The bar was one of those places with red leather booths, a lot of fancy chromium trimmings and the waiters in tuxedos. A place that tried to be a supper club and missed by a country mile.
She came in and sat down on one of the bar stools and ordered a drink. Then she went through a little business of checking her watch with the one over the bar, like she was waiting for somebody.
I liked what I could see of her. She was tall and had good legs. Her hair was long and dark and it went well with her white skin and soft, full lips.
I watched her while I sipped my drink. She glanced at her watch again after a few minutes, and then she looked down the bar to where I was sitting but it didn’t mean anything. She just flicked me with a glance and went back to her drink.
I waited for her to look my way again but she didn’t, so I got up and walked over to where she was sitting. I stopped about a stool away and told the bartender I wanted cigarettes. When he tossed them on the bar I opened them up and started fumbling for a match. I fumbled around in my pockets until she looked at me.
I grinned at her and said, “Just fresh out, I guess. Can you help me out?”
There was a pack of matches on the bar in front of her and she shoved them down toward me without saying anything. I lit one and when it flared up I could see her eyes, big and deep and the kind of blue that looks almost black.
“Thanks,” I said. I held the cigarettes out to her. “Have one?”
“No, thanks. I just put one out.”
“Well, I’ve got to do something for you.” I waved to the bartender. “Eddie, give the lady a drink and build one for me while you’re at it.”
“I really don’t want a drink,” she said. It sounded like she was beginning to get mad. “I can buy my own when I do.”
“Sure you can,” I said. “But I was just being friendly. No law against that, is there?”
She didn’t say anything to that and pretty soon Eddie came over with the drinks. She looked at hers for a minute like she didn’t know what to do, and then she shrugged.
“All right. Thanks.”
“That’s the spirit. Mind if I sit here for a while?”
“No law against that, either,” she said, and smiled a little.
I figured this would be a cinch. I sat down and pulled the stool a little closer, but when I tried to take her hand she pulled it away quick.
“Take it easy,” she said. “I think you’ve made a mistake about me. The drink is all right and you sit here all night if you want to, but that’s all there is to it. Do you understand what I mean?”
I decided I was going too fast, but that’s the way I am and it’s the way I like to do everything. But she was getting under my skin and I made up my mind she was worth slowing down for.
She had on a white dress and not much under it. Her legs were bare and she had them crossed so I could see the long smooth muscles in her calves. I liked the clean shiny look of her hair and I liked the way her lips stuck out a little, soft and thick and smooth. Her features weren’t regular, they weren’t like a doll’s, but the way they were put together made her face look interesting. It was funny. She looked nice, like she might have a job as a secretary or something, but there was something else underneath that to make you think of things that were tough and mean and wild. And I wanted to know that part of her.
“I’m sorry,” I said. I tried to look like I meant it, but it’s hard for me to look like anything but what I am. “You must think I’m just hanging around here waiting for a pick-up. Well, that’s not it. I was just lonely and I wanted somebody to talk to. That’s all.”
She eyed me steadily, and she didn’t seem angry any more, but she looked plenty cool and sure of herself.
“All right. Let’s leave it right here, then.”
We talked for a while about things that didn’t mean anything at all but she wasn’t paying much attention to me or what we were talking about. She just stared at her drink and said yes or no every now and then. There was something on her mind. She began to look angry again, like something was building up inside her.
Finally she looked straight at me and said, “You thought I came in looking for something, didn’t you?”
I shrugged. “Maybe I did. There’s no reason to get sore about it. You’re a swell looking dish and you came in alone. A girl who comes in alone to a place like this and sits at the bar is generally looking for somebody or anybody. You can’t blame me for figuring you wrong.”
“There are a lot of girls alone these days,” she said. “I’m one of them. My husband left for overseas last week, and I haven’t seen him for the last year, except for a few furloughs. I can either sit home in my apartment and read a magazine every night of the week, or go out alone and have a drink. That’s why I’m alone, not because I’m looking for anything.”
“You don’t have to be alone. There’s still a few guys left around.”
“You’re making the most of it, too, aren’t you?” She smiled a little, but there wasn’t any humor in the smile. “You look healthy enough; why aren’t you in the army?”
“They don’t want me,” I said. I was mad enough myself, now, to hit her across those smooth full lips of hers, but I tried a gag to cover up how much she was bothering me. “They said to come back if there’s an invasion. The doc who looked me over said if they started taking guys like me he’d sell his war bonds.”
She didn’t smile. “And you think every girl who’s alone is just waiting for you to come around and keep her company, don’t you? What makes you think a girl would want you if the army doesn’t?”
That was just talk. I didn’t mind the army cracks. I was out and I wanted to stay out and to hell with playing soldier, but she was so tough and mean under that polite skin of hers that it made me boil. I wanted to know all about that toughness and meanness.
I said, “I’m sorry if I offended you.” I sounded like I meant it. I went into an act then, but I didn’t ham it up. I just looked serious and talked kind of quiet. “I don’t blame you for feeling the way you do. It must burn you up to see a young guy like me walking around, while your husband’s gone and everything, but they don’t want me and that’s all there is to it. Do you think it’s fun being looked at by mothers with kids over there, or being called 4-F by every girl you meet. Well, you can have it.”
We were quiet for a minute or two, looking at our drinks, and I kept the serious look on my face, until finally she looked over at me and said, “Well, don’t let it get you down. Maybe I was pretty hard on you. I’m sorry, but you made me angry.”
“Well, can’t I square it some way?”
“It doesn’t matter, but thanks. I’ve got to be getting home anyway.”
“Maybe I could give you a lift?”
She looked down at her glass and then she shrugged her shoulders a little and smiled. She looked back at me and said, “There isn’t any law against that either, I guess.”
“Fine,” I said. “Do you feel like another drink?”
“No, I’ve really got to be going.”
I picked up my change and the cigarettes and we went outside. It was warm and the air had a soft feel to it. It was a pretty night, with a clear sky and lots of stars.
We walked along the sidewalk without saying anything until we came to my car. I didn’t have the Packard then, but it was a pretty nice car, an Oldsmobile, a forty-two.
We got in and I put the windows down and turned on the radio. Freddy Martin came in, nice and soft, playing As Time Goes By.
“That’s one of my favorites,” she said. She pushed her hair back and began to hum the tune under her breath.
“Mine too,” I said. “How about a drive to cool off before I take you home?”