ride.”
Pedro laughed. He was pouring somebody a shot of scotch, listening to Wolf ramble.
Wolf flipped Pedro off and went on, “Can’t help it if they love me, Driver. Just can’t help it. Maybe next time I’ll stick to my own kind and meet a nice Irish girl.”
Pedro told him, “You’re not Irish.”
“I’ll dye my hair red and eat Lucky Charms.”
We laughed, and when the laughter died, Wolf called it a night, headed across the room. His gait should’ve been confident and moneyed, like he owned the world, but he moved like a crab, like he was cringing all the time. If you stuck a cigarette in the corner of his mouth and put a trench coat on his back, he’d look like James Dean strolling down the Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
As soon as Wolf left, Pedro gave me a knowing look, shook his head, his smile gone.
He told me, “She just called up here looking for you. She’s bold. Like she don’t care.”
Pedro didn’t say my trouble’s name. We knew my sins and indiscretions.
He asked, “How does she know when you’re here? I tell her you’re not here and she tells me I’m lying. It’s like she knows when you walk in the door. I’d be careful.”
“Fifty thousand volts.”
“Know what I’m saying? She’s loco like a mofo.”
I shrugged and pushed my chest out, waved it off like it was nothing I couldn’t handle.
Pedro looked in the direction Wolf had just gone, then shook his head and walked away.
2
I took off my jacket and watched Miss Baklava Glue do her thing. She had grabbed a stick, found a hustler who wanted to test her skills, and played a few games. Twenty a game was the going rate. I was tempted to do the same. But I didn’t. Just sat back and watched her. This wasn’t a room filled with pros or people who had deep pockets, not like Sin City—Las Vegas. Mostly amateurs with an attitude, the kind of men and women who’d lose fifty bucks and consider it a major financial setback.
She was sexy. Different from anything I had touched before. Couldn’t move my eyes away. She was aware of me. Seemed like she was watching me as much as I was watching her.
Miss Baklava Glue had a great body and a decent game. Decent bank shot. But couldn’t get the cue to obey her, leaving her next shot in trouble. She made a shot, looked my way, maybe showing off. Each time I nodded her way. She got her respect by beating a few people, had a decent run for a while, but just like Gray Davis there was a sudden reversal of fortune. When it was all said and done, the hustlers had out-hustled her and she’d lost her Chicago roll. I guessed that at least two C-notes had slipped away from her.
She came toward the bar, shaking her head, looking a little angry. She didn’t like losing.
We made eye contact again. Brief eye contact.
I followed her, watched those legs move in that long black leather skirt, the split showing uncharted flesh up to her thigh. Her high heels made her feet look delicate and ethereal. I loved the way heels begat shapely legs on a woman, how they elongated feminine legs. Nothing like watching a woman’s sashay. It was like a fingerprint, each woman had her own way of moving. Loved to witness the calf muscles contract to slim and firm the back part of the lower leg.
She ran her hand over her hair, leaned against the counter.
I got her eye, asked, “Whassup?”
“Nothing.”
“Buy you a drink?”
“I can buy my own.”
I unclenched my jaw, stood firm and refused to give in that quick, squared my stance, took a breath, slow and deep. “What’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?”
“Okay, you need to come stronger than that.”
“Was just saying. You’re silk and lace in a blue-jean world.”
She licked her lips. “I can handle myself.”
“Heard you’ve been through here before. Earlier this week.”
“People do talk.”
“You don’t look like the type of woman who’d be hanging out on Figueroa.”
She nodded. “Guess I have a fascination with danger.”
“What’s your name?”
“Arizona.”
“Like the state?”
She gave me two thumbs up. “Somebody is good at geography.”
I told her that people called me Driver.
Outclassed, I raised my palms and got ready to move on with my life. Women were like Newton’s third law in reverse. When faced with a powerful force from without, like a man coming on too fast and strong, they