"That's him," she said. "Ali Handro."
"Where?"
"Right behind you. Near the bar where I'm looking, straight ahead," she said to Nicole.
"He's very good-looking," Nicole smiled knowingly.
"He's...unusual," Debbie paused pensively.
"Want me to tell him I know him?" Nicole winked.
"All right," Debbie agreed. Her eyes lit up in mischievous merriment.
"You don't remember me? Really? I was here last week." Nicole gasped in mock astonishment. "Really, you don't?"
Alejandro paused.
"Alejandro, right?"
"Yes. I cannot believe that I do not remember your face."
Nicole stifled a giggle as she widened her deep blue eyes in disbelief, her yellow hair gleaming.
"He's upset because he doesn't remember me!" Nicole howled with glee, tilting her blond head back and leaning against the bar.
"I wonder if he remembers me," Debbie thought aloud. She excused herself to go to the ladies' room.
She edged her way to the bar and thrust her wrist into the crowd, placing the stem of her champagne glass onto the shiny wood surface. Her wrist was caught in mid-flight.
"Do you want another of those?" It was Alejandro.
"Um," she looked at its watery red contents. She paused uncertainly, then looked into Alejandro's face.
"Yeah."
"I didn't know if you remembered me," she said.
"Oh, yes, now I remember. You were standing by the door. I was by the coat check. You were drinking. Oh! So much drinking. And you were very upset."
"You helped me so much!"
"Did you try it?"
"No, but it helped, what you said. I just needed to hear it."
"Such personal things you were telling me."
"You insisted on hearing it. You would have heard it no matter what."
Alejandro looked surprised at this revelation.
"I'm here with my roomate," she unwittingly revealed and pointed.
"Your roomate. I cannot believe that is your roomate."
"Your roomate," he said again. "What she like? She tells me she recognizes me."
"She's a very nice person. Very nice." And she looked over at her roomate, very glamourous indeed tonight with her fitted jacket and the oversize gold belt buckle that announced to the world, simply and elegantly, "Chanel."
"I think I would like to take her out. I want to apologize for not recalling our last meeting here."
"Sure. Maybe you should," Debbie prompted.
"I do not know if I should take her out or if I should ask you."
"It's up to you," Debbie supplied the answer flirtatiously.
"Ah, now I can see the Irish in you," Alejandro laughed softly, charmed by her smiling eyes, squinting with Irish merriment.
"Is it really?" she asked. Her eyes danced.
"Do you like him?" Nicole asked.
"There's something about him. His voice is so...soothing." But that was not what she meant to say. Seductive was the word.
"He's very good-looking. But I don't trust him. Be careful," Nicole warned wisely. But she smiled.
