Page 20 of Heartless

Her accent is lovely. I glance at her and give a brief nod.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to interrupt your solitude,” she says just before ordering a drink.

She’s facing the bar, and I’m facing the opposite direction.

“You’re fine,” I lie.

“Good. You don’t look it, though,” she says. “Stressful work week?”

“I wish.”

She laughs. “Sometimes business problems, no matter how complicated, are preferable. When your personal life is on the edge, it’s hard to find hope.”

“Spoken like a woman with experience.”

She chuckles again. “Something like that. You look like you could use someone to talk to.”

Shaking my head, I reply, “No, I just needed a change of scenery.”

“Oh?” she says, lifting an eyebrow.

“Nothing too dramatic.”

“I believe that when you get away from the problem, and you’re not up close looking at it, you can see all the issues clearer as well as the resolutions,” she says.

“Maybe,” I reply with a sigh as I toss my drink back.

She smiles again and eyes me carefully over her drink.

“Another one, please,” she says, holding her glass up.

“What’re you drinking?”

“Agua de Valencia,” she replies with a smile.

“I’ll get her drink,” I say to the bartender.

“Gracias.”

“De nada.”

Her laughter is a light tinker.

“I’ll have one, too,” I tell the bartender.

“You don’t even know what’s in it.”

“No, but it seems to be some magic elixir. It’s making you happy. Better than me sobbing in a gin and tonic.”

“I don’t think that you’re sobbing,” she says smiling warmly at me and turning her back to the bar with me.

“Oh? What do you call it?”

“Chasing away the blues.”

“Okay.”

We sit in silence for a while before she speaks again.

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