Chapter Two
Valentine's Day Gets Happier
A great dinner featuring incredible food and easygoing conversations, most of them with fellow couples celebrating love day, Jill surprising me with her ease of conversation with these strangers, became followed by an amazing concert.
McCoy Tyner, John Coltrane's pianist during the sixties, had been playing solo at that time. So it surprised me that he was joined by a tenor saxophone and flute player and an upright bassist. No drums. Both were young and, as far as I knew, relatively unknown but of course excellent. I understood immediately why when they started the set with "My Funny Valentine," and followed with "Embraceable You." Each song, as Tyner's songs usually did, lasted over a half hour. And then, surprise of surprises, they played my favorite Coltrane song, and at least a top five favorite of any musician's, "A Love Supreme." Wow!
That lasted nearly an hour, and as it ended with Tyner banging away at his piano, the other musicians retreated. He shifted into another song, the banging which had become more and more physical became a true assault, and those fifths he often used started creating a new sound. The piano began to reverberate with a tone beyond the ringing tones of the inner piano strings, and his key strikes began to harmonize with it. It absolutely floored me. It's as if all of his career spanning twenty years had brought him to this. I became mesmerized for over an hour until he lifted his hands and the piano rippled out its last reverberations. I stood and clapped with the rest of the audience until he silenced us and invited the two others back and they played another love song, unknown to me, but sweet and quiet and relatively short. A quieter but no less appreciative applause followed, allowing him to end the concert with graceful satisfaction.
"Did you like it?" I asked Jill, catching my breath.
"It was...powerful," she said indecisively. "I loved the beginning, but the last half was...I wasn't sure what I was hearing. But Joe?"
"Yes?" I asked, lifting her to her feet with her hand in my hand.
"I loved how much you loved it."
I didn't know what to say. No woman had ever said anything so...loving to me before. Just briefly I imagined Monica's reaction. I figured she'd change the subject to "Let's go to the club and dance," or something at best. At worst she'd have whined, "What the fuck was that?"
I fell instantly in love. I embraced Jill, lifting her into my arms so our lips could meet straight on instead of me bowing low. The kiss lasted longer than the Village Vanguard staff appreciated, but we didn't care. I felt the heat of her sex pressed at my belly as my hands grasped her taut buttocks and pressed her into me. Cheeks got wet from the energetic tongue play. When it finally ended with a tap on my shoulder, I'm sure she felt my heat and hardness against her as she slowly slid down onto the two inch high heels of her sexy dark red leather boots.
"Sorry," I said to the bouncer before we headed to the coat check. I gave the cute blonde a five spot when she handed me Jill's coat, which I helped her in, and then my coat.
Outside the weather had chilled and the light snow had ended. "Should we catch a cab?" I asked Jill.
"Do you live far?" she asked me, huddled against my body.
"A bit of a ways. Maybe a half hour walk?"
"I don't mind. The air is so clean, so pristine right now," she said. "Unless..."
"Unless what?"
"I suppose you could walk me to the subway."
"I wouldn't leave you there. I'd accompany you home."
"I wouldn't want you to do that," she responded, enmeshing my gloved fingers with hers. "I'd rather walk you home...if that's okay."
I lifted a laugh to the building encroached sky. Looking down into her dark Asian eyes, so adorable, so loving, so hopeful and so unsure, I told her, "It's way more than okay, sweetheart."
"Sweetheart, hunh?" she murmured, her face pressed against my arm.
"The sweetest," I replied with complete honesty. I released my hand from hers and adjusted her scarf to better cover her head and her ears. I knew cold weather, living in the bitter cold Upper Midwest most of my life and knew the scalp lets a lot of internal heat out. "Better?" I asked her. She nodded and re-enmeshed our fingers.
As we walked we talked, our voices echoing off buildings in the relatively quiet streets.
"So you really didn't like the concert?" I asked her.
"No I did. It's true I got off more from the intensity of your enjoyment then directly. I didn't really know how to respond. It was really...visceral."
"It was. Maybe that's why I liked it so much aside from the fact it was completely amazing." We both laughed. "I like my art visceral. It's why Pollack works for me and a lot of avant garde music. I don't really think about it. My gut reacts to it."
"So you're a Jackson Pollock fan?"
"Definitely. And Rothko."
"Maybe you could show me what you see."
"I'd like that."
"I think I would too."
We stopped and kissed.
As we returned to strolling I asked her, "So what can I watch you get amazed at? Fair is fair after all."
"Dance?"
"I like dance. I had a...never mind."
"What?"
"It's not really kosher talking about ex's with a new girlfriend."
"I don't mind," she said. "After all, my roommate is one."
She didn't respond to the girlfriend suggestion except to rub against me a little more as we walked. We shared a chuckle.
"Okay, I had a relationship with a girl in college who was a pretty amazing choreographer. She got me to enjoy modern dance."
"You really liked her."
"I was infatuated to tell you the truth. Obsessed even."
"You still think about her?"
"Sometimes. It's really irrational and stupid and ugly. It takes two to tango as they say and I'm too dense to realize the dance is done. It's a flaw of mine and I hope I've grown out of it. I hope you never see it. If you do, just slug me hard where it hurts."
"I will," she giggled. "So it's happened before?"
"Mostly in high school. I'd moon in front of their homes like it would ever make a difference."
"You flashed your butt at their home?"
"Now that might have made a difference," I replied and we laughed. "No, I got all moody as I passed by their houses a bunch of times hoping to catch them arriving or leaving or something. Like I said, stupid."
"And since college?"
"Never. But I've never really been in love since then, so I don't think it's been tested."
"Not even Monica?"