Jeff finds himself in Washington DC on business trying to close a big deal for his company where he meets up with Nancy again, the FBI agent he had fallen in love with in Atlanta nearly two years ago. Jeff is separated from his wife because of Nancy
Chapter 12 of
Saturday 9:48 PM: More Tangles
Kathy, the pretty
woman from the singles mixer appears, and even though they couldn't connect at
all before, they hit it off! Later they talk on the phone and plan to meet for
breakfast the next morning...but then Jeff sleeps in!
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- Chris Lamela
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Author contact: Chris Lamela,
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K Street, Chapter 12
Saturday 9:48 PM: More Tangles
Jeff stepped out of the conference room amazed at how many people were
still in the operations room. He tried to guess maybe thirty people huddled
together or over tables or sitting in front of computer screens in the small
room.
Nancy and Arnie walked up, Jeff felt a pull of tired. Nancy
“Is that my old friend?” Jeff laughed for the first time since he could
remember.
“I’ll bet you sure wished you had it this afternoon at the Smithsonian.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty good at shooting through doors,” he took the gun from Nancy
Jeff went to slide the gun into his coat’s outside right pocket, but the
pocket was shown shut. He felt the two T-shirt cubes in his left inside pocket,
pulled them out putting the gun into the pocket, the coat instantly sagged. He
pondered if the T-shirt cubes would fit into his pants pocket.
“Souvenirs for my son,” he smiled at the two little packages in his hand.
“You’re a good father there mister Jeff. Here, you’ll need this,”
handing Jeff a three-inch long tool that looked like a little knife with two
teeth on the end. “Take it, it’s a seam ripper that you can use to open up the outside
pocket on your sport coat.” She smiled at the sag in the coat from the weight
of the gun, “Your right outside pocket will work better.”
“Thanks, I’ll do that tonight.”
Arnie coughed as though to clear his
throat, “Look,” cough, “Jeff, these guys are really dangerous, we
don’t want you taking any chances. We have arranged for Ted to watch over you
again if you don’t mind. You’re code red, so he will have to stay outside your
door. He will be relieved sometime in the middle of the night.”
“Yes, that’s fine. Good, right?”
“But he has some things to do still tonight, so he will drop you, be
back later tonight. Your door will be guarded so you should be fine.”
“And I’m going to that party I
told you about, but I’ll see you tomorrow,” Nancy
Ted walked up, they all said goodnight, Jeff headed out the door with
Ted.
They drove together in silence, Jeff’s window was down, enjoying the
warm night air. Soon he was closing the door of his room at the Hilton, Ted
promised to be back by one.
Jeff took off his coat, pulled out the seam ripper, carefully
unstitching the right outer pocket being careful to pull the little threads out.
He put the coat back on, putting the gun into the pocket standing in front of
the mirror. The coat sagged just a bit, but not too noticeably, the gun was so
small that it didn’t show if you weren’t looking for it.
Looking at himself in the mirror he suddenly found himself transported
back to Atlanta
He was too wound to go to bed so he walked to the door opening it. A man
was standing outside across the hall from the door. Jeff asked his name, the
man replied his name is Steve. “Steve, any way I can go downstairs to get a
drink? I am too wound.”
“Yeah, I heard about your day. I can see why it’d be a little hard to
sleep.”
“Do you mind, I mean you can come down with me for sure.”
Steve smiled, “Of course I can’t
drink but let’s go, it’s got to be better than staring at your door all night.”
They walked to the elevator, soon were sitting in the bar. Jeff glanced
at his watch seeing it was almost ten. He ordered up what had become his
favorite drink lately, a Cuba Libre. Steve said he needed to sit away from Jeff
so he could survey the room, Jeff nodded.
Just as the bartender came forward with his drink Jeff noticed him
looking to Jeff’s left with an expression of anticipation.
“I’ll have whatever he’s having,” a voice came from over Jeff’s left
shoulder, the bartender turned away.
Jeff turned to his left. There was a vaguely
familiar face. It took him a second, “Kathy ,
right?” remembering her from the singles mixer Thursday night.
With a very pleased expression she exclaimed, “You remember me! And my
name too? Oooh, impressive! I must have made quite an impression on you!” The
bartender walked up with her drink setting it down. “Can I join you?”
