Wednesday 4:30pm
Joy had parked in the pay as you stay parking deck on the same block as the Atlanta Four Season's Hotel. She was nervous, and that was a trait I had yet to see. She insisted we stop at a bar for a drink. I couldn't believe it.
"You sure that's a good idea, you don't hold your liquor so well."
She flashed me those angst filled brown eyes.
"I'm sure. You know of a place close by?"
"Sure, There's a place a couple of blocks south. We'll park and walk."
She still wouldn't tell me much more about the phone call, only that it could put her back on track, whatever that meant. She was visibly shaken but doing her best to cover it. At the first crosswalk we darted across busy Peachtree Street and were at the spot in a few minutes. The evening traffic was starting to build adding to the noise and tension. I held the door for her as we went inside and sat at the bar.
"I'll have a Tanqueray and tonic please, make it a double," I said to the bartender.
"Joy, what do you want?"
She looked into space for a moment. The bartender waited patiently.
"What did we have the other night?"
"We had Margaritas."
"Yeah, that's what I want, that was good."
I nodded and the bartender was off.
"You want me to join you for this or just wait in the car?"
She turned to me suddenly.
"No, I want you there, so yes you need to be there."
She patted my arm maybe because the look on my face was disbelief after her unusual reaction. Suddenly I was the cool one.
"I'm just nervous," she said smiling, then rested her head on her arms she folded on the bar.
"No shit, I'd just like to know what you're so nervous about. Do you have to repo the governor's car or something?" I said trying to break her mood with my usual stupid levity.
"I wish. Look Nick," she said lifting her head just in time for the drinks to arrive.
"Just stick with me on this. If this pans out I may actually get my life back on track. I need this opportunity and I can't blow it."
Her eyes, her faraway eyes, always staring into deep space were suddenly focused on me as if waiting for me to come out with some lyrical truth to soothe her racing mind. She took a sip of her drink, squinted and swallowed. She lifter her glass again and took another sip and spun around on her stool looking out the tinted front windows.
"Holy shit!" She said, reaching behind her and putting her glass clumsily on the bar.
"What?"
"We've got to go across the street."
I turned to look at whatever had piqued her interest. It was a clothing store of all things, The Junkman's Daughter.
"I've got to get something real quick. It'll help me get into character."
I nodded, shrugged.
"I'm just here for moral support," I said tossing back the rest of my Tanquery.
I peeled two twenty's off and pushed them across bar.
Joy took another sip but left the rest which I then drank and caught her at the door.
She moved quickly, up to the end of the block then across the street and back to the store. I followed her in. She darted her eyes back at me for a split second.
"Just look around a minute, I know exactly what I want."
She walked into the women's clothing area and right up to an employee. They talked for a second but I turned and went back outside preferring to wait there. I sat on the ledge in the front window near the door and watched the heavy traffic piling up in all the lanes of Peachtree.
It had only been a few minutes it seemed when Joy emerged and oh man did she look different. She now had on what looked like black leather leggings that had been bedazzled with some sort of galaxy design in silver on the left calf and the right thigh. They were tucked into her black boots. She also wore a black form fitting off the shoulder top that had a deep v-neck front. She had brushed her hair out and was fixing it into her usual high ponytail and as a finishing touch she had put on her red lipstick and darkened her eyeshadow a bit.
"You ready?"
I could feel my eyes drying out from staring. I just moved, stood and followed on auto pilot. She was carrying her old clothes in a shopping bag she swung casually by her side.
"Can you put these in the Jeep. I'll go on ahead and you can come on in fashionably late. Your backstory is?"
Flat footed, still I managed to quickly come up with something.
"I'm just an associate, top man, your go to. What you hear I hear and nothing goes any further. I'll be stoic, a listener. I'll make very little eye contact with your client, but a lot with you. We won't say much, we'll communicate with eye contact and nods. When I come in you invite me to sit. I will sit next to you and put my palms on the table. It's an old gangster thing. Don't ask me how I know."
Joy pursed her lips, that was about as close to a smile she would give me. She was in character.
"Pretty good. Okay." She said.
We walked down the last block in silence before I split off with the bag of clothes. Her shoulders were squared, head was high, her gaze elsewhere, her stride purposeful, confident her ochre silky hair trailed down her slender neck and bounced slightly as she moved. All the gears in that beautiful mind were spinning in undetermined patterns and she was busy trying to work out the points of prograde and retrograde of each tiny cog in the celestial mechanics of her ever changing universe all in an effort to put them together for the best possible outcome.
I just couldn't keep my eyes off of her. It was hard before, but damn she just upped the game and made it nearly impossible. And, as often happens to me a song came to mind and I couldn't get rid of it. It's a subconscious problem I have and I'm not sure how to fix it or that I even want to. For whatever reason this one came from the depths of the nineteen eighties, a time when hair-band metal was popular on stations around the county, and a time when MTV actually played videos. It even took me a second or two to get past the aggressive echoing guitar riffs to begin the song in earnest before I remembered the name, 'Lay it Down.'
I was singing softly as I walked beside the stunning woman.
"I know you really don't know me. I know you don't really care to see me. I'm into total affection. Not being scared if you never please me."
Joy finally noticed but made no visible acknowledgment.
"The man's name is Coy Davenwood. What you don't pick up from the meeting I will fill you in on the way home."
"Coy?"
Joy looked at me sharply but with the slightest hint of a smile.
"Got it."
I took her cue and kept my thoughts to myself on that one.
"There's a shirt in the bag and a belt, put them on."
Wednesday 5:13PM
With a nod and without breaking her stride Joy passed me the bag and shifted her tiny purse over her head, the thin strap crossing her chest further accentuating her natural shape.
"You know you really want to lay it down. Right now. And how. I know you really want to lay it down. Right now. Lay it down. Lay it down. Lay it down. Lay it down."
I continued singing as I watched her Heaven sent hindquarters disappear around the corner at the end of the block.
I returned to the Jeep in the cool parking deck and took what turned out to be a simple gray short sleeve button down shirt out of the bag. Nothing fancy except the black velvet iron cross embroidered on the chest pocket and the in the center of the back.
I just put it on like requested and tucked it into my faded jeans. Then put the belt on. The belt was awful. It was plain enough except for the big silver skull belt buckle. We were going to have words about that later though for damn sure. I even dug around in the Jeep and found some hand lotion which I used a little of to clean the scuffs from the toes of my boots. I gave them a quick once over just for good measure. All tucked and cinched I made my way back out of the garage and over towards the hotel bar where Joy told me she was meeting her client.
'Coy Davenwood,' I thought to myself, 'what the fuck has she fallen in to?'