"So, what happened to Mike that night," Mary asked her.
"Oh! I couldn't figure out what happened to him!"
"He said everybody left him by himself at the bar," Mary smiled.
"No, we didn't! We were having this nice conversation about work, he was giving me all this advice - he is a really nice guy, he seems so arrogant, but he's not. I think he is the most sensitive out of all the guys. For being such a smooth-talker, he is such a nice guy."
"I don't know if I said something to make him mad, or what - I can't remember." There were a lot of things Debbie could not remember about that night - or wished she could not remember. "But all I can remember is getting in this black car, I don't remember who was in it or who was driving. I got in this black car and I could see him in the bar looking at me."
Debbie remembered this clearly. As if it were a vivid dream. Jeanie had urged her into the black racy car. Debbie had stepped into the waiting car and she looked right into the bar and there was Mike, standing at the shiny wood counter, paying up his tab. He had looked right back at her, and then, the car had zipped her into oblivion.
"Be careful," Mary now told her. But she smiled.
Winter 1989
DENISE HICKEY
The Corporate Blues
"That Night"
