Luke smiled shyly as he offered her the CD that he was holding in his right hand. ‘You said that you enjoyed the gig, so I wanted to give you this. Just… something to remember the night, you know? Maybe you’ll come back again.’
‘Oh my God,’ Mary said, shaking her head as if snapping out of a dream. ‘I completely forgot. I wanted to get one of your CDs anyway. And yes, I loved the gig. I just… forgot, really.’ She reached into her handbag and came out with a ten-dollar bill. ‘They’re ten bucks a piece, right?’
‘Oh no, please,’ Luke said, shaking his index finger at the money. ‘It’s a gift.’
Mary peeked behind her again. The man dropped his cigarette on the ground and stubbed it out with the tip of his shoe.
‘Do you know what?’ Mary said, hooking her arm through Luke’s. ‘I’ve changed my mind. How about we go have that shot… right now. What do you say?’
Luke perked up. ‘What? Really?’
Mary nodded.
‘I say – hell yeah.’
‘But only if you let me pay for the CD,’ Mary said, catching Luke’s eyes. ‘It’s for a good cause, remember?’
Luke chewed on his smile as he hesitated for a second.
‘And you’ve got to sign it for me too.’
‘OK,’ Luke finally gave in. ‘Deal.’
As they started walking back to The Whiskey, Mary turned to check behind her one last time – gangster-suit man was all but gone. She checked left then right, but he was nowhere to be seen, as if he’d just vanished into thin air, like cigarette smoke.
Sixteen
Back inside The Whiskey, everyone was already dancing away, including all the G.R.I.T.S. Luke brought Mary back to the same end of the bar from where she had watched his gig. Josie was also dancing, but on the inside of the bar, and she had some moves.
‘Hey, you’re back,’ she said, approaching Mary and Luke. ‘Couldn’t stay away, huh?’ She winked at Mary.
‘I think that we’re ready for that shot now, Josie,’ Luke said. ‘And could I please borrow a pen.’ He placed the CD on the bar counter.
‘Shots coming right up.’ Josie grabbed a pen from behind the bar and placed it on the counter, by the CD case.
Luke wrote a dedication, signed it, closed the CD case and handed it to Mary. ‘I really hope you enjoy it.’
‘I’m very sure I will,’ she said, placing a ten-dollar bill on the counter.
‘No, c’mon, Mary, seriously. It’s a gift.’
‘Nope.’ Mary shook her head. ‘You agreed. Don’t tell me you’re one of those who goes back on a deal.’
Touché – to a southern cowboy, questioning if he was a man of his word or not was worse than a punch to the face. Luke lifted his hands in surrender before reluctantly taking the cash. ‘You sure drive a hard bargain.’
‘And here we go,’ Josie came back with three shot glasses and placed them on the counter. ‘Angel’s Envy all round.’
They all reached for a shot and raised them up in the air.
‘To new friends,’ Luke said.
‘To new friends,’ Mary and Josie repeated it in unison. ‘And to your success,’ Mary added, as she touched her glass against Luke’s.
Toast done, they knocked back their shots. As Mary downed hers, her stare returned to the door – no gangster-suit man. Was he gone, or was he waiting for Mary outside like earlier? And was he really waiting for her, or was she being paranoid?
That whole time, since Mary had spotted the stranger outside, her brain had been working flat out to try to match his face against a memory. She thought back to the many parties that she had attended with Nelson in Woburn. She thought back to the ones that they used to throw at their house. She thought back to the holiday trips to the Hamptons, the ones where Nelson’s group of buddies would always turn up, but no, none of it brought back any recollections of the stranger’s face, and that made Mary begin to doubt herself. Had she really seen him before? Or did he just have one of those overly common faces – the ones that got strangers squinting at them from afar, trying to place them in their cloudy memories.
The more Mary thought about it, the more she convinced herself that had to be it – the man from outside simply had one of those common faces – because Mary couldn’t understand how anyone would’ve recognized her from her previous life. Mary Smith looked absolutely nothing like Samantha Stewart.