Free One Unforgettable Evening by Dusty Miller Page A

and made a
kind of exit, although his own table was not far away. He was over
by the back wall in a corner booth. She watched him go, and then
looked around.
    On this Friday evening, and even in
this grimy but bustling northern industrial town, it was still a
bit early. The place was filling up and the noise had picked up
considerably. There were three or four empty tables, but more
voices sounded in the vestibule, so that wouldn’t last very
long.
    “ Who the hell was that?”
The waiter had poured, and so Leon figured he might as well drink
it.
    “ How would I know? I
thought you knew him.”
    “ Not hardly.” Leon nodded
and waggled his eyebrows at Adelia.
    She picked at her desert, but as usual
was having a tough time; conscience versus desire.
    Always watching her waistline, and for
what?
    For what?
    As for the eyebrow
waggling, that was just his substitute for meaning in communication.
    “ Come on, drink up. I want
to get out of here and beat the traffic.”
    Get home and watch the second half of
the game, is what he meant.
    She gave him a look, one not without
humour.
    He also knew he wasn’t fooling her,
but she was pretty good about such things. They smiled at each
other relatively fondly over the remains of dinner. A waiter
stepped in and grabbed her last plate.
    She really wasn’t quite
done with that… to hell with it.
    Adelia picked up her glass and sipped
it slowly, looking around in spite of her better judgment. That
man, Darban, was watching her. She lowered the glass and watched
open-mouthed as he raised his own glass to her, and then drained it
in a gulp.
    Darban winked at Adelia. Then he rose,
setting the glass down. He turned and left the room, of which the
Royal Armitage had several.
    “ Leon?”
    “ Yes, honey?”
    “ Who is that guy?”
    Her husband shrugged, shook his head
and concentrated on what he was doing.
    Leon sloshed more champagne into his
glass. He’d already had three beers over dinner, about the only
real compensation such nights usually brought. But that was harsh.
It’s just that they were getting older now. He could always try
harder.
    As for the booze, he would make her
drive for once.
    “ Come on, Honey. Drink
up.” He waved for their dinner bill.
     
    ***
     
    By the time Leon had drunk most of the
champagne, although Adelia was tippling a bit herself tonight,
another half-hour had gone by. She’d had her customary one glass of
white wine with the chicken, and now she was hoarding her third
glass of champagne, which was excellent, by the way. But it would
keep Leon from drinking all of it.
    The chicken was okay, although somehow
she remembered it as being better than it was.
    Leon was hitting it pretty hard, but
that was unusual, and that in itself was a good thing, a thing to
be thankful for. It must be kept in perspective.
    The drinks helped quite a bit,
actually. Why rush off?
    She stole one or two surreptitious
glances at their benefactor. Tanned and lean, Thomas Darban was
exotic-looking in that he was impeccably dressed in something
genuine, a soft charcoal jacket that fit his shoulders like a
glove. The shoes were beautiful, and his upper legs bulged a bit
inside the thin black trousers. The man walked like a tiger. He was
the only man in the room with a bow tie, a red silk one, and he
appeared to be dining alone, which Adelia thought was a little
unusual.
    I wonder what he
wants.
    She shrugged the thought
off.
    Right about then the lights dimmed in
the dining room, but only slightly, although in the very next room
it was much darker suddenly. Coloured spotlights flicked on, one by
one over there. She craned her head to look. Leon brightened up
when some sparkling riff of piano music started up.
    “ Oh, yeah. That’s right.”
He smiled across at her, possibly the most genuine sign of
affection or even liking he’d shown her all night.
    “ Yes, dear?”
    “ Remember?”
    She coloured slightly.
    “ I remember.” She smiled
then bit her lip.
    All of that