Mistaken Identity

“Hi,” I heard above the din of the bar conversation. Josh, my drinking bud for the evening at one of our favorite watering holes, looked over my shoulder and smiled. I turned to see two attractive women slowly twirling their martini glasses between brightly painted fingernails. The tall one smiled playfully at Josh. The shorter one looked at me with a smirk of skepticism.

I heard Josh eagerly return their greeting. Short One glanced from me to Josh then back to me and said, “We come here all the time. But I don’t recall ever seeing you two here.” Hers had been the voice of the initial “hi.” She was cute, but her full lips and big brown eyes still smirked.

“We have several places to hang out,” Josh said. He was clearly concentrating on Tall One. She giggled, threw her sweeping hair back, and swayed her hips a little without taking her eyes off of him.

I returned Short One’s uncomfortable stare at me, then stretched my hand at her. “Samuel,” I said, forcing the most natural smile I could.

“Alex,” she said and gripped my hand firmly for a second. Then, brusquely flipping her short-cropped do to her right, she added, “And this is Tammy.”

Josh pushed himself past my shoulder and grabbed Tammy’s outstretched, limp hand, which she let linger in his grasp for a moment. Then she withdrew it to rake her long locks away from her beaming face. Josh took Tammy’s elbow and suddenly those two were in intimate conversation with their backs to me.

And to Alex. I looked at her just as she turned to eye me again. She lifted her martini to her lips. It was so obvious, I had to say it. “So you’re the wing-woman.”

She completed her sip, shrugged and tilted her head with a smile that had gone from smirky to wry. I wasn’t accustomed to being the guy left out, so I decided to help Alex enjoy her duty. She happened to be wearing leather pants. Perfect. “Say, I’m going to let you in on a little secret among men. But you have to promise not to tell anyone it was I who told you.” She raised her delicate eyebrows slightly. I continued. “I’m sure you’ve noticed that men go crazy when they’re with a woman wearing a leather outfit.” Her face fell into a frown of intense suspicion. I leaned down, putting my mouth closer to her ear. She recoiled. I held my position and finished. “It’s because it reminds us of the smell of a new truck.”

A pause. “Hmph,” she finally moaned with the smallest trace of a smile. Then she said, “Why do you drink beer? Red wine is better for you.”

I straightened myself and playfully touched one of those fingers she had resolutely wrapped around the long curved stem of her cocktail glass. “Back at ya, Ms. Martini Drinker.”

She pulled her hand back and with a smug smile said, “Yes, but at least my drink’s sexy.” Then she glanced around the room as if she were looking for someone.

So I did the same. No one caught my interest. To be honest, I wasn’t really seeing who else was in the bar, my ego was so occupied with repairing itself.

“I lied about coming in here all the time.” I was surprised she had spoken again. She continued while scanning the room. “This place is kind of a dive. I’m used to more sophisticated establishments.”

“Like where?” I asked as if I cared. Just then a waitress with a tray full of drinks tried to angle behind her. I reached toward Alex’s waist to pull her out of harm’s way.

Noticing the waitress, Alex sidestepped her while twisting herself to avoid my guiding hand. “You’re kind of handsy, aren’t you? I bet you expect every woman to sleep with you on the first date.”

I blinked. What the hell do you say to that? “Are you always so acidic?”

She set a challenging gaze on me. “I know what I like, what I want out of life.”

“Me too.” I grinned and took another swig of my beer. “Fun!”

Now she forced a chuckle. Then her eyes drilled into me. “Yeah, I figured as much. Me, I’m the driven kind. I like to work hard and play hard. I go after what I want. Focused. That’s how I’ve built my own million dollar business. And my best friends are all serious and very successful too. Life’s not a party. You get to be the best only by creating a strategy and working toward it.” She paused, obviously satisfied with herself. “But . . .” she swept her martini in an arc before her, “. . . most of these women in here are probably content to let life come at them.” She paused and pointed at me with her glass. “Just like you do. So you should have no trouble getting laid tonight. If you have the balls to step out of your beer stupor, that is.”

“Oh my God!” Tammy suddenly turned to me, gushing. “I can’t believe it! Do you really own Gaia Software? I see your building every time I drive the tollway. I absolutely love what you guys do. I was just telling Josh that I have been trying to get a job there ever since Washingtonian magazine said Gaia was one of the best places to work in the DC area.”

Josh looked at me and sheepishly mouthed the word, “Sorry.”

I nodded at him reassuringly. “Josh has my contact info. Send your resume directly to me and we’ll see. Now if you’ll excuse me.” I set my beer bottle on a table as I left, without even looking in Alex’s direction. Would she suck up to me now, be even more indignant, or pretend like nothing had happened? This time, I really didn’t even care.