Jeff smiled, “Sure,” skooching his chair to the right to give her more
room. “So what are you doing here on a Saturday night?”
“Like you, staying here over the weekend. Room gets pretty lonely, it’s
nice to be around people.”
Jeff raised his glass, they tinked them together, “Well, here’s to two
lonely people.”
“Cheers, and yes, to two people who are not so lonely now,” giving Jeff
a very inviting smile.
“So, San Jose Santa Clara
“Yes, and Seattle
Jeff took a sip of his drink sputtering a bit, the drink touched his
windpipe, “Excuse me, yes, Seattle
“And not married.”
“Well, technically married. Separated with divorce on the way.”
She took a sip of her drink, “Well, divorce just completed here.
Actually, three years ago.”
“Sorry,” Jeff shook his head softly.
“Oh, don’t be, things just are the way they are. I’m way past that. Time
to get on with my life.”
“No kids?”
“Okay, our lives. Yes, I have
an eight year-old daughter, Hannah. She is the love of my life. And you?”
“Two kids. Daughter Nicole who is eleven going on twenty two,” they both
laughed, “and my son Scott, seven years old. And yes, they are the loves of my
life. They live with their mother mostly. How about you?”
“Full custody. He about disappeared. Nice and neat, really.”
“So your daughter is eight, that means you had her when you were what,
twenty-two?”
She laughed, “Oh, what a gentleman! I just turned forty.”
“Nice, I’m just four years ahead of you,” they clinked glasses again.
“Nice ages. The spacing, I mean. I meant you know…your age, my age.”
“Yes, he smiled, nice spacing. We come from the same times. That really
helps in a relationship.” I can’t believe I used that word!
“Relationship, hmmm,” she smiled coyly. “So what kinds things are your
kids into?”
“Music. She plays flute, he is learning violin.”
“A musical family!”
“Yeah, I guess we are. I’ve played guitar my whole life…still play…their
mother plays the piano…yeah, musical family. The kids are also big into
soccer.”
“Hannah doesn’t do music, she
does art and is very big into soccer
also.”
“So you get the weekends running around all over with her?”
“Oh, yes,” they toasted again. “I also have a niece and nephew to run
around, too. Same as yours, older girl, younger boy. Let’s see, she’s eleven,
yes. He’s three years younger, so he’d be eight. But close enough to your kids,
right?”
She smiled distantly picturing the kids, “We spend so much time together, my daughter and her cousins. You know, they’d
love you!” The way she said these words were like a tinkling bell they’d love you!
He looked at her sideways trying to see her in this dim light. The
multi-colored reflections from the bottles on the walls gave her an angelic
halo. Her dark hair curled around her face framing her fair skin, her nose had
a nice rounding to the tip, her manner was so slightly elusive, begging him to
take the trouble to explore. He couldn’t see her eyes in the light, they were
dark the best he could tell, but there was something unusual in them that he
just couldn’t see in this light. Her eyebrows framed her eyes nicely, very
scant hairs, he smiled to himself, that
means very scant pubes! She didn’t have bedroom eyes like Jeff with his
droopy eyelids, but nice eyelids framing her dark eyes.
“So any other interesting family factoids?” he asked sipping his drink.
“I’m an identical twin, my sister and I are very close.”
“He laughed, you mean there’s two of you?”
“Yeah, like I’m not trouble enough!” they laughed.
“What’s her name?”
“Theresa.”
“Theresa? The only twins I knew growing up were always alliterative
names like Ricky and Ronny, or rhyming names like Larry and Gary. Kathy and Theresa doesn’t have that poetic flair.”
“No, my parents worked hard to make sure we grew up with separate
identities. They’d seen other twins get kind of mushed together. I mean think
about it, same birthdays. Twins don’t even get their own special day. So it was
smart, I think.”
She took a sip of her drink, “So tell me about your wife.”
“Third marriage for me, young marriage for her. Kids. Not much else to
tell. Not exactly sure why the separation.” He thought for a second quietly, not much reason to tell the truth here is
there? Turning to her, “She lived so much under my wing, I think she just
needs to fly on her own.”
