"I
could not believe the total lack of tact the man had," Nadine continued. "And
that wasn't the half of it. Before I could I remind him where my eyes were, he
put his hand on my forearm and started stroking it with his thumb."
This
time I couldn't stop myself. "Let me guess, that's when he started telling
you how pretty you were, and what a crime it was that you were sitting there
all by your lonesome. Am I right?"
Rolling
her eyes, she nodded. "Then he suggested I join him and his friends at
their table so we could all get to know each other better."
"Did
you tell him you were waiting for someone?" I asked.
“Oh
yeah," she groaned and took another sip of her hot chocolate. It seemed to
calm her down, at least a bit. For when she spoke again her voice was more
controlled as she continued her story. "Of course, he didn't believe me.
Kept telling me not to be shy. But when I insisted someone was coming, he kept
pressing me to come over to his table and we could all wait together for my
'friend' to show up. Otherwise, every Joe in the place would be pestering me
for the rest of the night."
"So
what did you do?"
"I
bit him," she replied simply,
I
stared at her in shock. "In front of an entire room full of
strangers?" I cried in disbelief. "I thought you liked keeping a low
profile on the whole vampyre bit!"
"Okay,
I should have been more specific," she corrected herself. "I didn't
lean over and bite him, my forearm did it for me."
"Your
forearm," I repeated.
She
nodded. "He hadn't removed his hand from it and had actually started
squeezing it while insisting that I go with him. So, I grew a mouth there and
let him have it."
I
couldn't help smiling. "Oh, I wish I could've been there to see that. What
did he do?"
"Well
he jumped back so hard, he fell off the stool and landed on the floor. I made
sure I looked as startled as everyone else. A couple of his buddies came over
and helped him up, while he started accusing me of having a taser or something.
I was ready to play all 'innocent' but didn't have to because one of them
pointed out I still had a drink in my free hand and he'd had a hold of my other
arm. That just pissed him off more and he shot me a dirty look then stomped
back to their table. Sadly, that wasn't the end of it. One of his friends began
apologizing and taking over his friend's seat. Naturally, HE offered to get me
another drink and before long his hand wound up on my thigh."
"Really?" I said in mock surprise. "How long before your thigh decided to take a bite out of him?"
Nadine
grimaced at the memory. "It didn't. Much as I wanted to, but I decided to
ask for his opinion of my perfume. Naturally he leaned in close and I let him
breathe in some of my mist and changed his mind that way. As he got up to
leave, I gave him an extra dose so he could take it back to the table so his
friends could get a whiff. Which they did! And thus I was left alone until
Michael showed up half an hour later."
"Nicely
done," I told her approvingly.
She
smiled but it quickly faded, and her expression became more thoughtful again.
"Afterwards I didn't think too much about it because by then we were
hunting for the Cannibal and... well you already know how that went down."
"Oh
yeah," I nodded and took another sip of my chocolate. It was the only way
I could keep from shivering at the memories of what she'd told us all. I'd been
surprised that she hadn't asked Lisa or Marisa to leave the room, but I didn't
protest. They weren't children by a long shot. Both of them were young women
who needed to know the truth about what dangers might be lying in wait for them
or one of their friends. The world could be cruel, but I at least felt a bit
safer having them and Nadine in my life. But I also knew not everyone was as
lucky as me, and I never let myself forget that fact.
Looking
over at my companion I asked, "So what got you thinking about your
experience in the bar again?"
"I'd
gone over to the college where Brian works, to see what classes might be
available next fall," she began. "I know I could simply look them up
online, but I really like that campus. And I don't stick out too much like a
sore thumb in the evenings. There are a lot of other people who are my
'apparent' age taking classes and I just enjoy a change of scenery once in a
while. Anyway, while I was there, I spotted a couple of girls about Lisa's age
walking ahead of me. Coming the other way were some guys heading the other way
who started hooting and whistling at them out of the blue. At first I thought
they knew the girls, but apparently they didn't because I saw how uncomfortable
their smiles were as well as how fast their pace increased. And it got me
thinking again about what had happened to me."
"You
know that kind of thing goes on all the time, right?" I asked.
"Yeah,
but some of those guys were closer to my 'apparent' age," she pointed out
with a look of disgust on her face. "I mean, teenager boys doing that kind
of stuff is bad enough. But these jerks were in their mid-twenties, I would've
thought they'd know better by that age."
Here
she paused to shake her head, then continued. "That's when I started
wondering how often stuff like that went on. Did it happen to Lisa and Marisa,
or any of their friends? If so, why did they never mention it?"
I
was about to answer her, only she started talking again and I decided to sit
back to see where this was all headed. Besides, if it came up later, I’d have
time to look up the saying about fish, how they don’t know what water is. Women
grow up with this. For girls like them, it may just seem like a nuisance. Me,
I’d had to pay more attention to stuff like that. Figure out who was a threat,
who was a sale. Worst in a way were the ones who were both.
I told myself not to think about the past.
Besides, this was all new to my friend, even if she could go back to being a he
any minute. I wouldn’t wish the sense of being trapped on anyone, and I liked
that Nadine was trying to walk a mile in our too-narrow heels. But that was
only a dip of the toes in the water of a woman’s experience.
"And
what about Isabella? She's still very young but one day she's going to start
'blossoming' and then what? She's still trying to get used to how people act
these days compared to what she was used to back in the 1860's. That's when I
decided to start going around as Nadine again. I wanted to know firsthand what
women have to deal with..."
TO
BE CONTINUED...
