It didn't take long to figure out Denise's modus operandi, or so I thought. The day after our "date" she was friendly enough, but by the third day I could see she had set her sights on Dave Wilken. It was pretty obvious from the way she always happened to be around him. When I saw the two of them heading over to the restaurant for lunch, the thought that our encounter had been just a one-night stand came home to me. It bothered me a bit since I really liked her and the sex had been outstanding, fantastic really, but I had been warned in advance and was a big enough boy to understand what was going on.
"I hear your girlfriend is hanging all over Wilken like a cheap suit in a hurricane," Chuck kidded me that afternoon.
"Easy come, easy go," I said trying to sound flip, even though it hurt a little.
"I wonder if I have a chance at that," Chuck mused.
"Bring your stepladder and get in line," I replied to my short buddy.
By Friday night, I had pretty much forgotten about it, or at least had put it out of mind. I've grown used to how life moves with you or without you, and besides, the band had a weekend gig at the Painted Pony and we had always had a great time there. Of course, the fact that Friday night was the unofficial singles night and there would be all sorts of available young women may have had something to do with it as well.
The evening started out well and only got better. Our soundman, Donny, had everything tweaked just right and had even set up some extra stage lights to play around with. The rhythm section, Danny on drums and Rick on bass, were tight as a full keg. My old pal Ray, who played keyboards and guitar, and I had a blast trading licks as we blasted through our first set of current hits. Early in the first set we liked to show off a bit and play our dueling lead guitar act during an old Lynrd Skynrd hit. We were a decent bar band; we knew how to get the crowd on their feet and keep them dancing. The bar owners liked that since active dancers became active drinkers.
It was toward the end of our second set when I noticed a pair of familiar figures taking up a table just off the dance floor on my side of the room. When I was able to get a good look, I could clearly make out the long tall outline of Denise Jacobs. As the lights brightened up I could see her companion was her cousin, Jackie. I nodded in their direction and they lifted their glasses in a toast. As Ray introduced the next song as a Lady's Choice and urged the women in the crowd to select their dance partner, I was surprised to see Denise and Jackie get up and move out onto the dance floor together. Understandably they were the only same-sex couple in this very traditional middle class neighborhood bar, but then no one else seemed to mind.
Certainly not me, since they moved to the dance floor right in front of me and began to dance, each one taking turns facing me and shaking her thing. Denise was very athletic, moving and swaying her tall body to the music very smoothly and expressively. Jackie moved in a way I could only say was exotic. I thought maybe because of her Lebanese heritage that she had taken belly-dancing lessons at some point. She moved her arms almost as if forming letters of the alphabet, and her shoulders and waist and hips were constantly moving, never remaining in a straight line.
As the song continued and the girls continued to dance in front of me, I took an extended solo, as was my wont, feeding off the energy I felt coming from these two delightful ladies. My fingers pushed at the guitar strings, bending them sharply, my wrist rocking wildly to add as much vibrato as I could. The wailing, soaring notes screamed out of the amplifier. As I bent over my axe, I dropped down to a knee to wring out the last weeping notes of the solo before jumping right up and the band swung into the last chorus. The crowd went crazy over the added histrionics (they usually did) and my little fan club applauded wildly, sort of hoping up and down as they clapped. Although a couple of guys had wandered out and asked them to dance, it looked as though they declined and stayed out on the floor to dance together. After the set was over, I made a point of going over to join them at their table.
"So what do you think?" I asked, pulling an empty chair over and slipping my butt into it, and scooted up next to Denise.
"You guys are great!" Denise said with a big grin.
Jackie was more reserved, simply nodding in agreement and flashing a modest little smile. When I tried to slip my arm around Denise however, she seemed to pull away and I pulled my arm back down.
"So do you two go out dancing much?" I asked.
"Every chance we get," Denise answered. "We have a lot of fun with it."
"I could see that you had some guys interested."
"Yeah, but if you let them dance with you, then they think they're going to get someplace," Jackie said. "I'd rather shoot them down right away than give 'em false hope."
"Gee, that's nice of you," I remarked.
"Unless they're really, really cute and want to buy us drinks all night," Denise added. "Then I'll wait until we're ready to leave to brush 'em off."
"You're just a real ball breaker, are you?" I said, smiling. She didn't look amused. "But then variety is the spice of life. The more the merrier and so on."
"So how long have you been playing?" Jackie asked, thankfully changing the subject.
"Ever since I was a kid. Started with the sax, then piano for a while. But I soon figured out that the guitar player gets the girls and that made up my mind."
"It works for me," Jackie replied.
Ray slipped over by me and caught my attention.
"Hey, it looks like I gotta go check in with the band," I said, getting up. "Are you two staying for a while?"
"Maybe a little longer," Denise said, while Jackie looked at her watch.
"Is there anything you want to hear?"
"Do you know 'Moondance'?" Jackie asked.
"The Van Morrison tune? Yeah, we know that. Don't play it much."
"That's my favorite song," she said, her green eyes twinkling.
"I'll see what I can do," I replied before moving off with Ray.
A couple of tunes into the next set, I announced 'Moondance' and the Jacobs girls got up to dance again. As the tune went on, Jackie worked her way over to stand right in front of me, her curvy body swaying with the music. I smiled down at her as I strummed along and joined in to harmonize with Ray's vocals. Her eyes didn't leave me for the rest of the song and I was captured by her look. Although Denise and a dozen other lovely women were on the floor dancing, there was only one woman, this short curvy dark haired woman with the green eyes, bending and swaying seductively for me. Ray normally played a nice little solo but didn't mind when I joined in behind him noodling a little melody behind what he was doing.
The crowd erupted with applause when we finished and Ray and I both took bows. When I looked up I saw the girls heading back through the crowd toward their table. Later when I shot a look over to their table, someone else had taken their seats and I wrote off my disappointment in the name of experience. Besides there was always Saturday night and more fresh faces.
Saturday is date night at the Painted Pony. Presumably all the couples who hooked up on Friday night come back to show off on Saturday. Instead of groups of two or three girls or guys, there were dozens of couples out for the night. But there are usually a lot of available ladies as well. The band ripped through the first set and got the dance floor loaded up during the second. After we finished it up, I stepped over to the bar to grab a cold one and head out to party with my band mates. As I leaned against the bar waiting for the bartender to uncap the longneck, a familiar voice called out to me from along the bar.
"Robby! Robby!"
I looked in that direction, caught a glimpse of some dark hair and green eyes, grabbed the beer and made my way down to say hello.
"Hello, Robby," said Jackie. "How're you doing?"
"I'm doing great," I said looking around for Denise. "Where's Denise?"
