*****
The bar was beautiful and smelled of expensive leather and premium alcohol. The booths offered some privacy unless you wanted to sit at the bar itself, then it was a wide open display of each booth and the entrance to the very private bar. Only a select few were allowed in and Thomas was most of that reason. The money he made offered him a sanctuary from most prying eyes and this was his home away from home.
Thomas sat in the bar waiting for her to arrive. She had called him a week ago and he knew, just by the tone of her voice what she wanted. He sipped a glass of wine and patiently waited. The noise of the bar not stopping the thoughts of the "blind date" her friends had set up. One had been his in the past and she knew what he needed in a "date". Serena had told him that Jenna was the one, she was exactly what he needed and that is who had set them up. He had hoped that Serena was right.
*****
Jenna dreaded going to the bar; it was so eighties! Her mind pictured the low life that happened most bars, either hoping to get laid or ugly or ugly hoping to get laid. That was not going to happen anytime soon. Her last date was ridiculous, she first thought he was homosexual only to find out he was a metrosexual with a lust for his mother she found this out when he walked her to her apartment door only to drop his pant and whisper "Spank me, mommy, I have been a bad boy." Talk about getting your messages crossed Serena laid off matchmaking for a year after that "Perfect match" Now was the new year of being offloaded to the less pathetic of co-workers and friends of Pete; Serena's husband of four months.
Jenna thought about Pete and Serena and the odd marriage they seem to have. Jenna had strange ideas about their relationship, thinking how it might be in their bedroom as he seems to dominate Serena's every move. To Jenna, Pete seemed uncaring and overwhelming since they had married. Rarely has he shown the romance of their courting he had flourished on Serena but seemed more a bully now, but she seems happy enough.
Jenna, in the beginning, had envied Serena, ever since Jenna was a kid and read The Last Tango in Paris and The Story of O; her ideal man or dream romance was a cross between those books and The Knights of the Round Table. Perhaps a James Bond edginess, regardless Serena's description of her "Blind Date" was so cliché. "Tall, Dark and Handsome with oodles of cash". Jenna made sure to have enough money to pay for the drinks and get a cab. One of Serena's set-ups was supposed to be rolling in the dough had forgotten his wallet leaving Jenna to cover the check when she came out of the restroom to find her "date" had an emergency. Using all her money on the bar bill she found herself walking home that night.
Jenna hailed the Taxi and gave the address to the driver. "Ya goin' ta some fancy soiree like thing in that neighborhood Toots or are ya the entertainment? Not that it is any of my business just seeing where I picked ya up and all, though you look good ya can tell you're not even in the same ZIP code if ya knows what I mean!" Jenna looked down at her best work suit and sighed the Cabbie was right she looked like a cheesy porn star dressed like the librarian she was.
"Ah just great!" Jenna picked up her cell and calls Serena. Before offering pleasantries Jenna spouts off. "My navy suit, pink blouse and patent shoes are they totally wrong for this "Date"?" Listening to Serena to take the bun out of her hair and lower the cleavage on her blouse by two buttons. Had Jenna seeing what the cabbie saw. Hanging up after a muttered growl of thanks, Jenna decided to go with the free flowing comments and changed her appearance the best way she could. Jenna applied some makeup, brighter lipstick she had received from Serena for Christmas but never dared to wear and let her hair fall in loose waves down her back.
She undid three buttons down to her bra as the taxi pulled up to the front of Atheneum; she growled again. Now she would look like a whore walking into a library, not the other way around. Automatically her scholastic mind had both identified the name of the bar in all its tenses, genders and defined it's Latin meaning and origin. 'The sanctuary of Athena at Athens, built by the Roman emperor Hadrian, and frequented by poets and scholars. An institution for the promotion of literary or scientific learning. A library or reading room.' She deduced stepping out of the cab.
She paid the cabbie and walked into the building; if she had anyone to talk to she would still be speechless. The room was large and warmly decorated in a masculine way with leather wingback chairs in groupings with a glass circular table in the midst of each grouping. The bar was made out of mahogany and the sweet acrid smell of, leather and fine cognac and that comforting scent of smoke from a fine cigar or pipe tobacco.
Jenna walked to the bar, no one was seated at it, the Barmaid hurried over to serve Jenna. "What can I get for you Ma'am?" she says in the sweetest English accent Jenna has ever heard. Jenna placed her order for a Tom Collins and continued to look around the bar. The drink arrived as the maid went to place the drink in front of Jenna, two men were coming to blows. As quiet as a mouse, a hulking man in a tux grabs both men by their collars and drags them out of the bar. The only thing spilled was Jenna's drink down the front of her pink blouse. The Barmaid quickly thrusts towels at Jenna and pulls one of the waitresses off the floor to take over.
Grabbing Jenna's arm The maid identifies herself as Brittonia and brings her into the woman's restroom. "Oh!" Jenna cries when she sees her blouse is a lost cause. "At least it looks like my date is a no show. I can sneak out the back and commiserate at home with my jammies on and a small tub of Ben and Jerry". Brittonia smiles "Ah, what daft man would stand you up! Half of the bar was looking at you when you came in the other half was ogling you when you turned with that wet blouse plastered on you showing your girls." Brittonia mutters.
"Yes, well that is Thomas' loss and my gain." Jenna snaps as she views how see-through her blouse really was. Stripping off her blouse she places it in the bag Brittonia hands her and does up the suit jacket. Looking in the mirror Jenna is taken back at the woman looking back at herself. Pink in the face from embarrassment has left her with a slight glow, her deep burgundy painted lips look pouty, and the hint of lace from her bra peeking above her suit jacket giving her a more sultry look. "Ah, you say Thomas, the only Thomas' I know are your drink and the Bossman himself. I will be back" she says to Jenna before Jenna has a chance to stop her. Her only way out of the meeting would be to escape before some fat balding owner comes in for a free show, not tonight and not ever. The right man is obviously only a dream or figment of the imagination. Gathering her purse and the bag with her blouse Jenna walks out of the room and heads towards the exit.
She is stopped dead in her tracks when she hears "Right, that is her Sir!" she hears Brittonia. Suddenly she hears a deep commanding voice "Stop!" Jenna stumbles only a moment and decides she has had a tough enough week and before taking the next step she feels the warm big hands of a man on her upper arm. He smells spicy and masculine her heart does a flip as the estrogen in her system tries to talk her into doing that Southern Belle "Fiddley Dee" thing.
