Yesterday he had heard a tourist tell a homeless man to get a job.
"Pushing a shopping cart up and down these hills is a fucking job," the homeless guy had said. Tommy gave him a buck.
It was still light when Tommy reached Enrico's on Broadway. He paused momentarily and looked over the few customers who were eating on the patio by the street. Jody wasn't there. He stopped at the host's station and reserved a table outside for a half hour later.
"Is there a bookstore around here?" he asked.
The host, a thin, bearded man in his forties, with perfect anchorman-gray hair, raised an eyebrow, and with that small gesture made Tommy feel like scum. "City Lights is one block up on the corner of Columbus," the host said.
"Oh, that's right," Tommy said, batting himself on the forehead as if he'd just remembered. "I'll be back."
"We are giddy with anticipation," the host said. He spun curtly on one heel and walked away.
Tommy turned and started up Broadway until he was accosted by a barker outside a strip joint, a man in a red tailcoat with a top hat.
"Tits, slits, and clits. Come on in, sir. The show starts in five minutes."
"No, thanks. I have a dinner date in a few minutes."
"Bring the little lady back with you. This show can turn a maybe into a sure thing, son. We'll have her sitting in a puddle before you leave."
Tommy squirmed. "Maybe," he said. He hurried along until the barker two doors up, this one a buxom woman wearing leather and a ring in her nose, stopped him.
"The most beautiful girls in town, sir. All nude. All hot. Come on in."
"No, thanks. I have a dinner date in a few minutes."
"Bring her —"
"Maybe," Tommy said, walking on.
He was stopped three more times before he reached the end of the block, and each time he declined politely. He noticed that he was the only one who stopped. The other pedestrians just walked on, ignoring the barkers.
Back home, he thought, it's impolite to ignore someone who is speaking to you, especially if they call you "sir." I guess I'm going to have to learn City manners.
She had fifteen minutes before she was supposed to meet Tommy at Enrico's. Allowing for another bus ride and a short walk, she had about seven minutes to find an outfit. She walked into the Gap on the corner of Van Ness and Vallejo with a stack of hundred-dollar bills in her hand and announced, "I need help. Now!"
Ten salespeople, all young, all dressed in generic cotton casual, looked up from their conversations, spotted the money in her hand, and simultaneously stopped breathing — their brains shutting down bodily functions and rerouting the needed energy to calculate the projected commissions contained in Jody's cash. One by one they resumed breathing and marched toward her, a look of dazed hunger in their eyes: a pack of zombies from the perky, youthful version of The Night of the Living Dead.
"I wear a size four and I've got a date in fifteen minutes," Jody said. "Dress me."
They descended on her like an evil khaki wave.
Tommy sat at a patio table with only a low brick planter box between him and the sidewalk. To avoid the titty bar barkers, he had crossed the street eight times in the half block from City Lights Bookstore to Enrico's and he was a little jangled from dodging traffic. He ordered a cappuccino from a waiter who fawned over him like a mother hen, then stared in amazement when the waiter returned with a cup the size of a large soup bowl and a plate of brown crystalline cubes.
"These are raw sugar cubes, honey. So much better for you than that white poison."
Tommy picked up the soup spoon and reached for a sugar cube.
"No, no, no," the waiter scolded. "We use our demitasse spoon for our cappuccino." He pointed to a tiny spoon that rested in the saucer.
"Demitasse," Tommy repeated, feeling reckless. In Indiana the use of the word «demitasse» was tantamount to leaping out of the closet in scandalous flames. San Francisco was a great city! A great place to be a writer! And gay guys seemed like pretty nice people, once you got past their seeming obsession with Barbra Streisand music. Tommy smiled at the waiter. "Thanks, I may need a little help with the forks."
"Is she special?" the waiter asked.
"I think she's going to break my heart."
"How exciting!" the waiter gushed. "Then we'll make you look marvelous. Just remember, use from the outside first on the forks. The big spoon is for winding pasta. Is this your first date?"
Tommy nodded.
"Then order the raviolis — bite-size — no muss, no fuss. You'll look good eating them. And order for her, the rosemary chicken with roasted bell peppers and wild mushrooms in cream sauce — a beautiful dish. Tastes horrid, but on a first date she won't eat it anyway. You don't have time to run home and change, do you?"
The waiter looked at Tommy's flannel shirt as if it were a foul, dead animal.
"No, this is all I have clean."
"Oh well, it does have a certain Mr. Green Jeans charm, I guess."
Tommy caught a flash of red hair out of the corner of his eye and looked up to see Jody walking into the cafe. The waiter followed his gaze.
"Is that her?"
"Yes," Tommy said, waving to catch her attention. She spotted him, smiled, and approached the table.
Jody was dressed in a khaki skirt, a light-blue chambray blouse, light-blue leggings, and tan suede flats. She wore a woven leather belt, a green tartan scarf tied around her shoulders, silver earrings, bracelet, and necklace, and carried a suede backpack in place of her airline flight bag.
The waiter, keeping his gaze fixed on Jody, bent and whispered in Tommy's ear, "The flannel is fine, honey. I haven't seen anyone that over-accessorized since Batman." He stood and pulled the chair out for Jody. "Hi, we've been waiting for you."
Jody sat.
"My name is Frederick," the waiter said with a slight bow. "I'll be serving you this evening." He pinched the fabric of Jody's scarf. "Lovely tartan, dear. Sets off your eyes. I'll be back with some menus."
"Hi," Jody said to Tommy. "Have you been waiting long?"
"A little while, I wasn't sure of the time. I brought you something." He reached under the table and pulled a book out of a City Lights bag. "It's an almanac. You said you needed one."
"That's very sweet."
Tommy looked down and mimed an "Aw, shucks, it was nothing."
"So, do you live around here?" Jody asked.
"I'm sort of looking for a place."
"Really? Have you been in town long?"
"Less than a week. I came here to write. The grocery store is just a… just a…"
"Job," Jody finished for him.
"Right, just a job. What do you do?"
"I used to be a claims clerk at Transamerica. I'm looking for something else, now."
Frederick appeared at the table and opened two menus in front of them. "If you don't mind me saying," he said, "you two are just darling together. There's a Raggedy-Ann-and-Andy energy going between you two that is simply electric."
Frederick walked away.
Jody eyed Tommy over the menu. "Have we just been insulted?"
"I hear the rosemary chicken breast is wonderful," Tommy said.
Chapter 8
Dinner with the Vampire
"Is there something wrong with your food?"
"No, I'm just not very hungry."
"You're going to break my heart, aren't you?"
Chapter 9