BARRIERS OF A FIRST LOVE
Chapter Seven
"Name, please?" the doorman at the
hotel asked.
"Dawson, Jack."
The door was opened.
He made his way to the restaurant room that
the dinner would be held in. As Jack stepped inside, the familiar, suffocating
smell of too much perfume and booze swept around him. It’s for Rose, he
reminded himself.
From the doorway, he could see that this
wasn’t the main room. There were a few snacks and hors d’oeuvres set out, but
the people were just mostly talking amongst themselves. He recognized them as
Rose’s friends, but some were strangers and seemed a few years older, so he
placed them as Cal’s friends. He blended right in with his expensive jacket and
two hundred dollar haircut. But he still felt like a fake; a spy in enemy
territory.
He had, almost unknowingly, drifted into the
room, and a crowd of streaky-haired girls automatically surrounded him. He
pulled away, and the next time he looked at the door, he saw Cal walk in. He
had a stern expression on his face as he surveyed the room. His eyes traveled
over Jack, but he didn’t recognize him. Jack barely had time to smirk before
the slim figure of Rose appeared in the doorway. She was wearing a deep ruby
dress that fit tightly along her upper body and hung straight down at the
waist, so sleek that any dust that dared settle on it would slide right off. On
her feet she wore matching high-heeled shoes that showed off her pedicure and
had clear heels with a ribbon of red. Her hair was up, and two glossy strands
hung down to frame her beautiful face. She looked like an actress, a
supermodel, a queen. Her eyes traveled around the room, and she found Jack
staring at her and smiled.
"I’m glad that you could make it,"
she said to him.
"I wouldn’t miss this for the
world," he honestly replied.
Cal came up to her just then.
"Cal, you remember Jack from last night,
don’t you?"
Cal looked at Jack and scoffed, "You
clean up pretty nicely."
*****
They had made their way into the main part of
the restaurant and were seated at a table of eight.
"Jack is the town hero," Gracie,
once again drunk, told the others at the table.
"Oh, we’ve heard the story. Now, Jack,
why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself?" It was one of the
college girls.
"Jack’s story is very interesting,"
Rose prompted.
"Yes, but I’m afraid that he doesn’t
really…um…run in the same crowd as Rose." By the way he had dropped the
line, Jack could tell that this was Cal’s little way of telling everyone at the
table, He’s a loser. Watch out. He’s probably only here to get an easy
opening into the in crowd.
Rose saw this, too, and was instantly
annoyed. "Cal, that was inappropriate. Go on, Jack."
Jack won everyone at the table over, except
for Cal, with his entertaining story that he told with the greatest of ease.
Cal was exceptionally testy that night, and insisted on cutting the dinner
short. "The boys and I really do have another engagement that we need to
get to."
He started to get up. One of his friends
asked Jack, "Care to join us? You don’t really want to stay here with the
girls, do you?" He mistook Jack’s hesitation and quickly added,
"They’re all taken, by the way."
"No, thank you. I must be going myself.
Rose, thank you for the lovely dinner." As he shook her hand, he slipped a
thin piece of folded paper into it. He was careful to get out the door quickly
in case anyone had noticed.
*****
Most of the girls had gone off to the
restroom to reapply their lip gloss, and Rose was mostly alone at the table.
Discretely, she held the paper below table level, unfolded it, and read the
message.
Meet me at the bridge.
*****
Rose pulled onto the bridge and shut the
engine off. Jack was waiting for her.
Already knowing her reply, he asked,
"Wanna go to a real party?"