Drew was trapped in her own secret world, a world where no men were allowed. Shedidn’t mind putting the act on when she was bartending. Of course she knew the more you flirted and the more you let peek out around the edges the more tips you got, but that was as close to men as she would ever get. She had had many phone numbers slipped her way and many propositions that most women would die for, but not Drew.
She could blame that one on her first step-father. She had been a very beautiful blonde headed, blue-eyed little girl. Everyone would tell her that she looked like an angel. Somehow, she never let it go to her head. Her step-father had been obsessed with her and he had taken that obsession just a little too far. Drew still had her virginity, but she had been about a half of a second away from losing it at twelve years old. She hated him from the first moment that she met him and yet her mother had refused to listen to her when she would tell her just how uncomfortable he would make her feel.
One night, her mother found out for herself when she walked in on her step-father about to ruin the rest of all of their lives. Drew was glad for her mother’s sake that it didn’t happen. As far as Drew was concerned, it may as well have happened and it was never going to happen again.
“Drew, you know you can talk to me about anything.” Liza said sitting up now on the balcony floor. She noticed that Drew had gone off into one of her dream lands again. The Ivy leaf that Drew had been rolling around between her fingers now looked like a ball of mush and Drew’s finger and thumb had turned green.
“Oh, I’m fine… really.” She said to Liza as she looked skeptical. “I’m just really tired and very hung over.”
“Ditto. I think it is more than that though, and I wish that for once you would just tell me what is on your mind. You have known all of my life long secrets since we were fourteen. Don’t you think that it is time that you let me in even just a little bit?” Liza held up her thumb and pointer as if to indicate that she really did mean it could be the tiniest bit of information.
“Liza, you sound like a jealous husband.” Drew said rolling her eyes then turning back to the city.
“Well, Drew, sometimes I feel like I am a worried parent with you, and we have been together longer than most couples stay together anymore so why not? Just talk to me.”
Drew stared at what she could see of the top of the St. Louis Cathedral. She loved Jackson Square. She loved New Orleans. She had been born and raised in Hammond, about an hour north of New Orleans. Her mother would bring her to the market at Jackson Square though every chance she got when she was a child. Drew had made friends with the local artists. The painters, singers, piano players, even the mimes would wink silently at her as she walked by, she loved them all.
She remembered being about six years old and standing in front of a very old building and listening to someone play the piano, it was the most beautiful music she had ever heard and it had been coming from one of the windows above. (Later, she heard the same tune being played in a movie and had to blink the tears back as she refused to cry.) She watched an old man draw a painting of the building in front of her at the same time. It was almost like magic. The man’s brush strokes seemed to match the beat of the music. He drew her into the picture and then handed it to her. Her mother tried to hand the man some money but he wouldn’t accept it.
Drew thought about that now. Knowing that was probably the man’s only income and he wouldn’t accept her payment for the drawing. He had said with a toothless smile that it was for the little angel who had given him the inspiration that was sure to last him for the rest of the day.
“Do you ever wonder why at twenty -five years old, I am still a virgin?” Drew said still staring out at the buildings. Drew’s