Free Playtime by Bart Hopkins Jr. Page B

clothes the floor, with a wooden dance area
on the other side of the bar that gets packed whenever a band plays. Right now,
something soft and faintly familiar is playing. The dance floor is empty. 
     Renee is tucked into the cocktail waitress
station that is partially hidden on the side of the round bar. The side away
from the beach. She is wearing a tasteful but very sexy dress that comes midway
up her thighs. The dress has blue and gold swirling designs that highlight the
large, gold hoops dangling from her ears. Blaine thinks she might look better
with clothes on than naked. Something to be said for imagination. Tossup.
Win-win. 
     Next to her is a taller, slender blonde who
smiles at them automatically as he and Todd come walking up, smile not quite
reaching her eyes. They are a cold and calculating blue. Blaine smiles back,
thinking that brown eyes seem more passionate, more feeling. Brown eyes are the
default as far as the genes go. Renee gives Todd a hug and him, too, and a
brief cool touch on the lips. She can go either way with displays of affection.
Doesn't bother her. She seems genuinely happy to see Todd. Takes his hand and
moves them over to a nice table by the window, smiling back at Blaine as she
chats to his brother.   
     The place is about half full, even though it's
early and there is no band. It will be packed later, people crammed in till you
can barely make it up to the bar, dance floor a seething mass of motion. Even
without live music. 
     "I forgot how good-looking you really
are," Todd is saying to her as they reach the table. "How did the Dip
here let you get away from him? I think you're probably out of his range,
really. If you feel like visiting me in California, I'll fly you out." 
     "First class?" She smiles. 
     "Nothing but," Todd says, "First
class all the way." 
     "I'll keep that in mind," she says,
looking at Blaine. "Meantime, what do you sluggers want to drink?" 
     "Two beers," Blaine says. "I don't
think Junior here needs any hard stuff." 
     "Man, she really is something," Todd
says as she walks away, hips moving slow and assured, like she doesn't care
who's watching. 
     "Okay, I can see how this is going to
be," Blaine says. "I should have gone ahead and taken you to the strip
club." 
     "Too late," Todd says. "Your woman
has ruined me." He looks at his expensive gold watch, back at Blaine,
smiles.   
     Renee brings the frosty Heinekens, and they sit
sipping, staring out the window at the gulf they'd been surfing in all day. Blaine
is so tired he could lay his head down on the little round table and take a
nap. Todd seems to be getting his second wind. His head is moving almost imperceptibly
in time to the music playing.   
     "So what brought you guys back together?"
he finally asks after a while. 
     "Actually," Blaine says, "it was
the accident. She heard about it and brought me some soup at the house." 
     "She didn't visit you in the hospital?" 
     "Nah, she was out of town when it
happened," Blaine says. "Visiting her mom. She said she came as soon
as she found out. Read one of those goofy articles in the newspaper." 
     Todd knows all the background. He likes Renee,
though he has told Blaine before that picking a woman who never had a father figure
in her life is bound to be seven miles of bad road. Nothing but trouble.   
     More people are starting to roll in, the place is
filling up. More guys than couples and all of them seem to want to put their
hands on some part of Renee. She is cutting through the crowd with grace and
skill carrying that round, cork tray. He catches her eye and signals for a
couple more Heinekens then turns back to Todd. Watching her entertain the
yokels will just make him mad. 
     "You know, I'm not trying to get in your
business or anything," his brother says, "but girls like that usually
wind up where some money is." He holds up his hands as Blaine looks at
him. "I'm just saying, bro." 
     She looms up above them with