Invisible People

Invisible People: Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Heath kept one eye on the door as Paula’s party progressed and people poured into her two-level condo.  It was nearing eleven o’clock, and Amy should have been there already.  But she wasn’t, and if he had to listen to Paula’s simpering laugh one more time while she clung to his side, clearly claiming him as hers, then he might just start drinking more than the Sprite in his cup.

Ruby arrived not long ago, with a black guy who was taller than everyone else in the place, and Heath escaped Paula’s vigile to go and ask after Amy.  “Hey, Ruby,” he said loudly, catching her attention over the pounding music.

“Dr. Heath!” she cried out joyously, her eyes shining as if she was right at home in all the partying around them.  “Have you met Tony?”

Heath looked up...and up, and stuck his hand out to Tony, who grasped it in a massive paw with long, tapered fingers.  “Hey, doc,” Tony said in a deep baritone.  “Ruby, I’m going to get a beer.  You want?”

“Yes, please!” Ruby laughed, her body gyrating to the music on its own.  

As soon as Ruby’s date disappeared into the crowd -- as well as he could with his height -- Heath leaned down to Ruby and asked, “Have you seen Amy?”

“She’s not here yet?”

“I haven’t seen her,” he said in her ear.

Ruby turned to shout into his ear.  “She’ll be here!  She had a lot to do after work!”

A cool finger touched his elbow, below the turned-up cuffs of his shirt.  It was Paula again, in her black dress that she’d been fussing over and bragging about all evening.  “Heath!  There you are!”  She leaned against him, her breasts plastered into his arm, as she leaned over to Ruby.  “You made it!  Where’s Amy?!”

“She’s coming!” Ruby yelled above the music.  

Paula smiled and nodded.  “Good!  She needs to get out more!  I wanted her to meet my cousin!”  And she pointed across the room to a man with glasses and a bad haircut, who stood alone in a dark corner,  focused on his cell phone and wearing an old, lumpy blue sweater.  He had pimples.  Big ones.

Paula turned back to Ruby and Heath.  “I think they’ll get along fabulously, don’t you?!”

The grossed-out look Ruby gave him made him almost start laughing.  

“Heath, darling,” Paula cooed, slipping her hand around his elbow.  “We need another bottle of champagne opened!  Would you?”  She batted her fake eyelashes, but rather than be rude to the woman, he allowed her to pull him back to the kitchen.  Ruby frowned pitifully at him.

Twenty minutes later, Heath was ready to go home.  Amy wasn’t there, and Paula’s heavy perfume and clinginess was giving him a migraine.  Not to mention the throbbing beat of the music blaring out of the stereo.