Page 41 of The Second Chance Cinema
Want to get dinner out tonight?
Three typing dots appeared, then:
It’s another late, annoying day. Rain check for tomorrow? Before our midnight movie.
“Did you just thank the maps lady?” Ellie asked on their way to dinner the next night. The GPS had told Drake to make a right turn, and he’d responded back to her. He was impossibly polite, even when bantering with inanimate objects.
“Gertie?” he said. “Yeah. Of course, I thanked her.”
“I need to share something,” Ellie said, eager to get everything out and off her chest. Her guilt had grown larger over the last day; the lunch with Nolan had made Melinda’s story even more of a reality. “Somethings, actually.” Ellie’s eyes moved back to the map on the phone. Drake had plugged in an address she recognized. It was a street she knew well.
“Sure,” he said. “Tell away.”
Finn’s. Drake was taking her to Finn’s. She couldn’t ruin their special place with her confession. They had only gone to Finn’s once since they’d met. Ellie insisted they shouldn’t visit too often; things tended to lose their luster when they were overdone. But Drake seemed to think tonight deserved a stop, and she agreed. It had been a tough week. They needed this lift, this mood boost. Ellie stuffed her guilt in her mental junk closet and moved on.
“The thing I wanted to tell you,” she said, dancing her hand up his arm, “is that I could really use an old-fashioned.”
“Well then,” Drake said. “You’re just in luck.”
Finn’s was busy that night.
Sam was still behind the bar. Ellie knew from checking inevery now and then that his uncle had promoted him to manager. Copies of her book with the Finn’s story inside were stacked on top of the liquor shelves. There were a few newer touches, too— lights behind the bottles, some more modern vinyl selections, and a food menu of small bites. Sam stopped midpour as Ellie and Drake moved toward their meeting spot.
“It’s been a while, bar saver,” he said.
“Didn’t technically save it,” Ellie reminded him. “Just wrote about it.”
“Yeah, okay, sure.” He finished the drink he’d been making and started to pour an old-fashioned without asking. “Sometimes, people ask to buy those books, but I won’t let them out of my sight. They’re my good-luck charm.” After passing over Ellie’s drink, he finally acknowledged Drake. “Hey, man. You want a beer?”
“You know what?” Drake said. “I’ll take an old-fashioned, too.”
Ellie lowered herself onto the same stool as that first night. Drake went to the bathroom, which left her alone with Sam for a moment. She glanced behind her to make sure Drake was out of earshot, then tapped her hands on the bar to get his attention.
“Psst,” she asked. “Can you do me a favor?”
A few minutes later, Drake shuffled onto the stool next to her. “Hey, again,” he said. “This is really taking me back. I was sitting here.” He brushed the bar. “You were there. And I was like, hey, whatcha working on?” Drake pretended to lean over her shoulder to check out a notebook.
Ellie smirked. “And I was like, oh yeah, there’s this big vampire project.”
“No, I said the vampire thing,” Drake clarified. “I said something like, you’re becoming a vampire?”
“And I said, yes, I’m a Vampire in Progress. A VIP. And you,” Ellie pointed to him, “you seem like you’d go to a lot of restaurant birthday parties? Am I right?”
Drake grabbed her hand. “You know what I was thinking?”
“I don’t remember this part.”
“Back then, I mean,” Drake said. “I thought you were the most interesting woman in the world.”
Ellie mocked disbelief. “You thought I was the Dos Equis man?”
“Right. Spitting image. What about you? What did you think when you saw me?” Drake spun his stool to the side to show off his profile.
“I thought,” Ellie said. “Okay, well at first I thought you were cute.”
“I’ll take cute.”
“But you know what I love about you now?”
