ARRvol34 master reduced - Flipbook - Page 58
He lifted his eyebrows and she nodded. Inside, the bar was warm
and had a different humidity - a humidity produced by human lungs.
The space was long and narrow, flanked on one side by a gleaming,
polished wood slab bar, and bottles of all shapes lit from below. The
bartender waved them in and they settled their jackets and dripping
things on the two barstools closest to the door.
“Order for me?” She said to him over her shoulder.
She began down the tight corridor created by the bar and the dark
crescent-shaped booths along the opposite wall. Her eyes adjusted
to the dim lighting, and she let them dart into the micro-scenes
happening in the booths as she passed, murmuring figures huddled intimately over cocktails. In the bathroom she gathered up
the swath of her hair and twisted the rain out if it into the sink. A
vanity mirror, surrounded by bright hot dressing room bulbs, reflected a soft, cropped version of her face, framed by dark, damp,
hanging strands of hair. She leaned in closer. The light played off her
skin in such a velvety way that she thought maybe she’d dragged
some of the fog in with her. When she tried to look beyond herself
in the reflection there was nothing but a depthless shadow threatening to crop her even further, to eclipse her. She straightened up
and blinked. With a determined, noisy breath through her nose, she
turned away from the mirror and headed back out into the din.
The bartender was leaning casually on one elbow, talking to him
when she returned. Two substantial faceted tumblers sat at their
places, filled with something dark and swirling, like blood plasma in
vials.
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“Jay, this is…” he said, as she steadied herself on the barstool and
then lifted her face to be introduced. The bartender’s eyes widened
almost imperceptibly. His smile faded, the muscles at the angle of
his jaw tensed, the striations momentarily visible under his skin.