He could see her pondering this. He instantly launched into another
subject to fend off more questions, working hard to turn the conversation toward
their work instead. They sat for a good half hour exchanging stories. He could
feel a genuine concern coming from her, he was really warming to what a
charming woman she is. Her voice was soft, sultry, her laugh unabashed, her
open expression was very attractive, lively but not a bubbly personality. She
kept saying what a funny man he was, he shared little anecdotes about his
working life, they both talked a little about their childhoods. Yes, this was a
very nice woman. Very nice.
The space between them went quiet, he felt little magnetic lines between
them, “So, are you getting a chance to do any touring while you’re here?”
“A little, and you?” she sipped her drink.
Today’s events suddenly streamed through Jeff’s brain. “No, not really.
My clients are real workaholics, I just came from a meeting with them.”
“On a Saturday night?” Jeff nodded finishing his drink, looking at Kathy ’s drink he signaled the bartender for two
more.
“Yeah, and another meeting tomorrow. Then Monday, then Tuesday hopefully
we will get the deal done. I might get time to do some touring on Wednesday or
Thursday, but I’ve got to be up in Boston
“Well, Jeff, all work and no play as they say.”
Jeff could feel the positive vibes coming from her, knowing he was
sending them back to her. Wanting to
send them back to her. He wondered again why they didn’t connect when they
first met. Too much distraction in all that high energy of the singles mixer,
plus maybe she wasn’t any luckier than him that night. But then he was, wasn’t
he? Kind of lucky anyway. He thought about Nancy
“So, I’m on the ninth floor,” she pulled a pen out of her purse
scribbling the number 922 on a napkin. She took a long drink, finishing the
glass. “I assume you are a gentleman here?”
“Oh, don’t worry, I’ve got it,” signaling to the bartender.
“Don’t worry, I can take a hint.”
“Okay, we’ll see you then,” she smiled standing up, gave a little pinky
wave, turning to walk toward the elevators.
Jeff turned back to his drink signaling the bartender for another one.
A few minutes later he was in the elevator with Steve. “Any chance I can
go pay a visit to the ninth floor?”
“That nice lady at the bar?”
“Yeah, that nice lady at the bar.”
“It’s probably not a good idea.”
“What if she comes to pay me a visit?”
“It would be pretty bad form, I’d have to do the ID check and call-in.
Not very inviting for a first date, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, I guess not.” Jeff thought for a second realizing he was
exhausted anyway. “Nah, never mind.”
In a minute he was back in his room. He reached into his inside coat
pocket pulling the little T-shirt bundles out, tossing them into his suitcase, undressing
thinking how nice it would be to lay with a good-looking woman right at that
moment. He felt the tiniest twinge of guilt thinking about another woman
looking down at the tiny rolls of T-shirts for his son. He smiled, shrugged.
Pulling on his night shirt he went into the bathroom to pee and brush
his teeth.
He sat back on the bed, reaching across to the napkin with the room
number. He held it in his hands, holding it to his face to see if he could pick
up any of her fragrance. Maybe, he
thought picking up the phone.
“Hello,” came an answer.
“Hi, Kathy ? It’s Jeff. Jeff
from the bar?”
“Oh, silly, like I don’t remember you from ten minutes ago?”
“Yeah,” he laughed, “look I know you invited me, but things are a little
complicated.”
“You’re not separated! You’re married!”
He laughed, “No, no, it’s exactly like I told you. It’s just that I’ve
had a hell of a day. I’m not sure I’d be very good company tonight.”
He could hear her sigh, “Hey, I understand…”
“No, it’s not what you’re thinking! I think you are a really attractive
woman. I mean really attractive. And
I’d really like to get to know you. Really. Plus, well, I’d kind of like to
take it slow.” Jeff sat on the bed in the dim light of the reading lamp
wondering where the hell these words were coming from. Jesus, he thought to himself, just
what I need – ANOTHER WOMAN IN MY LIFE!
“Yes, I’d like to take it slow, too.” She was quiet for a second, “Jeff,
can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” he replied worrying that she was going to ask to come down to
his room.
“When we met…” she paused, he could hear her collecting her words, “…when
we first met why do you think we didn’t connect?”
