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She wore a loose fla
“No,” I said, “thank you. I think we’re good.”
“Ok,” she said, “but let me know if you do. If you do need anything, I can get it for you. I know everyone in here.”
“Thanks.”
“I don’t work here,” she said. “But that doesn’t matter.” She extended a hand. “I’m Suza
“Julian,” I said, and shook it. “Pleasure.”
Her skin was fair and her hair a fiery red, waving slightly as it fell down to her shoulders. Her eyes were brown, or black.
“You’re not from Colorado,” she said. It was a statement.
“No,” I said, “New York.”
“New York,” she said and her eyes widened. She put her hand on my chest. “New York. That’s precious. You’re precious.”
Her hand slid off and she looked at me, and I looked back. She raised two fingers toward the bar and a bartender was there.
“Hey babe,” she said and leaned toward him. “Two Belgian’s for these gentlemen, please.”
In a moment, they were poured.
“Now aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?” she asked, sipping a beer of her own.
“Sure,” I said, and introduced him.
“You two are cousins?” she asked, excited again. “That’s delightful.”
“It is?” Anthony asked.
“Yes, Anthony, it is,” she said. “Positively delightful.”
I looked at him and he looked at me, and neither of us knew what to say.
“Thanks for the beers,” I told her finally.
“I told you I’d take care of you.” Her eyelashes fluttered a little, just enough to notice. She wouldn’t have caught my eye in a normal setting. Pasty skin, a button nose, a simple haircut. Slender, flat chested. Not beautiful, but cute, in a quirky sort of way.
These were my thoughts the night I met her. Suza
She gently grabbed my hand and led me across the crowded room.
“Come, both of you,” she said, motioning for Anthony to follow. “Meet my friends.” He picked his beer up and came along.
She leaned in to me as we walked, squeezing between groups and dodging waitresses. “Now, Mr. Julian, how long ago was New York?”
“Like, how long have I been here?”
“Yes, Julian.”
I thought to myself. “Five days.”
“Five days!” she exclaimed. “Straight from New York?”
I nodded. “Drove the whole way.”
“Oh,” she said, smiling and putting a hand on my back, “what a world.”
I again looked back at Anthony, who shook his head. We stopped moving, and stood before a circular group of ten.
Suza
They were a friendly bunch. Immediately they descended upon us—both of us—with handshakes and questions. Everyone had some sort of beard or nose ring or tattoo. Suza
I was near the bottom of my second beer now, and it began to cloud my mind. The pours were big and the concoction was strong. My head became foggy, and Suza
“Julian,” she said.
“Suza
“Tell me about yourself.”
So I did. Not everything, and not in depth, but I told her. How I left a job I hated in New York and drove three days out here. That I was staying in Boulder, on Anthony’s couch—I motioned toward him as I said it. He was engaged in conversation with a fla
“Will you stay?” she asked.
“Maybe. I like it here.”
“You must,” she said. “You simply must. It was fate that brought you here.”
I said nothing. I was confused, but the way she spoke was captivating. One notch from the deep end, but her cadence had a rhythmic quality, and her flowery words put me in a trance. There was no one like this in New York, even Brooklyn, no matter how hard they tried.
“There is a home for you here, I can sense it,” she said. “I can feel it. Already I can tell. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I said, and nodded, because I didn’t, but I wanted to. Then I asked her about herself, and she shook her head.
“Don’t worry about that,” she said. There was a small golden locket around her neck, hanging down to the top of her tank top. “I’m just Miss Suza
I nodded, but I didn’t know why. “So you live in Boulder?” I asked.
She shook her head again. “Oh no. No, we’re just down for a soiree, shall we say.” She made a sweeping motion with her hand that covered the whole group. “We come down from time to time.”
“Down?”
She giggled. “Yes, from the mountains, Julian.”
Anthony appeared beside me. “You two enjoying yourselves?” he asked.
“Very much, Anthony,” she said, delicately. “We very much are. But it looks like you gentlemen need another round.”
“Would love to,” he said, “but we gotta split.”
Suza
I glanced at Anthony, who wore a stern, matter-of-fact look. He nodded at me.
“Yeah, I’m afraid so,” I said. “It was great meeting you.”
“Yes,” Anthony said, “it was a pleasure, Suza
She frowned. “Very well then. The pleasure was all mine.” She turned to me just slightly. “I do hope to see you again.”
She handed me a napkin with something written on it, and we walked out the front door.
7
“I would’ve left you,” Anthony said in the car, “but you’re still married. Remember?”
I scoffed. “You think I was actually interested?”
“Couple more of those Belgians, interest isn’t so hard to come by.”
“No,” I said. “No. Nothing wrong with being social.”
The oncoming headlights reflected off the windshield.
“She was weird,” I said.
“She was,” he said.
“Interesting though.”
“I thought you weren’t interested.”
“Well, I wasn’t interested, but she was interesting. Like, the way she was. The way she talked.”
“Yeah, an odd duck,” he said. “That’s Boulder for you.”
“She said she wasn’t from Boulder.”
“No?”
“No. She just said, ‘the mountains.’ What does that mean?”
“Could mean a lot of things. That’s all she said?”
“Yeah.”
“Just means west. Up I-70 probably. Breck or Silverthorne or Avon or something.”
These were words with which I was unfamiliar.
“She sure liked you,” he said.
“I think she just liked anything.”
He shrugged. “Think what you want.”
We returned to Anthony’s house and I again lay down on his couch to sleep, and when I did I thought of her. I thought of Suza