This Is How It Starts by Grant Ginder

Author:Grant Ginder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2009-06-02T04:00:00+00:00

Fifteen minutes later and I’ve managed to get myself another drink and find Vanessa, who was being preyed upon by Hal and his friends and who is drinking whiskey, straight. I ask her if she’s having a good time, and she gives me a look, then laughs and says sure, why not—those guys (“Was his name Hal? I couldn’t understand him”) were just great.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” I say, and I think my speech is starting to slur and I’m sort of wobbly on my feet, “thanks again for stopping by.” Journey starts playing in the background and the drunken chorus starts.

“Don’t worry about it!” she yells over the first verse. “Sorry I’m late. I had this dinner thing to go to for the CHC.”

“The what?”

“The Congressional Hispanic Caucus. My chief of staff invited me.”

I nod and wish that my interest lasted beyond the word “Congressional.” “Ah. Cool.” I bob my head to the music. “So, you ever been here before?”

“Once.” A blond girl in a pink Polo shirt bumps against Vanessa’s shoulder and glares. “I told myself I’d never come back.”

I laugh and put my arm around her shoulder. “Oh, come on, Ramírez. You don’t mean that. This place is a blast.”

“You don’t believe that.”

I look down and grin and swirl the ice around the small glass cup. “You’re right, I don’t.” I finish my gin and tonic in another swig and order another.

Hal Hastings stands on the bar above me and belts out the second verse of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which is currently playing for the fourth time this evening. He misses the higher notes by entire octaves but his singing is still deafening, even over the din of the bar.

“Where are your friends?” she asks.

“No clue.”

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