“You know,” he thought for a second certain there must be an answer, “I
wondered that the very second you walked away.”
“I walked away because I thought you weren’t interested in me. Actually,
I was a little intimidated by you.”
“Intimidated?” Jeff wondered how he could be intimidating.
“Yes, you are so handsome, so charming.” She sighed, “Plus maybe the
environment there, all that nervous energy. You know, it’s funny how sometimes
we connect with people, sometimes we don’t. You know what I mean?”
“I guess.”
“Yeah, then like with us at the bar just now,” Jeff felt a ping from the
word us. “Tonight it felt so natural,
like I had known you, like you had known me for a long time.” She paused. “By
the way, I’m making myself a Cuba Libre from the mini-bar.”
“Wait, let me put the phone down, that sounds like a good idea!” Jeff
stepped over to the mini-bar fridge, tore the little red tag off, opened the
door pulling out two little bottles of rum and a coke. He reached up pulling
down a glass pouring it all together, reaching for the phone, “I made mine a
double!”
“So did I!” they both laughed together.
He could hear her slurping from her drink, he took a small sip from his.
“Jeff, so what do you think?”
Jeff knew where this was leading so he drank a huge glug, nearly
clearing out half the glass, “Think what?”
“If you have time tomorrow, maybe we could have breakfast or lunch?”
He was relieved that she didn’t want to come down now, “Yeah, I’d like
that.”
“But I’m not desperate, just so you know,” she said sternly.
“Oh, of course not, but just so you know,” he took a large sip from his
glass, “I am!” They both laughed loudly, he could tell that she liked his
little joke more than him because it took a good thirty seconds before her
laughter subsided.
“Look, can I tell you a secret?”
“Sure,” he took another sip of his drink.
“I was really attracted to you when we met at the mixer.”
“I didn’t really get that vibe, was I missing something?”
“You…well…I was…like I said, I was intimidated by you. I mean you have
so much confidence, not proud or arrogant, but I could tell that you are a man
used to getting your way.”
“I wish I could say I am used to getting my way. I do try, but you
know…”
“What I mean is that if we had been alone together in that room without
all those other women around, I mean I looked at some of them. There were some
really beautiful women in there. It kind of made me feel, well…”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. You are a beautiful woman. I
mean I doubt I’m the first man to tell you that. But none of that matters now.
We’ve met. And we like each other.”
Why do I keep doing this!
“If it had been up to me I would have torn your clothes off, got you
down on the floor just to show everyone how it’s done!”
Wow, Jeff thought, how many times have I had a chance to show
everyone how it’s done!
“As for now, if I weren’t half drunk right now I would come to your room
to show you how it’s done!” They
laughed together again.
“Look, I think this is going to lead to phone sex in another minute, it’s
hard to juggle my drink and my dinky at the same time,” they both laughed again.
“I doubt it’s dinky!”
“Well, you’ll just have to find out, huh?”
“Is that a date?”
Jeff laughed, “How about we start with breakfast, see where it goes.
Tomorrow morning in the main restaurant. How’s nine?”
“Nine it is, and if you don’t mind I have a date.”
“Date?” Jeff was confused.
“With my right hand imagining your dinky!” They both laughed out loud
again.
“Okay, maybe I will have to put my drink down after all!” He could hear
her howling with laughter.
“So my love, let’s see if there could be an us starting with breakfast, what do you say?” Jeff feeling that ping again at the word us.
“Okay, I guess we’ve got to hang up if we’re going to get to our dates.
Goodnight.”
Jeff hung up flopping back onto the bed sighing. He looked to the
ceiling to see if he could see the kissing faces, but in this light they were
nowhere to be seen.
“Oh Jesus,” he said out loud, “how tangled can this web get?”
Jeff reached over, turned out the light, in a few seconds he was fading.
He fell into a restless sleep with images swirling in his mind, the
sound of gunfire echoing in his ears. The image of the business-end of the
barrel of that tiny submachine gun being pointed at him, the sounds of voices, the
little boy’s voice at the door of the men’s room in the Smithsonian, the scene
of dead bodies in that restroom, seeing the two men drop to the floor from
Ted’s shots, images twirling round and round and round.
