Chapter 3

Dante Rodriguez stared at the woman across from him. “Ready to come back for some of the good stuff?” he said.

“No, Dante, I told you at the end of October that that was it, there was gonna be no more, stuff, and I meant it. I’m engaged now, and I am not gonna be going back down that road,” said Ava.

“I gotta tell yuh, I did think you’d be coming back for some more of you know what if not the stuff,” he said, grabbing his crotch. Ava Gardner, she was still that, grimaced.

“Did you not hear me? I’m engaged. I need you to leave me alone. This is my work place, and I have to get back to work. Please do not bother me anymore,” said Ava.

“All right for now,” he said, “but I’ll be around if you need me. I mean you do know how to find me. And, girl, you will be needing me; it’s nature as the man said.” She watched as the man rose, turned, and walked out of the store’s lunchroom where he had closeted her to make his pitch.

That she’d let the man use her in lieu of the outrageous amount of money he wanted for the “good” stuff weighed on her conscience. But she had lost the weight, her friend at the store had been right; the drugs might have been illegal, but they were also effective. The good news was that they, the drugs, had not been as addictive as she’d at first feared. Still, it had taken some effort to get away from them. Dante had laughed when she’d told him that she was done with them; that’d been three months gone. Now he’d shown up to try and rekindle their agreement. She had to hope that he’d gotten the message—finally.

Actually, Dante Rodriguez didn’t believe in putting pressure on his customers; it, pressure, was bad business; they always came back if they didn’t feel threatened or, well, pressured; it gave them, the customers, the illusion that they were in control when in fact it was nature, well and the chemicals, that controlled the lot of them. He smiled as he made his way out of the grocery store and to his fancy British sports car which he’d parked at the far side of the lot: there’d be no dents from assholes opening their car doors into his if he could help it; 1947 MG TCs were pretty damn rare and fucking expensive.

A day after having talked to her dealer, she was again sitting at the little round table in the lunch room when her fellow employee dropped down across from her.

“How yuh doin’, girl,” said Beatrice Evans. “I saw him leave yesterday. He give you anything?” Ava shrugged.

“No, I told him I was done with the stuff. All of the stuff,” said Ava.

“He’ll be back. He’s full of himself. Thinks he’s irresistible,” said Bea.

“Yeah for sure,” said Ava. “But my man would not understand, if he ever found out that I’d been doing business, monkey business, with the guy.”

“No, I wouldn’t suppose he would,” said Bea. “You and Julian still figurin’ on Valentine’s Day, right? I mean you haven’t said anything about it in the last several days.”

“Yes, of course, and you’re still going to be my maid of honor, right,” said Ava.

“Of course,” she said. “Just checkin’.”

“Hmm,” said Ava. “We’ll be having a little sit down with Blake in a couple of days to set things in motion. He’s taking care of everything. Really, all there is left for us to do now is to show up and do the big thing. Blake knows how to do everything, or he knows people who do.”

“Ava, you say big brother is a really rich guy and single. How picky do you think he is in terms of girlfriends?” said Bea. Ava smiled.

“He doesn’t have a girlfriend. As for dates, or any such, he doesn’t talk about them if he has any, dates that is,” said Ava. “According to Julian money is the only thing he’s actually in love with, and it, the money, seems to love him back.”

“Hah,” said Bea. “I can believe that; that he is in love with money, but there is no doubt in my mind that he hasn’t been a virgin since he was in high school. Money yes, but pussy too: no male of the species can escape that particular reality, none. Well, unless he’s gay. I mean do you think he swings that way?”

“No, no, I don’t think so. He’s just busy. He lives for the day he can declare himself a billionaire; it really is what he lives for. As for pussy, well, that comes in a distant second from what I can tell,” said Ava. “And as for him being a virgin or not being a virgin, the fact is I don’t know, but from what I actually do know of the man; it is possible that he is.”

“Remotely possible maybe, but I don’t believe it,” said Bea. “I mean what do I know, but knowing men as I do, well...”

“Anyway, what do you care. You gonna make a move on him?” said Ava.

“Why? You think I couldn’t?” she said.

“No, no, I just think that until he achieves his goal that any woman’s chances would be really, really slight,” said Ava.

“Hmm,” said Bea.

“What’s going on, honey girl?” I said. She’d come in from work and was looking kinda, something.

“Nothing, I mean not really,” she said. Thinking fast, she knew what to say.

“Come on, I can see there’s something going on,” I said.

“I had kind of a long conversation with Bea, today,” she said. “I’d really not like to get into it.”

“Now, Ava, you know with a lead in like that that you are going to talk about it,” I said. She sighed.

“Okay, I’ll tell you this much and then we’re going to let it rest, okay?” she said. I nodded.

“Bea wanted to know if Blake had a girlfriend. I told her he didn’t as far as I was aware. Then she asked me if he was gay. I told her I was sure he wasn’t. That was about it. The rest was just a lot of girl talk. Okay!” she said.