just limit it…” My gaze caught hers, and for the first time in days she gripped my arm.
“Come on, I’m on a mission now, I’m cheering you up whether you like it or not.”
Her touch felt reassuring and comforting. I really wasn’t a bastard, was I? Lindy made me feel like I was.
I picked a quieter bar to start with, to break Jason’s ill-mood. I thought a noisy bar straightaway may be annoying as he wasn’t in the right mind. It wasn’t empty though. Nowhere was empty in the middle of New York on a Friday night. I’d deliberately picked a place Declan wouldn’t go to, but even so, I scanned the place looking for him when we walked in. It was safe. I knew everywhere