With a start he woke sweat pouring down his face, he jerked up to
sitting. Swinging his legs over the bed he looked at the blackness through the
window. He felt his pillow, it was soaked with sweat.
He turned on the lamp sitting on the edge of the bed trying to get the
images spinning in his head to stop, go away. He stood up, walked to the TV
reaching for the clicker. Turning on the TV he sat back in bed, flicked through
a few channels, turned the TV back off again, setting the clicker on the night
stand.
“Damn, what am I doing here?” He got up again, walked to the window
looking down at the street below with only a couple cars driving by in the dark.
The clock said twelve minutes after three.
He lay back down again, rolling
over to turn the light back off.
He woke slowly, could see light on the other side of his eyelids
realizing without opening his eyes that he forgot to close the drapes last
night. Determined not to open his eyes, he rolled over from his right side onto
his back.
Damn, I’m awake!
Listening to the soft sound of traffic below his mind wandered going
over the events of the last couple days. His meeting Kathy
at that Singles Mixer, having Nancy Atlanta
Okay, I guess it’s time to wake
up.
He
rolled over looking at the clock saying ten minutes after nine. Nice, he
thought, I got to sleep in.
“Oh damn, nine o’clock! I was supposed to meet Kathy !”
he cried out loud, flew out of bed, into the bathroom, peeing while brushing
his teeth, wetting his hair, a comb raced through a quick and dirty job of
making him look half-way decent, stepping quickly into the room, pulling on
whatever came to hand. He glanced at the clock making his way to the door, nine-twenty.
“Damn damn damn!”
He burst out the door, the man standing in front of him wasn’t Steve,
“Where’s Steve?” Jeff barked turning left heading to the elevator.
“I relieved him at nine, are you Jeff?”
“Yeah, but I’m late. You’re gonna follow me right?”
“That’s my detail, yes.”
“Then follow me fast!”
In four minutes he was standing at the front of the restaurant, a
greeter coming up to him but before she could speak his panicked voice
sputtered, “I’m supposed to meet someone, I need to go in to look for her,”
pushing his way past the woman. He walked around the restaurant not seeing Kathy,
his new bodyguard trailing behind him. “Damn damn damn!” Jeff muttering to
himself.
He went back to the entry podium, to the young woman he had been so
brusque with before, “I’m sorry for my hurry, it’s just that I was supposed to
meet someone pretty special here and I overslept.” He described Kathy to her, the woman shook her head saying that
she hadn’t seen anyone like that.
He thanked her turning to his bodyguard, “I’m sorry, I was in such a
rush just now. I really blew it.” He glanced into the restaurant again, “I
guess she stood me up. Maybe I was just too late, who knows.” Jeff held out his
hand, “I’m sorry, I’m Jeff, I didn’t get your name.”
“Henry, but my friends call me Hank.”
“Hi, Hank.” Jeff looked around him. He paused, took a deep breath. “So
Hank, do you know this area?” Hank nodded. “I need to get out of this hotel, do
you know some place close by for breakfast?”
Hank said yes that there was a nice little coffee shop up the next block,
they could just walk there if Jeff was up to it. It was agreed that they would
take the little walk together.
Ten minutes later found Jeff sitting in a small booth with coffee in
front of him ordering his favorite biscuits and gravy, “Let’s make it a
heart-attack special, add some ham with that, okay?” The waitress smiled,
pouring them both orange juices from a small pitcher she brought to their
table.
They both sat in silence, Jeff watched people strolling by outside in
the bright morning sunshine.
“Well,” he said taking a sip of his coffee looking to Hank, “at least it
looks like it’s going to be a nice day.”
“Yeah, great day to get out a little. I don’t know how that’s going to
work with you, though, I’m under pretty strict orders to really keep close to
you. No touring.”
“I suppose you heard about yesterday.”
“Yeah, that was a bit of a black eye for Ted.”
“They’d have come after me anyway, maybe they would have gotten both of
us. Who knows.”
“All I know is that you will never be out of my sight unless you are
behind your room door.” Hank sipped his coffee. “Sorry, but nothing’s going to
happen to you on my watch.”
“Don’t worry, I have only one request for today.”
“What’s that?”
“Not to get shot.”
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