This suited my own purposes perfectly. I suggested the place where she and I had first met, the Café Lafayette, around one-thirty. She said fine and that she had to run, that tonight was the dress rehearsal of the fall recital. I offered to walk her there, but she said no, that she literally had to run, and that it would look silly for the two of us to be sprinting in tandem to the concert hall. She added apologetically that the rehearsal was a closed one. I said I understood and looked forward to seeing her on Treasure Island the next day.

I received no peck on the cheek this day.

I needed some dinner before the evening set, and I had to make a phone call as well, so I decided to walk to the Campus, the soda fountain where Gail had made her phone call to Adeline Head.

Damn. I’d meant to mention to Gail that the copying company for Swing was also handling a piece of music for Ada.

At the Campus, I ordered a chili size and a lime phosphate, then went to the phone booth, put in a nickel, and dialed Nancy’s number from the card she’d given me. An operator asked me for five more cents; I’d forgotten Nancy was across the bay. I fed the slot another nickel. She answered on the third ring, and I asked her if she’d like to have lunch with me tomorrow on Treasure Island.

I told her I had a friend I very much wanted her to meet.

Chapter 35

35

After Hours

That night, despite knowing she had an evening rehearsal, I once again looked for Gail in the Terrace Lounge after our last set. I wondered if, five years from now, playing at an Elks convention in Mishawaka, Indiana, I’d still be expecting to find Gail by the bandstand.

The one good thing I saw, from my point of view, was that Vera seemed to be setting her sights on Dave Wooster now. Jack Donovan’s point of view regarding this was poor, since he was seated with his back to the bar, where Vera and Dave were flirting and trading quips with the Claremont bartender. I invited myself to Jack’s table, as I felt it must have been awkward for him to be sitting there alone while his wife was loudly telling the one about the Texan who entered the roping contest at the rodeo.

“Well, hello there, Ray,” he said. He nodded over to the bar. “We could manage to play without Dave Wooster, couldn’t we?”

All seated at the bar exploded into laughter as Vera punch-lined, “Lariat? Who said I used a lariat?” As a regaled Dave rocked back, he allowed the arm he had around Vera’s shoulder to slide down her side, to where it could rest momentarily against her derriere.