Rowdy and I would never have gone to the opera if we hadn't gotten free tickets. We got them from our boss, who made us promise we'd go, and sweetened the deal by giving us Friday off. The company spent plenty to support the arts and got tickets in return. But it looked bad if those seats sat empty.
So Rowdy and I got all dressed up and went downtown. I'd never been to the big performing arts center nor the opera and I was curious about both.
Rowdy, I suspect, just wanted the afternoon off and an excuse to dress up. She loved clothes, but the guys she dated mostly took her to places where everybody wore t-shirts.
"Rowdy" isn't her real name, of course. She got the nickname when we were in high school by having the shortest temper and the foulest mouth of anybody on the planet.
I was actually enjoying the opera, the elaborate old-time costumes and the singing, but I could tell Rowdy was getting restless. She squirmed in her seat, sighed and even started to whisper a funny remark until the old guy in the next seat glared at her.
Finally there was a break in the action and Rowdy dragged me out of my seat. Resigned to my fate, I followed her to the bathroom.
The bathroom alone was worth the price of admission! The big door swung open silently onto a huge sitting room with brocade on the walls, filled with beautiful chairs and padded benches. Large flower arrangements graced each corner.
The bathroom itself was through another door and I've never seen one so nice. The toilet stalls were huge, with multiple hooks to hang purses and jackets, and the long vanity was topped by a mirror wall that went to the ceiling. Everything was spotlessly clean and smelled like flowers. They even had little boxes of Kleenex, tampons and wet wipes for the taking. Rowdy immediately filled her purse.
"Gawd can you believe people actually pay to see that crap!" Rowdy snarled.
"I kind of liked it," I replied.
"WHAT!" she snapped derisively. "Now you love old people singing in Latin?"
"It was Italian, not Latin," I corrected her, "and yes, it was kind of neat. I just wish I understood what they were saying. I kept having to look in the program to follow the story."
Rowdy lit a cigarette, took a deep drag and gave me a pitying look. She had opened her mouth to say something nasty when the door swung wide and another woman walked in. I'm afraid my mouth dropped open.
You know those amazingly beautiful, amazingly dressed, amazingly sexy women you see in fashion magazines? This was one of those women in real life! She was a honey blonde, perhaps 40, but with a quality that made you think she'd still be beautiful at 50 ... and 60.
She wore a black, sleeveless, three-quarter length dress that clung to her like skin. It seemed like it was flat black until she moved, then it caught the light and shimmered ... now silver, now gold. There was the brilliant sparkle of genuine diamonds in her ears, on her finger and at her throat.