Pygmalion Ch. 06

The sun was setting in the west, and the temperature had dropped nearly 20 degrees, and Eliza stood with her hands in the pockets of her newly purchased camel-hair overcoat.

At precisely 7, a little green Mini pulled into a parking space at the edge of the quad, and the driver's side door opened. Freddie stepped out, unfolding his tall, lithe frame in a manner befitting a 1970's car commercial. He wore a light gray suit and trousers with a matching waistcoat, and from the passenger seat, he brought out a bouquet of white daisies. He brushed his dark brown hair back from his face, aware that she had watched him arrive. He shut the driver's side door and walked towards her.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi," Eliza said.

He presented the flowers. "These are for you."

Eliza accepted them and smiled. "Do you have a vase?"

"Um... well, er..." He turned to look back toward this car. "I can go find one."

She laughed and smelled the flowers. "Come on," she said. "My place is just over there. I'll put these in water, and then we'll go."

"You can tell I'm not used to his," Freddie said, offering his arm. "I mean, not that I'm inexperienced-"

"Freddie..."

"Yes?"

"Shut up."

They walked from the quad. It was a block and a half to the flat's door, and she unlocked the outdoor with her key. "Now, you can wait here," she said. "Or you can come up. But if you come up, be advised my father is home, and you'll have to meet him."

"Oh," Freddie said, looking up at the building. "Well..."

"Come up," Eliza said. "I told him about the date. There's no doubt he's curious."

"Well, er, okay," Freddie opened the door and held it for her. "If you think I should."

They walked the three flights up, and Eliza rang the bell. In a moment, Henry answered.

"Don't tell me the scoundrel stood you-" Henry stopped, noticing the young man. "Oh," he blinked. "Hello."

"Freddie brought me flowers," Eliza explained. "I wanted to put them in some water before we went on to dinner."

"Oh," Henry blinked. "Quite so. Come in. Come in."

Eliza peeled off into the kitchen as Freddie stepped into the foyer. Henry put his hands in his pockets and did his best to look comfortable. "I'm Professor Higgins," he said. "Applied Artificial Intelligence and Applicable Robotics, Engineering Department."

"Fred Hopkins."

They shook hands.

"American?"

"Rhodes scholar. Journalism and Political Science."

"Ah," Henry nodded. "So, how did the two of you meet."

Eliza found a vase under the sink and a pair of sheers in a drawer. "Da-ad."

"It's small talk, dear," Henry said. "When a man brings your only daughter home, you have to do the small-talk. Isn't that right, Mr. Hopkins?"

"Um. Well, we met just the other day," Freddie said.

"At an impromptu poetry reading," Eliza called out.

"Uh, well, yes."

"Ah, a poet. I'm a great fan of your Robert Lowell and your Charles Bukowski. And of course Longfellow, Poe, Dickenson. Are you published?"

"Um, well... "

"Freddie abandoned poetry at a young age, Dad. He's a journalist now."

Freddie smiled. "Literature in a hurry."

"And the next day, they wrap it around a dead fish," Higgins smiled back.

"Well, they used to," Freddie countered. "In the digital era, however, a story can be openly referenced and referred back to almost constantly and keep relevant weeks, months, even years."

"I see. So who's going to be the next American President, Freddie?"

"I couldn't say," Freddie smiled. "Either someone nobody will like or somebody everyone can tolerate."

"And what are your intentions with my daughter?"

Eliza paused in cutting the stems of the daisies and glared at Henry.

"What?" Henry shrugged. "I can't ask that."

"Dinner," Freddie supplied. "Other than that..."

"He's going to make violent love to me, Dad. And have me promptly home at 10."

"Really," Henry said. "No cuddling?"

Freddie laughed awkwardly. "British humor," he said.

Eliza returned with the flowers in a vase. "Here, dad," she said, passing the vase to Henry. "Put them by my bed. If you haven't heard from me by midnight, activate the homing beacon. No doubt you'll find my body by the side of the road and know who did it."

Higgins smiled. "10:30 it is then. Have fun, dear."

