A Rat's Chance Ch. 3

You can imagine my surprise however when a couple of nights later I got a call from Jack inviting me to a party for a mutual friend.

"The gang is getting together for Robby's birthday over at Mancino's," Jack said. "So you want to meet us up there, maybe around ten?"

"Sure, why not?" I remarked noting that I had plenty of time to get ready.

"And by the way, little Miss Allie seemed pretty excited when I told her you were invited."

"You don't say," I replied with surprise.

It was just after ten when I got down to Mancino's, which was a sleepy little bar in the neighborhood where we lived as kids. It was a sort of karaoke piano bar place, with a nice grand piano in the center of the room with an enormous bar built around it. There was a small dance floor off to the side where an occasional couple would take a spin or two. On Saturday nights such as this, we would often take it over, taking turns passing around the microphone so that we could croon our favorite old tunes while the piano player thumped away. As I entered, I could already hear several familiar voices. "Hey, Greg Boy!" they called out when I made my way to the bar. Glenn, Johnny, and Steven were all there with their wives or significant others. As I moved along the bar I greeted everyone and shook hands. On the far side I could see Jack and Kate smiling. There was an empty seat next to Kate and I slid my butt onto it.

"How are you?" I asked Kate as she smiled at me.

"I'm fine," she replied. "But that seat is taken."

"Oh, is Robby here already?" I asked.

"No," she replied, clearing her voice and pointing behind my back.

I heard another voice being cleared and swiveled around to see Allie's beautiful smiling face.

"I believe that's my seat," she said sweetly.

Quickly I slipped off and took her hand to help her ease up onto the seat. "Begging madam's pardon, but I was only trying to keep it warm for ye," I said with a courtly bow.

"You knave!" she replied swinging her hand at me playfully.

Minutes later when Robby and Lynne showed up, the place erupted with a flurry of happy birthday greetings. As the group at the bar was rearranged, I ended up with a seat between Jack and Allie. Another round of drinks were ordered and the microphone ended up in my hand.

"Come on, Greg. Sing a little tune for us," Jack insisted.

"I don't know," I said trying to beg off.

"Come on, old buddy," Jack urged.

I looked around trying to think of what I felt like singing, when my eyes settled on Allie. She sat primly beside me, looking up into my eyes with her big steely blue eyes sparkling brightly and a lovely smile on her face. I felt as if I could fall in love with her on the spot. The piano player was just noodling away looking up occasionally in my direction waiting for a request.

"How about," I began to say. "How about 'The Way You Look Tonight'?"

He nodded and with a deft modulation shifted into the old Jerome Kern-Dorothy Fields song. I began to sing hesitantly, looking into Allie's eyes. But as she looked back at me, hearing my voice stumble over the first few words, there was something in her look that gave me strength, and my voice cleared out and the tone improved enough that I stood off the seat and began to put more voice into it.

"With each word, your tenderness grows, tearing my fears apart! And that laugh that wrinkles your nose, touches my foolish heart!" I sang out, noting how she laughed at the appropriate moment.

When I finished the tune to the good-natured applause of my pals, I could almost swear that there was a blush in Allie's cheeks. I took a simple little bow and handed the microphone to her.

"Oh, no!" she protested, handing the mic to Johnny sitting on the other side of her. "I'm gonna need another drink before I sing for you. But I would like to dance with you."

There was an urgency to her step as we headed out to the dance floor that she had something to say.

"You know, I thought about what you told me the other night," Allie said, as we began to. "And I think you're full of shit."

"What do you mean?" I said, trying to keep from laughing.

"About you and me. All right, I'm younger than you, okay, a lot younger than you, but that doesn't mean that we can't be friends, that we can't see each other and have fun together."

"You are a sweetheart, Allie."

"I mean it. I really like you Greg, You're thoughtful and considerate. You're a great dancer and sometimes when you look at me, I could almost melt."

"Huh? Are you talking about me? Mr. Average Guy?"

"Well, yeah. Who else? You're anything but average, Greg. You're very much above average. Maybe you just don't see it or understand it. I am very attracted to you. You are unlike any other man I've ever known. There is something about you that I can't get out of my mind. I find myself thinking about you at the oddest times during the day. In the middle of a client meeting, waiting for the elevator, driving through traffic."

"I don't know what to say."

"Don't say anything, I'm on a roll here Mister. I know how you feel about me. I've seen it in your eyes ever since the day we met. At first I thought, 'Oh well here's another horny old man.' But as I've gotten to know you, I've found a simple sweet side of you that is just irresistible. I think I've found the substance behind the face."

She fell silent for a few moments while we danced.

"Are you through?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Well, I don't know what to say," I said, "Except that I need a stiff drink and so do you. We're not leaving until I hear you sing."

We reclaimed our seats at the bar and ordered another round. When the microphone worked it's way back around to her, Allie took it and looked at me, then up and away as if thinking about something. Then she turned toward the piano player and said something I couldn't make out over the hum of barroom noise. The piano player nodded and began to play the intro to a tune that sounded vaguely familiar. I recognized it the moment she began to sing, "I used to fall in love with all those boys who call on young cuties. But now I find I'm all inclined to keep my mind on my duties since I've begun to share in such a sweet love affair."

It was the old tune 'My Heart Belongs To Daddy' by Cole Porter. The faces of the strangers seated around the bar were surprised to hear the tune, but began to smile when it seemed obvious that she was singing it to me and I wasn't exactly her father. Her voice was breathy and soft and sexy, almost like Julie London in her prime. I leaned back on my bar chair barely able to control myself as she sang the song just for me. It was as if the rest of the room had faded away and only the two of us and the strains of the piano existed. I felt my face flush up as she sang out the last words, "If you feel romantic laddy, let me warn you right from the start that my heart belongs to daddy, and my daddy belongs to my heart!"

