Can't Help Falling in Love (8 page)

    
Sharon
grinned triumphantly, like a spider with
a victim in her web, and then she launched into a quiet monologue, while her
male companions sat in stony silence.

    
Allison remembered,
Marshall
warned me at lunch that
Sharon
didn’t mind stepping on anyone or anything in order to get where she wanted to
go, and that she always got what she wanted. Is she deliberately here to
antagonize and spy on me?

    
When Allison’s companion began sweetly telling her about his mother, she tried
to look attentive, but his words melted in her ears into something akin to the
soft strums of a guitar. She could not focus clearly on him while having to
continually glance back at Sharon, who she was
certain
was hanging on his every word. She noted the same hardness in her face that she
had become aware of earlier that day.
Could it be that
she’s as tough as
Marshall
and Jeff said, or does she somehow feel threatened by my obvious bond to a
client she craves? Oh, that’s just tomfoolery! I’m sorry for her! She’s in for
a rude awakening! There’s no way I’m going to let her lasso my new client away
from me, or any of my other clients, for that matter! They all love me and are
100 percent satisfied with my work! I’m not going to lose this client in front
of me!

    
Suddenly, he completely distracted her by taking her hands into his. She felt
the warmth of his flesh and felt slightly tickled by the rough calluses on his
fingertips, no doubt the result of years of holding down guitar strings against
a fret.

    
He said, “You might think that because I travel a lot, there’s a girl in every
town. But there’s not. Being close to you like this makes me feel like I can
trust you.”

    
If the entire world had suddenly crumbled around them, obliterated everyone
else, and left them alone and exposed only to God, the sun, and the sky,
Allison could not have been more astonished. “Oh, you can!” she managed to say.

    
“I feel like I can talk to you. Together, we can take all this in a new
direction, someplace where even I’ve never been before.”

    
Allison tried to comprehend what he was trying to say, but then
Sharon
suddenly screamed across the aisle in a
voice so loud that an air raid siren would have had trouble competing with her.
“Why Allison, what a coincidence this is!” 

    
The blast of her verbal intrusion thundered across the aisle like a steam
roller trying to flatten Allison. The tone in her voice seemed galling, but
Allison tried to deny the nonverbal cues that beamed through so clearly: she
had completely leaned over the man sitting beside her and was practically
shouting at her in a volume that utterly obliterated even the clatter of plates
and the din of other voices in the restaurant. All the while, she twirled one
curl around her finger, flirting with Allison’s poise.

    
Allison shot a glance at her date. She sensed that he, too, was somehow
irritated by
Sharon
’s remark, since they had already been
interrupted once by the teenage girl accosting him the very moment they had
taken their seats. Allison thought,
If
she doesn’t lighten up and mind her own business, the impending consequences
will be more than unpleasant!

    
Sharon
either failed to pick up on the negative
vibes rising from Allison like smoke from a volcano, or she deliberately chose
to antagonize her further by continuing her boorishly intrusive harangue. The man
sitting beside her leaned back even more so Sharon could bend forward a few
additional inches, as if shoving her mouth closer to them with the force of
sledgehammer blows would endear her to them. “I was just telling Phil Samuels
this afternoon that his artists would benefit from some masterful public
relations guidance. What with the growing popularity of television, the
profusion of magazines, plus the tie-in with teen-themed movies that are so
trendy in movie theaters and drive-ins, the national audience for his artist’s
records is unlimited!”

    
Sharon
’s face took on the expression of a
tennis player lobbing a victorious serve, but Allison looked like Winston
Churchill hearing that the Germans were advancing across the sea toward
England
. Her hands were still held warmly in
his, which under other circumstances might have been the first step toward
completely losing her heart to him. However, under
Sharon
’s penetrating, microscopic gaze, his
simple, normal show of affection that would have been the thrill of the night
suddenly made her feel extremely exposed and uncomfortable. She prayed that he
would release his grasp, and was relieved when he did so. She suddenly realized
that he had no idea in the world who the brazenly forward, rudely aggressive, loud-mouth
shrew across the aisle was, nor why the blatantly antagonistic person, who had
suddenly taken on a strong resemblance to the Creature from the Black Lagoon,
was upsetting the genial atmosphere of the diner and turning the setting into a
podium from which she could broadcast her perception of industry
trends.  

    
Sharon
then had the cheeky audacity to bypass
Allison as if she was invisible and ask the man she was obviously on a date
with, “Aren’t you the hot new singer billed as ‘The Memphis Music
Man?’”   

    
“Yes
ma’m
,” he said,
“sometimes. I guess we haven’t met. I worked with Mr. Samuels on a couple of
recordings. You’re probably right about what you said, but Allison here is
already on it!” The warmth in his voice would have seduced her into believing
that there was more tenderness behind his speech than the words indicated. In
one fell swoop, he acknowledged
Sharon
genially, yet sprang to Allison’s
defense by turning the tables and confirming that she was the one he had chosen
for professional assistance. Allison felt her angst lifting as if a hundred
pound weight was being removed from her back.

    
Sharon
, however, was quick to pick up on that
and modify his meaning with more comments. She interjected in a decidedly
business tone, “I’m sure, and yet still, there’s so much to attend to!”

    
Allison had enough and spoke up. “And I can’t think of a more marvelous place
to conduct business than the quiet, intimate atmosphere of my office. Let’s
make an appointment to meet one day.”

