678: A handsome stranger ...
What a Piece of Work I Am, Chapter 13 concludes
A HANDSOME STRANGER walked into the Tropicale Grill one night, and Renée showed him to one of Ariane’s tables.
Ariane gave the handsome guy her big smile and little wink. “Hey, how are you doing?” she asked, as if they knew each other but she hadn’t seen him for a while.
He looked at her with a certain distance in his expression, as if she had trespassed. “I’m doing fine, thank you,” he said.
She heard the distance in his voice, but she took it for shyness. She had convinced herself that, although the technique of familiarity worked with everybody, the shy ones required a double dose. “You,” she said, withholding the menu coyly, grinning at him provocatively, “want a steak.”
“I do?” said the handsome guy. “How can you tell?”
“Oh,” she said, “you’ve just got that I-want-a-steak look. I’ll bet you’d like something else, too.” Pursed lips. Half-closed eyes.
“And what would that be?” he asked, leaning back in his chair, folding his arms, dropping his own eyelids a notch.
“I’m not sure,” said Ariane, springing the trap of her little joke, flipping the menu open in front of him. “Check the menu. Man does not live by steak alone.”
He had to laugh. He also found that he had to watch her walk away. She was ripe, and she seemed to him a little stupid. That was, to tell the truth, the impression she had meant to make. She had sized him up as a guy forced by circumstances to eat his dinner alone, someone who would find the time sweetened by a dumb flirtatious broad who found him attractive. Her performance had been, from her point of view, a success.
[to be continued]
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