“Can I buy you a drink?” asked Kris.
“Oh, hi, sure,” said Andrea. “What is your name? My name is Andrea.”
“My name is Kris,” he replied. “What would you like to have to drink?”
“I’ll take a tequila,” said Andrea.
“Bartender, two tequilas. Make that straight with salt around the rim of the glass,” said Kris.
Kris really liked the pretty sequined red dress Andrea was wearing and her straight blond hair. She had a baby face and blue eyes.
Kris had dark brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a suit and tie. Andrea was mesmerized by Kris’s dark brown hair and brown eyes. She couldn’t take her gaze away from him.
The bartender served up the drinks.
“Well, what do you do for a living?” Andrea asked Kris.
“I’m in real estate,” said Kris. “I sell five million dollar homes.”
“Oh, wow,” said Andrea. “That is great! So, you’re a rich guy.”
“Yeah, sort of,” said Kris.
“Sort of?” said Andrea.
“Yeah, sort of,” replied Kris. “I make large commissions on the houses I sell but I can only afford two mansions of my own. What do you do?”
“Only two mansions,” said Andrea. “I’d be satisfied with one.” Then Andrea thought, if I want this guy to date me later, I’d better make it good. “Well, I’m a movie star.”
“Movie star,” asked Kris. “What movies have you been in?”
“The one I’ve been in recently is called, Blue Mountain,” replied Andrea.
“Never heard of it,” said Kris.
“Oh, well. The movie has been in all the theatres for a year.
“Well, I guess I missed that one,” said Kris. “What is it about?”
It is about when two lovers retreat to the mountains and they encounter bears,” said Andrea. “But they still have a good time. The outcome is good.”
“Well, that’s good,” said Kris. “At least they didn’t get eaten up by the bears.”
“Oh, no!” said Andrea. “They didn’t get eaten by the bears. How old are you?” Andrea noticed gray strands in Kris’s hair and crow’s feet around his eyes.
“I’m twenty-five,” said Kris.
“Oh, I’m twenty-one,” said Andrea. Kris had also noticed gray strands of hair on Andrea on her roots and crow’s feet under her eyes and face that she had tried to conceal with a ton of makeup.
“Do you come here often?” asked Kris.
“Yes,” said Andrea. “I come here often in between rehearsals for my movies. I can sing too.”
“Oh, you can sing,” said Kris. “Could you sing me a song?”
Andrea tried to strike up a tune that was so off key. A cat that was being strangled would have sounded better.
Andrea and Kris had been sipping away at their drinks all along through their conversation together. The bartender finally came back and said, “Are you going to pay me for those drinks?”
“Oh, sure, I guess I forgot,” said Kris. “I’d been so engrossed in talking with the pretty lady here.”
Kris put his hand into his pocket and pulled out a wallet. He opened it. He had exactly fifty cents. He started to fish through all his other pockets looking for change. “Well, I guess I forgot it,” he said. “Will you take a credit card?”
“We don’t take credit cards,” said the bartender.
Andrea opened her pocket book, “Here, here bartender, I’ve got the money.” She handed the bartender the payment for the drinks. Then Andrea stared at Kris rather transfixed. He told me he was a multi-millionaire, she thought. Anyway, I guess I never know.
“What are we going to do now,” asked Andrea, “now that we’ve run out of drinks?”
“Well, you can come over to my place,” said Kris.
“Oh, that would be great!” said Andrea.
They finished their drinks and went outside. They stood on the sidewalk.
“Wait right here. I’ll bring the car around,” said Kris to Andrea.
Kris brought the car around. It was a little roach of a car, a Volkswagen Beetle with a big dent on the side. Andrea was shocked. She climbed into the car and thought, I was sure he’d be driving a Mercedes, or Tesla, or Porsche or a Maserati. Andrea continued to put the reality of what she was seeing out of her mind only to focus on that maybe she got lucky and really was dating a rich man.
Kris proceeded to drive the car after Andrea got in. He drove until he came to a shopping center. He found a parking space and parked the car. He then opened the door to get out.
“Where are you going?” asked Andrea. “What are we doing here?”
“I going to buy some liquor,” Kris said. “Just wait here.”
While Andrea waited in the car, Kris went inside a grocery store. He cashed some money through his credit card. He then went to the liquor store right next to the grocery store. He had to have cash because the liquor store did not accept checks or credit cards. He went into the liquor store and bought two pint size tequilas. He then brought them back to his car.
“Oh, goody! More tequila,” exclaimed Andrea.
Kris drove to his home. He pulled up in a neighborhood that had trash overfilling in the trash cans. Several police cars with their sirens blaring went down the road. There were dope dealers lining the streets who ducked like roaches back into their crevices when they heard the police sirens.
Kris led Andrea to go up to his apartment. They stood outside on the porch.
“I thought you lived in a mansion,” said Andrea. “You said you had two of them.”
“Oh, I do,” said Kris. “I’m out of town on business right now.”
It finally hit Andrea in the gut that Kris lied to her. “Are you sure?” she asked.
“Are you sure you can sing?” replied Kris.