    
Fortunately, the waitress appeared from out of nowhere, so Allison could not
see
Sharon
’s reaction. The waitress balanced two
plates on one arm and two large cold glasses of milk in her other palm. She
expertly slid the plates on their table and managed to set the two glasses down
without spilling a drop. Best of all, she completely blocked
Sharon
’s view of them. “Those sandwiches look
great!” she said. “And look at
him,
he’s beaming from
ear to ear!”

    
She was right. He was broadly smiling and looking straight into Allison’s eyes.
“Since it’s your first, tell me how you like it,” he said, leaning back and
waiting for her response. He was a man who did not care to impress others by
dropping names, dates, and places. He wanted to know if Allison liked the unusual
meal that she was experiencing for the first time in her life, not if she was
going to put on a floor show for the benefit of the uncouth, monopolistic
business burglar across the aisle.

    
Allison could see he wanted her to like his selection, and so she raised one
half of the sandwich to her lips. While she did not know anything about the
subtle art of creating fried peanut butter and banana cuisine, she wanted to
give her sandwich more than the cursory consideration she generally would have.
She sniffed the sandwich and said, “Lovely aroma!” as if she was savoring the
bouquet of a wine.

      
They were both concentrating so fully on Allison that when she parted her lips
to take her first bite, they parted theirs in unison with anticipation of her
reaction.

    
Allison took a ladylike bite and then sat back to take pleasure in the taste.
“Ah, this is very nice!”

    
The waitress was somewhat more interested in pleasing men, Allison could tell,
but in a motherly sort of way. She was obviously entranced by the man in front
of her, but not in a predatory way like
Sharon
. “See? He’s smiling again! You made a
good selection for your date, young man!”

    
His smile showed off his large, pearly-white teeth, and the waitress grinned
and squared her shoulders triumphantly. For some unknown reason, Allison
realized that the moment was important to him and that he sincerely wanted for
her to appreciate his choice.

    
The waitress also acted as if the entire restaurant’s reputation hinged on
Allison’s verdict. “I’m glad you like it, honey!” she crowed, and then swished
away, proudly satisfied.

    
“Very nice?
Just very nice?”
Sharon
suddenly shrieked, as soon as the way
was clear. She now had a direct shot at Allison again, and she screeched in a
tone that faked amusement as a thin disguise for ridicule. She proceeded to
lobby a volley of questions at her as if she was an interrogation officer for
the German Gestapo. Allison was sure she saw her tongue fork like a serpent.
“My dear, don’t you know what you’re eating? The
Arcade
’s menu has earned them an international
reputation! Everyone in
Memphis
and across all fifty states has heard of
their award-winning signature entrée! You’ve lived here for years and you’re
just now trying one? Where have you been hiding, in a hole somewhere?”

    
Sharon
came across with all the charm of a
vulture in an Edgar Allen Poe story, and she made Allison feel embarrassed.
Allison thought that perhaps she ought to have been more effusive in her praise
of the sandwich, but the peanut butter delightfully stuck to the roof of her
mouth, and she could not politely launch into a long-winded tirade like a
restaurant critic in
The New Yorker
espousing the pros and cons of the
flavor, aroma, and texture without sounding like an ill-mannered lout.

    
Fortunately, her companion rallied to her defense. “I think she’s a charmer! I
like a girl who hasn’t been around and tried everything. That she likes it is
good enough for me. Maybe she’ll be brave enough to try a
Tutti
Fruit fizz next time!”

    
Allison took a big gulp of milk to wash down the sandwich, and then she cleared
her throat. She was finding that keeping her words to herself was proving to be
difficult,
yet reacting to
Sharon
’s colossally rude outburst had become
necessary.
Remember, you’re with a client, whether he has more
than a professional opinion of you or not. Don’t let her drag you into a
caustic shouting match here in this public setting, not with one of the nicest
men I’ve ever met sitting only a few inches across the table from me!

    
“Actually, I really find I like southern dishes more and more, the more I
travel,” Allison commented, if only to get Sharon’s goat, even though she
instantly realized that her choice of words had been awkward, to say the least.
She stopped just short of giving in to an uncontrollable urge to hurl her plate
at her like an Olympic discus thrower. Reining in her vengeful impulses, she
merely replied, “This sandwich is nice, but I do hope we can eat the rest of
our meal without any further interruptions. Would you mind letting us talk in
private?” She smiled at the entire foursome, including the men, who were
sitting like stone images while
Sharon
mocked her, but Allison did not wait for
Sharon
to answer.

    
Allison worried that she had made a fool of herself. As if to confirm her
suspicions,
Sharon
began to snicker, and that was the last
straw. Allison felt the blood rush to her neck and face. When she began to experience
heat radiating from her cheeks, she knew that she had achieved that deep shade
of crimson that told all. She wished now that she had not said so much.
A
sufficient response would have been to simply compliment him on his selection
and leave it at that. Why didn’t I do that? Instead, I think I did a masterful
job of expressing precisely the wrong sentiment at a clearly critical moment!

    
Allison could not have been more wrong. “Thanks for getting us some peace,” he
said. “If you don’t mind, let’s just talk to each other for a while no matter
who else tries to interrupt. No point in leaving because of the crowd. If
you’re half as hungry as me, beating this place will only make us hungrier.
Enjoy your sandwich. While we eat, I’ll tell you about some of the songs we’re
going to do next.”

    
He took a big bite of his sandwich, and Allison finally had time to collect her
thoughts. He was doing his best to see that she was comfortable. In his
company, she managed to forget the earlier sequence of events. His smooth
manner all but obliterated the memory of Sharon, who could have given the
Wicked Witch of the West a run for her money.