*Edited by Redwings1202
"Hello?"
"Hey Brian, it's me. Listen, are you available Saturday?
"Depends. What time?"
"Like the afternoon, say 2?"
"Sure, I think I can manage that."
"Great! I'll text my address but, listen, you can't say anything."
"You know I never do."
"No I mean when you get here. You can't say anything. Not a word ok?"
"Wait, what do you mea..." but she'd already hung up. I shook my head.
Typical Sandy. Of course I'd do what she wanted, because in this so-called City of Angels, she's the real article. Sandy is a bleach blonde goddess, 5'10", mostly legs that end in a delectable ass. She has the nicest set of DDs that money can buy, and a face that keeps her in consistent modeling work, which is says something in L.A.
Me? I'm 5'1", almost completely bald at 26, and have recently accepted the fact that I am a bartender. Not a stand-up comedian bartending between gigs. Just a bartender. You'd think that with the deck stacked so high against me I'd have some compensatory feature, like super intelligence or being hung like a T-Rex. But, besides my lack of height and hair, I'm pretty much normal. I can't change it, so I embrace it. I shave my head, stay active at the gym, and try to be the best damn bartender in town. Just the same, I'm still not in the same league as Sandy. I thought I was just flattering a customer to earn my tip when I asked her out. I gawped like a fish when she accepted.
We went out for two months, after which she curtly announced that our relationship wasn't going anywhere and called it off. The next Saturday night she was back in the bar with some unctious jackass. I tried not to be the stalker ex, but couldn't help but notice him winking at girls and fist bumping guys while he ground against her ass on the dance floor. When she took a break to go to the ladies' room he hit the bar and ordered two Heinies. "That's a beautiful woman you're with tonight," I shouted over Lady Gaga's enthusiastic moans.
"Fuck yeah she is," he grinned, "I'm gonna tap that 'till she can't walk straight." I gave him a thumbs up, but pulled Sandy over first chance I got.
"Where'd you find this creep?" I asked just loud enough for her to hear. She smiled and slapped me on the arm. "I never thought you'd be the jealous type!"
"Seriously," I said, "you can do better." She laughed, told me to get over it and went back to dancing.
The following Wednesday she was back, this time alone. "You were so right," she whined while she sipped her complimentary Alibi. "Todd was a
total
douchebagel. I'm going to have you check out all of my boyfriends from here on out."
I thought she was kidding, but she wasn't. My "reviews" were pretty frequent at first, but tapered off as the months went by. Sandy'd bring in a guy and send him to the bar for drinks. I'd serve him, exchange a little small talk, and scope him out. None of them deserved her. They didn't even come close. Then again, I
did
have an ulterior motive for killing her relationships. No boyfriend meant no sex, and Sandy took to alleviating her libidinal frustrations on me. We weren't a couple; just fuck buddies when neither of us was in a relationship...which for me was practically never. I tried not to abuse my position but the tool bags Sandy always came in with made the job pretty easy.
That is, until Alex.
I hadn't seen her for a while, then she breezed into the bar, beaming like a glostick with 225 lbs. of beefcake in tow. If Sandy was a real life Barbie, Alex was every inch her Ken; he had the hair, the height, the body builder's frame and dazzling pearly whites. They were out on the floor a long time and he was making me nervous; he was fully focused on her. He had his hands on her the entire time, but they were always on her shoulders, her waist or the small of her back, but never further. When the time came for his unwitting interview it all checked out. He was respectful to her, even in her absence, and babbled about qualities even I had never appreciated in her. I couldn't find a single thing wrong with him.
"Well?" she asked when he excused himself to the men's room.
"Far as I can tell he's the real deal," I said. I wished to God I could have said something else, but it would have been a lie.
"Really?" Her eyes sparkled. "I thought for sure you'd say no but he's so great, I waited six weeks to bring him in and I was sooooo nervous! You're positive? He's really a good guy?"
I explained that a five minute conversation was sometimes enough to tell if a guy was a total prick, but hardly enough time to see if they were matched on 31 levels of compatibility. So, as far as I could tell, everything I'd seen checked out. She bounced up and down, hugged me, gushed her thanks and "buh-byes," and that's the last I saw or heard from her.
Then, a little over a year later, I got her call.
Naturally, I assumed Sandy and Alex had finally broken up and I was once again her booty call. Her stipulation for silence? Strange, but whatever. I shaved, scrubbed, brushed, deodorized and got psyched up for the visit.
But nothing could have prepared me for that Saturday.
Her apartment was a new place, nicer than what she'd had before. Beautiful landscaping, huge pool, on site gym and a killer location. A place that said, "I can afford a house, but I prefer to live in the city." There went the idea that she and Alex had broken up. Either this was combined incomes territory or Sandy had landed an extremely lucrative gig. Doubts picked at me while I found a parking space. Was I getting laid today or not? We'd always had a strict "no cheating" policy and I still wasn't comfortable breaking that. And if she had hit it big what did she want from lil' old me? Hopefully the same thing she'd always wanted. I climbed up to the third floor and rang the bell, and hoped for a quick answer. Instead I got more confusion.
"Oh good, here it is!" Sandy called over her shoulder after she opened the door. I kicked off my sandals at the entryway, looked inside and saw the most adorable redhead ever. Crystal blue eyes, tiny pixie nose, hair just brushing her shoulders and cheeks that were dusted with freckles. She sat on a luxuriant leather couch, not the Ikea one Sandy used to have, with her brows furrowed like she didn't know what was going on. That made two of us.
Sandy grinned and held out her hands like she was Vanna White and I was a new car. "It's my dildo!"
I almost broke the silence rule right there but she held her finger to her lips and shot a warning glare in my direction. In the meantime, the other girl was apparently not under the same restrictions.
"What?!" she spluttered and stood up, "I didn't think you meant an actual
guy
! There's no way I can do this! What are you thinking!"
"Um, I think you should go make us some drinks," Sandy said to me.
I silently complied, but as I exited the room for the kitchen, I couldn't help but sympathize with the strange girl on the couch. What the hell
was
Sandy thinking? I tried to eavesdrop but the cute redhead wasn't shouting anymore and the walls were too good. Looks like I was still in the dark.
I located the liquor cabinet and took stock. Jose, Goose, Jack, and Malibu. No vermouth, no gin, but there was a half empty bottle of Cointreau. A quick peek in the fridge verified that Sandy kept cranberry juice. "Yep," I said to myself, "Cosmos it is," and got to work, wondering how she could introduce me as her dildo. I guess it wasn't entirely inaccurate, but I had let myself believe I was a little more to her than that. "Well," I thought while I sloshed the alcohol and juice together in a shaker, "so much for petty fantasies."
When I brought the drinks in, the redhead had calmed down. Sandy took her Cosmo without so much as a glance in my direction, and the other girl only flicked her eyes at me before resuming voicing her thoughts.
"It's just that I'm not that pretty," she said. Sandy made an unladylike snort.
"Not even true," she said, "guys look at you all the time."
"Yeah, and what do they see? Freckles. All over my face and arms. The moment I step outside I'm covered with them."
"Oh stop, your freckles are cute."
"No, they're not. And I have these stubby little horse legs, and no hips, and no ass, and no boobs." She'd started at a reasonable decibel level, but now her voice built into a wail. "I look like a little boy! And no one-"
"Susan, you're being ridiculous." Sandy cut her off, but Susan wasn't deterred.
"No I'm not! I'm ugly and bad at sex and I can't keep a boyfriend!"