Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Adora settled back against the bar and examined the idea from all sides. She more than deserved to be tortured for three weeks. And in that three weeks she could figure out a way to make David suffer, too. And her mother would have somebody beautiful to point out to people at the wedding as her date. It was a plan, and as far as she could see, it was all good.
The bartender came back and Adora said, "Rum and Diet Coke, please. A double."
"That's your third," Lonnie said. "And fourth. The aspartame alone will make you insane. What are you doing?
"Was she mean to you?" Bonnie said. "What happened?"
"I didn't talk to her." Adora waved them away. "Move down the bar a couple of feet, will you?. I'm about to get hit on and you're cramping my style."
"We missed something," Lonnie said to Bonnie. "Move," Bonnie said, and pushed Lonnie down the bar.
Adora turned away when the bartender brought her drink, so when The Beast spoke from beside her, she jerked her head up and caught the full force of her unprepared: hot mismatched eyes, perfect cheekbones, and a mouth a woman would betray her moral fiber to bite into. Her heart kicked up into her throat, and she swallowed hard to get it back where it belonged.
"I have a problem," she said, and her voice was low and smooth, warm enough to be charming, rich enough to clog arteries.
Blue and yellow, Adora thought and looked at her blankly, keeping her breathing slow. "Problem?"
"Well, usually my line is 'Can I buy you a drink?' but you have one." She smiled at her, radiating vigor through her expensive suit.
"Well, that is a problem." She started to turn away.
"So what I thought," she said, her voice dropping even lower as she leaned closer to her and made her heart pound, "was that we could go somewhere else, and I could buy you dinner."
The closer she got, the better she looked. She was the used car salesman of seducers, Adora decided, trying to get her distance back. You could never get a good deal from a used car salesman; they sold cars all the time and you only bought a couple in a lifetime so they always won. Statistically speaking, you were toast before you walked on the lot. She could only imagine how many women this girl had mutilated in her lifetime. The mind boggled.
Her smile had disappeared while she waited for her answer, and she looked vulnerable now, taking a chance on asking her out. She faked vulnerable very well. Remember , she told herself, this sonofabitchis doing this for ten bucks . Actually, she was trying to do her for ten bucks.
Cheapskate. Suddenly, breathing normally was not a problem. "Dinner?" she said.
"Yes." She bent still closer. "Somewhere quiet where we can talk. You look like someone with interesting things to say. And I'm somebody who'd like to hear them."
Adora smiled at her. "That's a terrible line. Does it usually work for you?"
She froze for a second, and then she segued from sincere to boyish again. "Well, it has up till now." "It must be your voice," Adora said. "You deliver it beautifully."
"Thank you." She straightened. "Let's try this again." she held out her hand. "I'm Catra Horde, but my friends call me Catra, or Wildcat....who knows why."
"Adora Grey." She shook her hand and dropped it before it could feel warm in her grasp. "And my friends would call me foolhardy if I left this bar with a stranger."
"Wait." She got out her wallet and pulled out a twenty. "This is cab fare. If I get fresh, you get a cab."
Lonnie would take the twenty and then dump her. There was a plan, but Lonnie didn't need a wedding date. What else would Lonnie do? Adora plucked the twenty from her fingers. "If you get fresh, I'll break your nose." She folded the twenty, unbuttoned her top two blouse buttons, and tucked the bill into the V of her sensible cotton bra so that only a thin green edge showed. That was one good thing about packing extra pounds, you got cleavage to burn.
She looked up and caught her eyes looking down, and she waited for her to make some comment, but she smiled again. "Fair enough," she said, "let's go eat," and she reminded herself to ignore what a beautiful mouth she had since it was full of forked tongue.
"First, promise me no more lame lines," she said, and watched her jaw clench. "Anything you want," she said.
Adora shook her head. "Another line. I suppose you can't help it. And free food is always good." She picked up her purse from the bar. "Let's go-"
She walked away before she could say anything else, and she followed her, past a dumbfounded Lonnie and a delighted Bonnie, across the floor and up onto the landing by the door, and the last thing she saw as they left was David looking outraged.
The evening was turning out much better than she'd expected.