shook off that depressing thought and remembering one of her favorite episodes of Sex in the City, she said,
“A Pink Lady?”
“One Pink Lady coming up,” Marshall told her. He left her at a small high top table and went to the bar. Eva watched him for a few minutes. Sometimes she looked at him and her heart ached. She had done so well for so many years, not blurting out how she felt about him. Suddenly, it had become almost impossible. She was sure it had everything to do with losing Henry. Eva and Henry had talked a lot, and she was sure that he had a good idea about how grateful she was for all he’d done for her over the years….but she hadn’t said it. She hadn’t told him straight out how she felt and now she had to live with that regret. She wondered if regret felt the same when someone was still alive…but maybe married…to the wrong woman.
She tore her eyes away from him and looked around the cute little bar. The building was erected like a hut and seemed to be made out of bamboo and palm fronds. Everything gave off a cool, relaxed vibe from the hand-made furniture to the lava lamps that lit the place softly in colored lights. The band was on a slightly elevated wooden platform in the far corner and in front of them was a small dance floor.
“Here you go, one Pink Lady,” Eva looked at the frothy pink drink with the cherry on top in front of her and found herself wondering what was in it. She was too embarrassed to ask, so she just picked it up and took a sip of it through the straw. To what would be her detriment later that evening, she loved it.
“Good?” Marshall asked her.
“Very,” she said, “You just got beer? I thought we were “living” on vacation.”
He laughed and said, “My stomach and fruity drinks don’t get along very well. I’d hate for you to have to hold my hair back while I throw up all night.” Eva laughed too and said,
“Yeah, I’d hate for me to have to do that too,” she said. The truth be told, she would have if she had to, in a heartbeat. She actually had taken care of him more than once when he’d had too much to drink. She was always the one he called if he couldn’t get a cab and she always went to get him. She never said no.
They sipped their drinks and listened to the antics of the already drunk crowd around them. The dance floor was full of couples who looked like they were in love, or at least really horny. Eva caught Marshall watching them and wondered if it made him miss Simone. She finished her first Pink Lady and was halfway through her second one when Marshall said,
“Let’s dance.”
“I don’t dance,” she said. She didn’t tell Marshall, but Henry had actually started giving her lessons in ball room dancing. It had been a lot of fun, and she thought that she’d learned a lot. She still wasn’t ready to try it out in front of a live TV feed, however.
“Tonight, you do,” he told her. “You have to, it’s in the book.”
“It’s in the what?” she asked.
“The guide that Granddad left us, it says that we have to share at least one dance. We’re here and you have to have a good buzz going on by now. Let’s get it over with.”
Eva smiled, but her mind focused on the words, “Get it over with.” Her lack of self-esteem let her interpret that to mean he wasn’t going to dance with her because he wanted to, but because it was on the list of things that Granddad wanted them to do. He probably wanted to “get it over with” before Simone showed up. Eva picked up her drink and downed the last half of it,
“Let’s go,” she said. The band was playing a slow song. Eva expected Marshall to take one hand in his. That was the way Henry had shown her. Instead, he put both of his hands on the small of her back which left her to put both of hers around his neck. As they swayed in time to the music, Eva closed her eyes and immersed herself in the feelings. As the music came to an end, she opened her eyes and found that