One Unforgettable Evening Read Free Page B

now.
    “ Perhaps you would like
some time to think it over. Georges. Take us downtown,
please.”
    “ I bet you got a fridge or
a mini-bar somewhere in this thing.” Leon looked away for a
moment.
    His hand came up and he rubbed his
chin.
    He was a little surprised that Adelia
hadn’t just slapped the guy, and frankly, bolted on hearing his
little proposition.
    You learned something new every
day.
    Leon’s observations turned out to be
correct, particularly the first one.
    There was indeed a bar in the
back.
    The long black car rolled through the
night while they all thought it over for a bit.
     
     
    Scene Three

     
    Neither one wanted to be the one
making the decision on behalf of the other person and neither one
wanted to be the first one to come out and say it. Somehow, it
wasn’t a clear no, either. Somehow they both knew it, in a kind of
marital intuition.
    It wasn’t so much whether
he wanted it. It was a question of whether she wanted to do it, and how to
acknowledge that safely, and possibly, somehow overcome the dangers, and
somehow miraculously reconcile it with their feelings.
    At least that was one
interpretation.
    Adelia was huddled over in Leon’s
corner. They were face-to-face, inches away, as they conversed in
shrugs, whispers and a lot of eye-brow waggling. They took quick
little looks at Thomas as they struggled with it.
    She was so beautiful when she looked
over there. In a way, it was what she was meant for. It was what
she was built to do, in some unexplainable fashion. Leon’s heart
pounded just thinking about it. Darban had turned up the volume and
appeared to be firmly engaged in studying the scenery and the
brightly lit skyline of the city, which had grown much over the
last twenty years.
    No doubt his ears were wagging, and
Georges’ too.
    “ Well, I don’t know,
Honey.” Adelia’s eyes were downcast, demure.
    They whispered back and
forth.
    “ This is just nuts. He
seems like a gentleman and everything, but I don’t know. You don’t
have to do anything you don’t want to, Honey.” Leon sort of waited,
and wondered.
    He had an inspired thought.
    “ This is not about the
money, Adelia…it’s about you.” He cuddled with her, and gave her a
series of kisses on the neck, the face, the bridge of her
nose.
    He held her downcast face in his hands
and looked earnestly into her eyes.
    “ If you think you might
enjoy it, then I want you to have it. Nothing’s too good for my
little Adelia. Okay, baby?”
    It might not be so bad, right? Twenty
grand was a lot of money—but there were details. How would they go
about it? What was the man really proposing? He couldn’t really
take the responsibility, and yet someone would have to make a
decision.
    If only she would tell him what she
wanted. He could shut this down in a heartbeat if it came to that.
She was obviously turned on.
    It was a question of
communication.
    She was being very shy, very coy now,
another thing he had always liked about her. She was such an
innocent in so many ways.
    His wife had always been kind of
vulnerable.
    Leon was a bit of a risk-taker. It’s
how he made his living, that and a few other skills.
    Maybe that’s what it was
about. She wanted something, needed something.
    Something risky.
    “ It’s not like we don’t
love each other, and it’s not like we don’t trust one
another…”
    She huddled in his arms, not looking
up, but plucking at his coat buttons while she listened.
    He lifted his head up over his wife’s
form. Her face was now on his shoulder. She was warm and heavy
against him. She clung to him fiercely, and yet there was so much
more there too—he could only marvel.
    How little he really knew of what went
on inside her head.
    “ Mister
Darban?”
    “ Yes, Leon?”
    “ This isn’t some gag TV
show, is it?” A loaded question. “The kind with a hidden
camera?”
    The kind where they
practically torture people, you know, and pit them against each
other, run ‘em through hell and