Now Lorraine Has Gone by Jeff Lowder

Author:Jeff Lowder [Lowder, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rockhampton Press
Published: 2020-06-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Jane scans the view then takes a sip of her grapefruitcello martini. “I’ve never been to the country club before. It’s so pretty here, and the piano player is real good.”

We’re on the outdoor patio, the balmy night perfumed by pale pink blooms of hummingbird mint. Just inside the open French doors, a man plays an elevator version of Slowhand’s “Wonderful Tonight” on a white piano.

“You look wonderful tonight, Jane.” I smile, sip my Perrier. She’s way beyond pretty. Golden hair frames her face, intense blue eyes and full lips blood red against sun-blessed skin. And the V-neck of her floral print dress leaves just enough to the imagination. This is perfect, Danny Boy. Don’t blow it.

A vaguely familiar couple passes our table, the wife making no effort to hide a doubletake I read as, Hasn’t his wife been dead for less than a month? Fuck her…and this judgmental hag whose name I can’t remember.

Our white linen tablecloth is the perfect backdrop for Jane’s delicate hands. I reach over and take one, she gives mine a gentle squeeze.

“I like touching you.” Her whisper is nearly lost in the music and the breeze.

“Me too,” is all I can manage. The night is already the best of my adult life. Could it possibly get better?

The grilled halibut is served Oscar style, topped with crab, asparagus, and béarnaise sauce. Exquisite. Next we enjoy thick slices of Sachertorte, dark chocolate cake with apricot filling, plated with barely sweetened whipped cream. I lean over and use my napkin to wipe a white dab from the corner of that perfect mouth, and she thanks me with a closed-lip smile. I smile back in a kind of squinty grin—and suddenly my close-up vision is gone.

Shiiit. Did the lens fall out or just slide off my cornea? Based on experience so far, both problems are about equally likely. I blink several times, but nothing changes.

“You okay, Daniel? Is there something in your eye?”

“I, uh, yeah. Think something might’ve blown in on the breeze. Will you excuse me for a moment?”

“Sure.”

The restroom is upscale—cloth towels, a mouthwash dispenser, and that damn low, indirect lighting. I take out my phone and stare at it helplessly. This thing has a flashlight feature, right? A quick press, and wonder of wonders, a bright little beam. I lean in so close my nose smudges the mirror, but I don’t see any sign of the lens. Between my presbyopia and the phone blasting light directly in my eye, it’s pretty hard to know anything for sure. Odds are it migrated around to the brain side of my eyeball.

§

“Everything all right?” Jane asks.

I return to find she’s not only finished her dessert, the plate looks like it’s been licked clean.

“Did you enjoy dinner?” I ask.

“It was amazing.”

It’s…gulp…time. “Jane, I’m not quite sure how to say this, but—”

She reaches over and takes my hand. “Anything, Daniel. Remember? Anything.”

“I…um…I, I’d like to end this beautiful evening by making slow, sweet love to you.”

She reaches across the table and gives my hand an affirming squeeze.

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