“ You look better without the hat,” she said, as she pulled a chair out from the table and sat down.
Broxton sat and stared.
“ Come on, put your eyes back in your head. I’m good looking, but I’m not that good looking.”
“ You’re for sure the prettiest woman that’s ever sat down at a table with me,” Broxton said, meaning it.
“ You’ve been following me,” she said. “Why?”
“ Not you. Him,” Broxton said. He reached up and jerked the hat off his head.
“ Your hands are shaking. Are you nervous?” she asked.
He held his right hand out in front of himself for a few seconds and watched it. It was indeed quivering slightly. “It must be you,” he said. “Do you always have this effect on men?”
“ I hope so,” she said. “Now why are you following him?”
“ You wanna go see Tammy Drake at the Normandy tonight?” he asked. “It’s a special show for the diplomatic corps. I’ve got a couple of tickets.” Warren had given him the tickets because the prime minister was supposed to be at the dinner concert. He’d planned on asking Maria during lunch, but the woman sitting across from him shot out an aura of sex and danger that tingled his spine and set his feet to tapping under the table. He couldn’t help himself, something about her just reached out and grabbed at him, tugging at all the right places.
“ Maybe. You’re kind of exciting, but first why were you following Kevin?”
“ I came to Trinidad planning to ask Dani Street to marry me,” he said, “but when I get here I find she’s engaged to somebody else. I’m curious about him, and I have to admit, I’m curious about him and you.”
“ That’s it? That’s all? You’re only interested in him because of Dani? Nothing else?”
“ Isn’t that enough?” he said.
“ I’d love to go with you,” she said, “but you know Kevin is going to be there with Dani.”
“ I know,” Broxton said.
“ I’ll meet you here. Tonight at eight. At this table,” she said. Then she stood, and in a second was gone.
Broxton sat for a few minutes, musing over his strange morning. He thought about Dani and he thought about Maria. He was in love with the former and beginning to care about the latter. There wasn’t any room in his life for a woman named Stormy who sang the blues. He told himself he was only going out with her to find out about Kevin Underfield, but even as he finished the telling he knew it was a lie.
He raised his hand to get the waiter’s attention, then made the international sign for asking for the check by holding one hand flat and pretending to scribble on it with the other. He accepted a knowing smile from the young man, left a generous tip and made his way out of the restaurant. Most of the staff watched him as he left and his waiter flashed him the thumbs up sign. It took him a few seconds, but it finally dawned on him. They all knew Stormy. They were giving him the recognition young men give other young men when they think they’ve scored with a beautiful woman. He shook his head and left.
As he passed the house phones he thought about calling and inviting Maria to lunch, but he didn’t want to have lunch with one woman while he was thinking about dinner with another.
Eleven hours later Broxton drove a rented Nissan Sentra into the parking lot of the Normandy Hotel, and although it was only a few minutes drive from the Hilton, Broxton felt he knew Stormy’s life story. She had been talking nonstop the whole way. She managed to tell Broxton that she was twenty-five years old, her name really was Stormy, she was born in Port of Spain just after all the lights went out because of a tropical storm. She had a younger sister, Jenna, and a brother, Gary, living in Canada. She had been singing since she was a little girl. Tammy Drake was her idol and the two women were very good friends. But about Kevin Underfield, not a word.
He parked the car and went around to the passenger side to open the door for her, but she was out of the car before he made it around. “What a lovely night,” she said and she inhaled deeply. She was standing under a light that wasn’t doing a very good job of illuminating the parking lot, but it was doing a superb job of illuminating her. The soft light reflected off her bare shoulders and winked through her long hair, giving her an angelic halo that contrasted greatly with the devilish look in her shining eyes.
“ Before we go in,” she said, “I just want you to know that Kevin and I were an item a while ago, but we went our separate ways. Today at the hotel was sort of a test. We both needed to see how it would go. It didn’t. It’s over now, we both know it. I think we both knew it before we started, but we had to give it one last try just to make sure that none of that old flame was still there. It wasn’t. It’s gone. What we did is nothing to get excited about and Dani never has to know about it. It would only hurt her.”
Broxton nodded, but he thought what they did was wrong. If Kevin was really in love with Dani he didn’t need to test himself by sleeping with another woman. But he held his tongue. He didn’t want to argue with her.
“ Let’s go in,” he said, and she took him by the arm and allowed him to lead her into the restaurant. They were late and Tammy Drake was already on stage, singing a slow ballad. There were people on the dance floor and tables off to the right and outside on the large balcony.
“ Isn’t she beautiful,” Stormy said.
“ She is,” Broxton said back, “but she can’t light a candle next to you.”
“ That’s nice of you to say, but she’s an international star. She sings all over the world. Everybody knows who she is. I’m barely noticed outside of Port of Spain.”
“ Let’s find a table,” he said.
“ No, let’s dance first.” She lead him onto the dance floor, where they spent the next forty-five minutes slow dancing to a string of ballads. Every dance brought her a little closer until they moved as one. Tammy’s voice and Stormy’s lithe body pressing against his combined to make Broxton feel like they were alone on the dance floor. He was a teenager again, biting his lip to control an erection. He wanted her badly and he sensed that she wanted him.
Then the last ballad was over and the lights went on. People started returning to their tables. He was fantasizing about what he could be doing with Stormy afterwards when he was shocked out of his reverie by Dani’s glaring stare.
“ How could you?” she said, through tight lips.
“ What?” he said.
“ Her,” Dani said. Her face was red and her nostrils were flaring. For a second he thought she was going to slap him, but she turned on her heels and started for the door. He looked around the room to see if anyone had noticed and he locked eyes with Kevin Underfield. The man smiled, then saluted him with a loose hand, before turning and following his fiance out the door and Broxton knew he’d been set up.
He turned toward Stormy, “Why?” he said.
“ She hates me. Kevin wanted to make sure you were no threat.”
“ I could tell her.”
“ Tell her what? You’re the one that invited me tonight, remember?” she said, then she stood on her toes and pecked him on the cheek. “I guess I’ll go too. Don’t worry about getting me home, my car’s in the lot.”
Chapter Twelve
Broxton woke with a hangover and a picture of the fire in Dani’s eyes burning through the pain in his head. He’d lost her again, and again he blamed himself. He ran his hand over his scalp and down the back of his neck, wiping the sweat off. It had been a hot night and the fan overhead did little more than stir the hot air.
He stumbled out of a hard bed, regretting the bottle of Scotch he’d bought, before checking into the hotel. He’d drunk himself into a stupor and now a hangover kept his broken heart company.