Chapter 22

It seemed to Dan that he was always busy. He worked five nights a week at the restaurant, and one afternoon a week at the construction company. He had Wednesday and Saturday nights off. Saturday was the one day of the week when he really tried to rest. Once or twice a week he would visit with Sue Adams, usually meeting at a coffee shop to talk.

He had come to value his friendship with Sue very much. It seemed to him that she was always trying to fix him up with women. This was very strange since he was pretty sure that all of the women were lesbians. Occasionally she would take photographs of him with one woman or another. She’d point to the picture and ask, “Can you see yourself with her?”

One consequence of his active lifestyle was that he occasionally didn’t remember things. Generally, they weren’t particularly important things; at least, not to him. Another consequence was that he didn’t mind his loneliness. He never really had time to sit down and think about the fact that he didn’t have a girlfriend. The same wasn’t quite true for many of the people around him.

One Tuesday night, Sue and Ann came to the restaurant to visit Dan for a few minutes. Sue entered the restaurant laughing about something that Ann had said. Surprised to see Sue laughing, Rob greeted her.

“Hello, Sue. How are you doing?”

“I’m doing fine. Is there any chance of us seeing Dan?” Sue asked giving him a smile.

Rob thought about how nice it was to see Sue smiling. He said, “Sure. Have a seat over at the counter. I’ll send him out to see you after he’s done with the prep work. It’ll be a ten or fifteen minute wait.”

“Thanks, Rob,” Sue said.

Ann stood there looking nervous. She turned to Sue and asked, “Do we have to do this tonight?”

Sue said, “Dan is off tomorrow and I want him see the painting when I unveil it.”

Ann had not seen the painting, but she remembered the pose that Sue had captured. She was dreading viewing it with Dan there. She said, “You can show it to me tonight and him tomorrow.”

Sue laughed and said, “No. You see it together.”

Rob watched as the pair of young women walked over to the counter. He turned to find a woman entering the restaurant. He asked, “How many are in your party?”

“I’m hoping to talk to Dan Parker. It won’t take more than a minute,” the woman answered.

Rob frowned at the sudden popularity of Dan and said, “Would you mind waiting over at the counter? There are a couple of other people who want to see him.”

The woman smiled at Rob and said, “Thank you, Mr. Rendell.”

Wondering how she knew his name, Rob watched her walk over to the counter. She took a seat beside Sue. He hoped that there wasn’t a problem brewing over at the counter. Sandy was handing out coffees at the counter to the three women. He turned in time to spot the tallest woman he had ever seen enter the restaurant. He went over to her and asked, “How many are in your party?”

“Just me. I think I’ll sit over at the counter,” the woman said looking down at Rob.

“Okay,” Rob said looking up at her. He figured that she was six and a half feet tall. He wondered what kind of man would go for a woman that tall.

The woman froze in mid-step and asked, “Is that Sue Adams?”

“Yes,” Rob said.

“Oh my God!”

Rob watched her go over to the counter shaking his head. He looked up at the ceiling and said, “It’s going to be one of those nights. I guess I’d better get Dan.”

At the counter, Ann said, “Sally is not going to be happy about this.”

Sue rolled her eyes and said, “Don’t worry about Sally. She likes Dan.”

Stunned by Sue’s answer, Ann asked, “When did she meet Dan?”

Not wanting to answer the question, Sue looked around. She noticed the tall woman seated two chairs away. Pretty sure that she recognized the woman, she assumed that she was with the woman seated next to her. Leaning forward, she asked, “Do I know you?”

“We’ve never met, but you may recognize me from Pat’s place. I know all about you. Everyone knows about you,” the tall woman answered.

Ann leaned forward so that she could see the tall woman and said, “I know you. You’re Cathy Jenkins.”

“That’s right,” Cathy answered recognizing Ann. She said, “I’ve seen you around. You’re Ann, right?”

“Right,” Ann answered.

“You like men, don’t you?” Cathy asked. She tended to see all kinds of girls at the high school. Ann reminded her of one of the students that had been on the basketball team years ago. That student had preferred women, but couldn’t keep from watching men.

“No,” Ann answered.

Nodding her head, Sue answered, “Yes, she does.”

“No I don’t,” Ann said shaking her head.

Ann turned bright red as Sue answered, “Don’t listen to her. She doesn’t know what she wants. I’ve found the perfect man for her. She won’t accept it, and he doesn’t know it yet.”

Sandy was standing at the counter holding a pot of coffee. She almost dropped the coffee when she realized what Sue was suggesting. Unable to hold back, she said, “You can’t mean that you’re suggesting that Dan...”

“Dan and I are just friends,” Sue said getting the normal expression of disbelief from Sandy.

The third woman looked at the two women to her left and the tall woman to her right. Little clues were adding up very quickly in her head.

She asked, “You aren’t talking about Dan Parker, are you?”

All three women turned to look at her. Finally, Sue asked, “Do you know Dan?”

“Yes. I came here to talk to him,” the woman answered.

Curious, Sue asked, “Are you a friend of his?”

“I would like to think so,” the woman answered with a smile.

“I’m unveiling a very special painting tomorrow night. I’m here to invite Dan to attend. You and your partner are welcome to attend,” Sue said gesturing to the woman and then to Cathy.

