Part 4—He's moving on but keeping tabs on her...
After their last encounter at the studio, John Wayne kept tabs on Diana Maitland from a distance through her boss, and occasionally through Ward. About once a month, Wayne would have a nice bottle of wine delivered to her at her office, hoping she would think her boss was sending them to her, until Ward told him after one of his visits that she asked Ward to tell him she was enjoying the wine and to thank him. He should've known she would figure it out—he always seemed to forget just how smart she is.
He forgot that again when he had her boss' friend sneak him into the nightclub one night a couple months later so he could see her from a distance and listen to her sing. It had to be fate that he chose that particular night, because she was wearing the black halter dress he'd bought for her and she looked almost exactly as she did the night she wore it for him—her hair, her make-up... except this time she had on a few pieces of sparkling jewelry. His knees nearly buckled again when he saw her and he sat down heavily on the seat at the table in the darkened corner that the nightclub owner led him to. He pulled out his cigarettes and just slowly sipped on tequila and smoked as he watched her perform.
She had just started her first set when he arrived, and he watched and listened as she sang all different types of music; old standards, soft contemporary numbers, songs from musicals and even a sultry jazz tune. Her voice had more of a range than he first thought, because part of the tune was in a lower register, and when she sang it, she sounded as sexy as she looked; she had really started to come out of the shell she'd been keeping herself in since she had been with him. He heard a couple young men at a table in front of him talking about her.
One of the men growled, and then said quietly, "Goddamn, she's a hot little thing! And I've got something that's burnin' yearnin' to be inside of you, gorgeous!"
The other man snickered quietly and said, "No kiddin'! And look at her face and the way she moves! I'll bet that's what she looks like when she's on top of a man...damn I'd like to get me some of that!"
Wayne took a deep drag on his cigarette, then exhaled slowly and leaned toward the young men, just close enough so they could see who he was and said in a quiet, menacing voice, "You fellows are talking about someone very special to me, and if you utter one more goddamn comment like that about her, then I'm going to smash your teeth down your throat and have you thrown out of here. You got that?"
The young men's eyes widened when they saw him, and all they did was stare at him while he issued his warning, then they both mumbled, "Yes, sir, Mr. Wayne." Then one of them continued, "We're real sorry, but we couldn't help it. See, we're on leave right now and we haven't been around many women for a while and she's just the most gorgeous thing we've seen since we got into town this morning!"
Wayne asked, "You men are on leave? From where?"
The same one replied, "San Diego, sir. Our ship just docked yesterday from a 3-month cruise. And well, we've seen San Diego before, so we'd thought we'd come up to L.A. for a few days and catch some different sights."
Wayne commented, "Navy men, eh? Well, I guess I can forgive you for ardently admiring a beautiful woman after being away from them for a while. But you two need to remember that all women are somebody's wife, mother, daughter, sister or niece, and how would you feel if you heard some man say something like what you said about your own sister?"
"Gee, Mr. Wayne. We never thought about it that way before. I guess we were being very disrespectful of her...and you. We'll try to keep that in mind from now on. Thank you, sir, for the advice, and your understanding."
Wayne said quietly, "Sure thing, son. Now, if you men will keep quiet about me being here, I'll pick up your bar tab—is that a deal?"
"You bet! We won't say a word! Thanks a lot!" they both said as they laughed quietly at their good fortune.
In between sets, the owner of the club came to Wayne's table to check on him and Wayne told the owner he was paying for the two young Navy men's drinks and asked the owner if the musicians and singer ever took special requests. The owner said that they'd had occasional special requests if it was a song that the band and the singer knew, so he asked the owner to see if the musicians knew a special song that he wanted to hear her sing. The owner came back a few minutes later and said that the musicians did know the song and they would notify Diana that it had been requested when she came back out for her next set.
When she came out, he saw the piano player telling her about the request, and as soon as she heard which song it was, she immediately started scanning the darkened club like she was looking for someone. He knew she suspected it was he, but if she couldn't see him, then maybe she'd go ahead and sing it. He saw her look at the piano player and nod her head in agreement. So the piano started with the opening notes of "Unforgettable" and the band joined in when Diana started singing.