"Thanks, dad."

Higgins turned his gaze to Freddie. "She has a black belt in three different disciplines of martial arts. If you come out of this alive, I might find a reason to respect you."

Freddie laughed. "Okay, now I know you're messing with me."

Higgins kept his expression firm. "10:30," he said.

"Yes, sir, Professor."

They left. At the base of the three flights, Freddie paused. "I don't think he likes me," he said.

"Nonsense," Eliza said. "He said if you live through this, he might respect you. That's a compliment."

"That thing about the martial arts..."

"You want Ju-Jitsu, A Karate roundhouse kick, or something from Kung Fu that will either make you soil yourself or throw up within 3 seconds?"

"Let's start with light Italian?"

"Perfect, I know a nice little cafe. You buy the wine. I'll pay for the food."

"I can pay for the wine and the food."

"Nonsense. It's the first date. We split the bill. I don't want you thinking I owe you anything."

"So that 'violent lovemaking' line to your father..?"

"You'll have to earn that part. Maybe oysters for the appetizer?"

Freddie opened the door for her. "This already the oddest date I have ever been on."

"Funny," Eliza smiled. "Feels like the best date I've been on so far."

"Well, that too," Freddie smiled. "I mean, for me as well."

"I loved the daisies."

*****

They had dinner. They split an appetizer of oysters. Antipasto Salad. Grilled Shrimp on a bed of rich, creamy noodles. Tiramisu for dessert.

They shared Muscadet with the oysters. Chardonnay with the Shrimp Alfredo. And Cafe Royal with the tiramisu.

They left the restaurant at quarter to 9. The bill was split. Eliza paid for the wine. Freddie paid for the drinks.

"Now," Freddie said. "Where to?"

"Dancing," Eliza said. "Take me dancing, Freddie."

Freddie looked at his keys and quickly pocketed them. "We'll need a cab."

Eliza smiled. "Responstible bloke."

Freddie laughed. "Responstible?"

"Okay, so I'm the tiniest but drunk. So sue me. But here you are, also drunk. Pocketing your keys and flagging us down a taxi!" Eliza leaned against him and kissed the little cleft in his chin. "You're a good man, Charlie Brown."

Freddie pursed his lips and whistled. A cab pulled up, and he opened the door. "Your highness?"

"Why, thank you, gallant knight."

"The lady wants to go dancing," Freddie hollered to the driver, climbing in after. "Follow that car!"

"Eh? What car?"

"I'm from Oklahoma," he said. "No car. I've just always wanted to say that to a cab driver. And you're the first cab driver that wasn't driving me to an airport."

"Dancing, then?" The cabbie asked.

"Yes," Eliza said. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it, Miss. A nice little place just up the road. Popular with all the young ones."

"That sounds fine, sir," Eliza said.

The driver nodded and pulled out from the curb.

They arrived at a nightclub within a few minutes. Freddie paid the fare and tipped the cabbie a generous tip. "Have you ever had a guy actually ask you to follow a car?"

"Been driving three years, mate. Not once before you."

"Well, next time, I guess," Freddie shrugged.

The cabbie chuckled, looking at Eliza. "Yanks, right?"

Eliza pointed at an Astin Minor pulling away from the curb. "Follow that car!" She said.

The cabbie laughed and pulled off, flooring it enough to burn a bit of rubber as he weaved into traffic.

"I think we made his night," Eliza said.

"I think once we're inside this place, we need to swear to drink only water for the rest of the night," Freddie countered.

"No vodka martinis, Mr. Bond?"

"Maybe next time," Freddie smiled. "I know my limit."

"Of course," Eliza said. "'What angels seem to be forever unhappy because of this particular atom in the cherry orchard? We stare into eyes of Cheshire cats striped and menacing, torturing, droll, with music unwritten, playing...'"

"Now that was just me showing off for Simon and Sean," He said.

"And they were carrying you home, as I remember. What were you trying to prove?"

"Well, I..." Freddie shrugged. "I've learned my limits since then."