“My partner?” the woman asked. She looked over at Cathy realizing that Sue had assumed that Cathy was her lover. Gesturing to Cathy, she said, “I’m afraid that I’m not with her. I’m here to set up a date with Dan.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Sue said apologizing. She thought that the woman was a little old for Dan, but she wasn’t going to stand in her way. There was more than enough of Dan to go around.

Cathy Jenkins looked at the woman and said, “I hope that we didn’t offend you.”

“No, that’s okay. I have an aunt who shares that lifestyle,” the woman said dismissively.

Sue looked over at Cathy for a minute. She said, “Wait a minute. I know who you are! You’re the one who helped Diana Parker at Pat’s bar, aren’t you?”

“I guess you could say that,” Cathy said. She didn’t know how to describe what she had done for Diana.

“She told me all about it. You took a great risk that night,” Sue said.

She remembered that Diana had told her about the coach at her school who had come by the house one night.

“She’s a student at my school. She took everyone by surprise at Pat’s bar. I did what I could,” Cathy said shrugging her shoulders.

Sue turned to the woman beside her and said, “I wasn’t aware that Dan had arranged a date with anyone. He didn’t mention it to me yesterday.”

“He doesn’t know that I’m in town,” the woman said thinking it was interesting how an obvious lesbian was Dan’s confidante. She watched as the waitress refilled her cup of coffee. She looked around at the staff and saw that they were a pretty efficient bunch. The manager appeared to be on top of everything going on in the place.

Sue studied the woman for a second. She noticed how the woman was watching the waitresses. It reminded her of how Rob watched them at work. She said, “The invitation to come to the unveiling still stands.”

Dan came out from the kitchen and looked at the four women at the counter. He didn’t remember the name of the tall woman, but remembered the hug she had given him. He was rather surprised to find Ellen seated at the counter. He said, “Hello, Ellen. Hello, Sue. How are you doing, Ann?”

The women all answered as one, “Hello, Dan.”

Dan turned to Cathy and said, “We’ve met, but I don’t recall your name.”

“I’m Cathy Jenkins.”

“It’s nice to see you again,” Dan said. He stood there not quite knowing what to say. Counting Sandy, five pairs of female eyes were all staring at him. He had no idea who to talk with first.

Sandy looked around at the four women and Dan. It was hard to keep from laughing. She had figured out that Sue was setting up Dan to date Ann. Ellen had already said that she was there to date Dan, and it looked to her like Sue wasn’t going to stop her. Of course, Sue was dating Dan. Poor Dan was standing there completely unaware that he had just become the sex object on the stud auction block.

Ann looked over at Ellen and then over at Dan. She said, “I would like it if you would come to an unveiling of a painting tomorrow evening. I think it would be great if you would bring Ellen with you. It starts at eight.”

“You know each other?” Dan asked puzzled by the exchanges of looks going on among the women.

“We just met,” Ellen said.

Grinning at Dan, Sue said, “Ellen came here to ask you out. Isn’t that nice?”

“Ahh,” Dan said rather surprised by Sue’s comment. He didn’t think that Ellen would come there to ask him out. It was more likely that she was on business in the area and had stopped by to chat a little with him. He didn’t know what to say.

Looking up at Dan, Ellen said, “She’s telling you the truth. I was hoping to spend a little more quality time with you.”

Not sure how to interpret that, Dan asked, “Do you want to go to the unveiling?”

“Yes, I think that would be lovely,” Ellen said. She looked over at Ann and added, “There’s a little drama that I’d like to watch play out.”

Ann looked down at her cup. Her face was bright red. Dan looked over at her, at Sue, and then back at Ellen. Totally clueless, he said, “Great. Where should I pick you up?”

“At the Hilton.”

Remembering how her dinner invitation had turned out, he asked, “Is your father with you?”

“No,” Ellen answered with a smile. The last time that she had asked him to dinner he had been surprised to find that her father had joined them.

“Okay,” Dan said. He turned to Sue and asked, “What painting are you unveiling tomorrow?”

“The painting that I did of Ann.”

“Oh,” Dan said. He knew that he was just a prop for that painting, and wasn’t all that concerned about it. He noticed Rob watching him and said, “It looks like Rob wants me to head back to the kitchen.”

Almost as one, the four women said, “Go on.”

Sue added, “The four of us will work out the details for tomorrow night.”

“Okay,” Dan said looking from one woman to the next. The way they were all watching him made him nervous.

After Dan returned to the kitchen, Sandy stepped up to the counter. She figured that with all four women interested in Dan, that they deserved to have a little better idea about him.

She leaned down and asked, “Did you hear what Dan did for Kim?”

Dan hadn’t mentioned doing anything for Kim. Considering that Sandy wasn’t normally the source for gossip, Sue knew that it had to be something special.

She answered, “No.”

“Let me tell you a little story,” Sandy said leaning her left hip against the counter.

Dan and Ellen arrived at Sue’s apartment a few minutes before eight o’clock. Ellen was dressed to kill. Feeling a little ill at ease, Dan knocked on the door. He turned to Ellen and asked, “Are you sure that you want to be here? This is just a little gathering of some friends. I’m not even sure why she’s making such a big deal out of it.”