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me getting along with her, or at least worried enough to believe
your brother’s claims about this place. It must be serious.”
    “It is,” he replied. We were both
quiet, absorbing these two little words, until the door opened and a girl with
long legs and long straight black hair entered the café. She smiled like she
owned the room and walked over to our table. Blake stood to kiss her on the
cheek.
    “Sorry I’m late,” she told him.
“Work ended fifteen minutes ago, and I had to drive like a madman to get here.”
She looked like the kind of girl who didn’t have to work a day in her life, and
the kind of girl who never let herself feel any semblance of stress, and the
kind of girl who was driven around in a shiny black car by a chauffeur in a
uniform.  
    “No problem, sweetie,” Blake said.
“We just arrived.” We did not just arrive. We
were there at six PM .
It was almost seven-thirty. Blake grabbed a chair from the next table and
dragged it towards ours, the legs scraping the wooden floor and making a
horrible screeching sound. Vicky sat down and placed her huge white bag between
us on the table, almost knocking over my iced cappuccino and leaving me little
room to prop up my elbows.
    Vicky gave me a little wave. “You
must be Carl.”
    “Hi,” I said. “You must be Vicky.”
    “Nice to meet you,” she said. She
tucked her hair behind one ear and I noticed her fingernails were painted a
pale shimmery pink that matched her pink pearl earrings and the pearl pendant
on her silver necklace. Everything about her looked so...coordinated. She
smelled clean and disinfected, like a mixture of baby powder, laundry
detergent, and isopropyl alcohol. Blake excused himself to go to the bathroom,
and once he was out of earshot, she made a face at the ceiling fan whirring
overhead, declared, “It’s hot in here,” and took off her jacket to reveal a
sheer white tank top. She leaned forward to take a sip of Blake’s coffee, and
her neckline dipped an inch or two. She smiled at me and asked, “What are you
doing on Friday? How does dinner and a movie sound?”
    “Oh, uh, wow,” I stammered. She had
a very pretty smile—full lips and white, even teeth—and I was
trying to focus on her face while trying to keep mine from turning red. I
couldn’t believe she was actually coming on to me. “I have a girlfriend,” I
said, for the second time that evening.
    “I know,” she said, knitting her
perfectly shaped eyebrows. “I meant me and Blake with you and your girlfriend.
Like a double date?” If she was embarrassed by what I had just assumed had
happened, at least she didn’t call me on it.
    “Yeah!” I said, stretching my lips
as far as they would go. “Good! Great! Awesome!”
    “What’s awesome?” Blake asked
behind me.
    I jumped. “We’re going out on
Friday!” I told him, a bit too eagerly. “On a double date, and I cannot wait!”
I paused, trying to remind myself that I was not Dr. Seuss. “Awesome!”
    “Are you okay?” he asked me. When
I didn’t answer right away, he looked at Vicky, who didn’t notice him looking
at her because she was studying me like I was a specimen in a laboratory that
could be the key to a significant scientific breakthrough. She recovered
sooner, put a hand on her boyfriend’s arm, and said, “He’s fine, sweetie. I
think he’s just hungry. I’m so sorry I was late. Do you guys want to stay here
for dinner? Because I kind of want a real meal. I’m starving.”
    “We can move somewhere,” Blake
said.
    “You guys can go ahead,” I told
them. “I’m waiting for someone. My girlfriend. Kim. I’m waiting for my
girlfriend.”
    “Okay,” Blake said, staring at me
curiously. Vicky stood up and patted me on the shoulder. “We’ll see you on Friday
then?”
    “Sure,” I replied. “I’m bringing
Kim. My girlfriend.”
    “Great,” she said.
    “Great,” I said.
    Blake put an arm around Vicky,
regarding me suspiciously. “Bye, Carl.”
    I watched