Arriving at the table we found a veritable stack of drinks waiting for us. "Who bought these?" I inquired.
"Don't know." Bob grunted looking up from his box of albums. "They just started coming and didn't stop for a while." He found what he was looking for, took the album from its cover, put it on the turntable, and cued up a song. He then looked up from his work and said, "If you happen to have too many there you can pass one or two this direction."
"Let's see about that." Mom said as she lifted one drink to her lips and took a long luxurious pull. "Mmmm, I sure am thirsty," she continued.
I picked up my drink and took a sip. It tasted great after all the dancing.
Mom got to work on her drink with glorious abandon, while I sat back and surveyed the crowd. The population of the room sure hadn't dropped since we arrived and it sure was getting hot in here. I pulled off my sweat soaked suit jacket and hung it on the back of my chair. Then I unbuttoned the vest but kept it on for the moment. All the while I continued to survey the room.
Most of the crowd was young and collegiate in age. It was definitely a disco crowd, not the usual redneck blue-collar type of crowd that frequented Sonny's.
Fred and the other bartenders were still hustling to keep the thirsty crowd happy. They appeared to be successful at that and the patrons seemed happy with their drinks.
As my gaze passed over the room again I became aware of a couple of faces that looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place where I knew them from. They were three ladies standing expectantly at the end of the bar. Two of the gals looked rather frowsy, the third appeared to be about my age and not too bad looking. I continued to watch them for a moment, there was some importance to them but I just had to recall who they were.
About that time they saw me watching them and they all began to wave frantically, it was then that I recalled where I knew, or rather recognized them from. They were the women that worked for Mom in the office. I'd never actually met the women, but I'd seen them in the pictures that Mom brought home.
I reached over and tapped Mom on the shoulder. She looked up startled and I leaned in toward her. She thought that I wanted to kiss her and she put her lips to mine in a long, warm, passionate kiss.
Pulling back from her I shook my head to stop the spinning and said, "Sarah, look over there." And I gestured toward the end of the bar.
"Oh fuck!" Mom exclaimed profanely. "There goes my god damn night!" She stated bitterly.
"Why's that?" I inquired quietly.
Mom leaned in and put her mouth next to my ear and said, "Well for one thing they're going to want to come over an join me." She paused and said softly, "For another they're going to know that you're my son and ruin all our fun."
I pulled back a bit, gave Mom a brief kiss on the lips before leaning in and placing my mouth next to her ear and saying softly, "I don't see how them being here will change anything." I stated mater of factly. "I don't know the ladies. And I don't think that they've ever met me either."
I stopped to look over at them again before turning back to Mom. "If you haven't shown any recent pictures of me around the office they won't have a clue." I said quietly as I could over the din of the disco music blaring from the speakers next to us.
"Well." Mom stated slowly, "I do have a picture of you on my desk."
My heart dropped and I thought, 'Well it certainly looks like the fun is really over for tonight.'
"But." Mom continued slowly. "It's the one with you in your bomber jacket on your bike. You know the close up that I thought was so sexy?"
She had never told me it looked sexy, just that it looked good. The thought that Mom considered me sexy made a chill go up my spine and I kissed her softly on the neck.
"Mmmm, don't interrupt me when I'm thinking." She chided.
"Oooh, spank me momma." I interjected humorously.
"I just might if you don't shut up, damn it." She said ominously. "But I don't think that I ever told them that it was you. I just took down the picture of your father and me and tossed it in the trash. And I took down a family picture from when you were in first grade and put it in my desk. When they asked me about your photo I just told them that it was my 'new man' or may be my 'favorite guy'. You know I think you're right. We are in the clear." She said happily and she pulled back to put her sweet lips against mine in a rather hungry and wanton kiss of pure passion.
Mom surfaced from our kiss and raised her arm to motion her co-workers over. They pushed through the crowd to our table and pushed up next to us. It seems that they were suitably impressed that we were sitting with the DJ and thought that I must be truly important.
Mom introduced them all around, leaving me out of the intros. I guess she wanted to see how they were going to respond to my presence and find out, without asking of course, exactly how much they knew.
It didn't take long to pin point their level of knowledge, because after Mom had introduced Bob, and a now unconscious Peggy one of the frowsy women gushed, "And you left out your new boy friend. What's his name? How long have you two been dating? Tell us everything."
Mom said, "It's too noisy to talk much here. Why don't we step outside for a minute?" They all readily agreed and Mom rose to go. "Do you want to go with me babe?"
I was about to say sure, but I saw Mom shake her head just faintly from side to side in a 'no' signal. So, I said, "No baby, you go and tell them all about us and I'll just sit here with Bob and drink." With that I slid one of my drinks across to Bob and lifted mine in salute to the ladies. "All you lovely ladies, I salute you." And I took a long drink from my tequila.
Mom's co-workers put their drinks on the table for safekeeping and chattering like school girls they headed toward the door. Mom lagged behind for a second and bent over to give me a chaste kiss and say, "Keep your fingers crossed. If everything goes right I'm going to give them something to really gossip about."
"Knock em dead." I said simply as she walked toward them and toward the door.
When Mom was out of sight I looked around the room. Bob was still spinning discs, and keeping the patrons happy with his jumping choice of tunes. Peggy was passed out across from me. She snoozed quietly face down on the table with her face nestled against her fore arms. The barkeeps were beginning to slow down and I could see Fred take the time to light up a cigar and sit down behind the bar. He saw me looking his direction and waved, then giving me a drinking motion asking me if I needed another one. I looked down at the table and saw that I had two more untouched drinks and waved him off.