The bar erupted with applause when she was finished and for the rest of the night, my pals called me 'Daddy.'

"Hey Daddy," said Jack. "Are we still on for racquetball on Wednesday?"

"Say, Daddy," called out Johnny. "Buy you a beer?"

"Oh, Daddy," called out Robby's wife. "Can you check my homework?"

Just before closing time, Allie leaned up against me and slipped her arms about me.

"Greg, I'd like you to take me home," she said looking up into my eyes.

"Okay, where do you live?"

"No, you don't understand," she said, her eyes widening. "I want you to take me home to your place."

"Are you sure?" I asked hardly able to understand what she was saying because of the excitement I felt inside.

"I am very sure, Greg," she replied.

She leaned up and planted a sweet wet kiss on my lips. My arms instinctively slipped around her and I returned the kiss. She began to lean into me, her body pressing up against me.

"You are also very drunk," I replied. "I don't think that'd be right."

"Oh, come on," she said. "I want you Greg!"

"Let me get you home."

We said our goodbyes and started out into the parking lot.

"You have made a very big impression on me, you now," I said, breathing in the balmy summer night air.

"Well, that's no secret, Greg," she said as we slowly strolled toward my car. "I've known that ever since the first day we met."

"But it's more than that, Allie. When I see you, when I hear your voice, when I just think about you, I get all tingly inside, I can't sleep, my appetite is shot to hell."

"That's sweet, Greg," she said with a big smile, almost embarrassed. "I don't know what to say."

"Don't say anything. I know this is crazy, but I really like you. I hope that we can continue to see each other, that is, if you'd want to."

"Of course I do," she replied. "You're a nice sweet man. You listen to me, ask me my opinion, and treat me like a lady. And we always have such a good time together."

"Thanks," I said. "It feels so much better to know that it's not entirely one-sided."

She leaned over toward me, her upturned face radiant in the glow from the parking lot lighting. At that moment I realized what I really felt about her, but couldn't say a word. It didn't take a genius to know that no words were necessary. Her eyes began to close as she moved closer to me and I leaned down toward her as well. I lifted my fingers to her cheek to guide her lips toward mine. They met in a light, wet brushing little kiss. I could feel her breath and her tongue as we lightly kissed again and again. My fingers trembled as I held her cheek and slipped down to the soft silky skin of her neck.

"You know, I could get addicted to that," she whispered so very softly. "You have a terrific set of lips."

"Yours are pretty hot too, you know," I replied.

We moved as close together as we could given the split seating arrangement, but there was no keeping our lips apart. The feel of her little tongue darting around my lips brought my own out to answer in kind. Just as my hand slipped down her shoulder and headed toward her lovely breast, I heard a pounding on the car window. I turned quickly around to see Jack and Kate's smiling faces peering in over my shoulder.

"Come on you two lovebirds," Jack shouted. "You're busted!"

"You gonna be okay, Sweetie?" Kate asked her friend.

Allie nodded. "Jacks' driving me home."

"Good, 'cause you're loaded!"

We watched them drive off in Jack's truck and I helped her inside my STS. All the way home our hands rested together at first between us, but as we drove on, she pulled mine over to rest in her lap. She kept looking over at me, trying to steal little glances.

"You can stop here and let me out," she said pointing to the side of the road. "I can walk up from here."

"This is a really nice neighborhood."

"Greg, you've been the world's best gentleman tonight. You know that means an even bigger payback when it's time."

"In my dreams, baby!"

"I'm being serious here," she protested. "I've been thinking about this for a while now, ever since you told me how you felt. When I see you, I hear rockets shoot off. I feel so alive near you, I just know that I could do anything."

"Well that feeling is mutual," I replied.

"I hope that this one is," she went on. "Because I'm falling in love with you."

I shook my head slightly, not sure that I had correctly heard what she had said.

"Don't shake your head," she said. "I know how you feel by the way you look at me. I've never had anyone look at me like that. I melt a little bit inside every time you look at me with those wonderful puppy dog eyes. And when you hold me I can feel your feelings radiating from you."

"But you're so young and beautiful, and I'm just an average old guy," I said.

"And?"

"And, you've got your life just ahead of you, while mine is halfway over."

"And?"

"And I'm too old to start over, start up a family, to make a life with some so young."

"Don't you think you're getting ahead of yourself?" Allie said. "All I did was say I was falling in love with you. I didn't say anything about marriage and a family."

"You're right," I said. "I'm getting ahead of myself again."

"That's okay," she said sweetly. "You never stop thinking, and I like that. But sometime you have to start feeling. All you've told me tonight have just been reasons not to get carried away, but not a single thing to keep me from loving you. The way you look, how much money you have in the bank, how old you think you are, don't mean anything to me. It's what inside that matters most."

"What did I ever do in life to bring you close to me?" I asked.

"You were just yourself," she said slipping over closer to me. "Now come here."

She slid over as close to me as she could and I responded in kind. Our hands slipped up and drew our arms around each other. I spent a moment to look into her sweet adoring face before closing my eyes and kissing her gently. Her lips were wet and warm and soft and I was lost in a whirling romantic moment the likes of which I had never known. We sat together for several minutes, kissing and cooing sweet little nothings back and forth. She finally decided to make a move.

"I think I'd better go in," she said. "Thanks for a wonderful evening, Greg."

"Okay," I replied. "Sweet dreams!"

"They're always sweet when they're about you!"

She slipped out of the car and nearly ran up to the house, not even looking back. I waited until she had disappeared inside before starting the car. I saw a light come on in a front window and her silhouette appeared. The curtain parted and she raised her hand to wave as I drove away.

To be continued...