Cracks

19.3 Alejandro Gonzales

Winter 1998, The solar flare

The luck was not with Alejandro today. Like most of the days he went down to the Casino.

"Come on!..."

He cursed.

Today he was especially bored. His friends were busy, one with a kid, the other one with a new girlfriend. And he himself hadn't met any decent woman for a while.

Winter break was so dull.

He went over to the bar.

"One Long Island please", he waved at the bartender.

"Hey, pretty boy", he heard a deep female voice next to him. "Make that two."

Alejandro turned to his side and looked at the woman, that obviously checked him out. She had definitley passed her fourties.

She pulled one side of her mouth up into a crooked almost-smile, and shot a playful glare at him.

"What, you never played with a real woman?", she asked.

She must have seen his disapprovement, so Alejandro tried to somehow save his face.

"Sorry... I was caught by surprise - Miss...", he said, trying to smile.

"Oh - what a charmer", the woman said, as if she couldn't care less. "Nancy Landgraab, investor. And it's Mrs."

"I would never have guessed", he replied. He got his usual confidence back. "But I bet you know me...", he started, but she interrupted him.

"Nope, no idea."

She took her glass of Long Island Ice Tea that had arrived.

"Also, I don't care", she added, finishing her drink.

Alejandro was confused. Not only because usually most women actually did know him, but because this one apparently didn't give a fuck about him.

Why she even talked to him? She looked like she could pay her own drinks.

"Look, pretty boy", she said, and her voice talked business, "I'm bored, my husband is not home, why don't you come over to my house and we play a bit together."

Oh, so that was it.

Straight to the point.

And no polite chit chat.

He shrugged his sholders.

"Why not."

"Great", she said, threw a bill to the bartender, and got up.

This could be interesting.

And he was bored anyway.