"Since twenty-four hours ago?"

Freddie put his hands in the pockets of his suit jacket. "I didn't factor in American Light Beer versus Scottish Ale and English Bitters," he shrugged. "Also, I usually shoot either tequila or bourbon, not that Irish and Scottish stuff Sean and Simon were pouring down."

Eliza smiled. "Two glasses of water it is then," she smiled. "I'm buying."

"Done," Freddie nodded.

"Of course, I'm sure they have Budweiser on tap."

"Don't get cute," he said.

"Do American's brew their beer while having sex in a canoe?"

"Sean already told me this joke."

"So it is 'fucking near water,' then?"

"Har- har." Freddie put his hand against Eliza's back, and they walked to the door of the little nightclub.

*****

Once inside, they hit the bar. Eliza ordered two glasses of water, "Neat! And keep them coming!"

The bartender looked to Freddie. "She means 'no ice!'" He explained. "Just bring us four tall glasses of tap water!" he said, laying a fiver on the bar. "We're here to dance, not get smashed!"

The bartender took the fiver and returned with four pints of water and a few lemon slices in a plastic cup.

"I love Europe," Freddie said.

"Lemon, sir!?" Eliza asked.

"Sure!" Freddie shouted.

Eliza squeezed lemon into both their glasses, and they both chugged.

For the first time, Eliza registered the music. "Um, Freddie?!" She shouted.

"What?!"

"Isn't the music a bit loud?!"

"What?!"

"I said, 'Isn't the music... a bit... loud?!"

"I can't hear you. The music is too loud!"

"That's what I said!"

"What!?"

Eliza grabbed the two remaining water glasses of water and moved towards a door with an arrow pointing toward a "balcony."

"Follow me!"

"What!?!

Eliza pointed at her bum. "Follow me!"

Freddie nodded, following her up the stairs and through a door to an outside smoking patio.

"That's better," Eliza said, passing him his glass of water.

"Sorry," Freddie said, accepting the glass and taking a sip. "I couldn't hear a thing in there."

"I thought there would be dancing," Eliza said.

"We can go back in if you like."

"No. I mean, I thought people came here to dance."

"That's what they were doing," Freddie said. "Didn't you see the dance floor?"

Eliza flashed back to moments before. She had witnessed a sea of bodies, gyrating women and men, arms up, eyes closed. "That's dancing?"

Freddie shrugged. "Yeah," he smiled. "What were you expecting?"

Eliza scowled, "Drink your water," she said, and she charged back downstairs.

She was weaving through the onslaught of gyrating flesh—men in tight leather pants, girls in micro skirts with glittering sequinned tops. Eliza made her way to the stage where a DJ wearing a large animal mascot head spun disks. She snuck up behind him and peaked at his laptop screen.

She blinked once, taking in all the data, and then felt the hand of a security guard push her back down into the crowd. She smiled at him and shrugged her apology before snaking back through the crowd back up to the smoking patio.

Freddy had finished his second glass of water. "You know what, we should get out of here."

"No," Eliza smiled. "Come on. I wanted to dance!"

She grabbed Freddie's hand and led him through the door back into the noise. The loud, boisterous club song had reached its crescendo just as they reached the center of the dance floor. And in another moment, the music died down.

The masked DJ on stage seemed puzzled as his laptop screen scrambled, and his turn-tables died.

Eliza put Freddie's hand around her waist and pressed herself against him. "Just follow my lead."

The song began. A simple slow bass guitar thrummed out in 6/8 time.

"Something told me it was over," Etta James sang.

A chorus responded. "(ye-yeah)"

"When I saw you and her talking..."

"Something deep down in my soul said, 'Cry girl' (cry, cry)...

When I saw you and that girl, walking now."

Freddie fell into the box-step, and the crowd around them seemed to thin and spread a bit. From the speakers, Etta belted out.

"Ooh, I would rather, I would rather go blind boy..."

Eliza snuggled her face into Freddie's shoulder and was warmed to feel him hug himself into the embrace.

"...Than to see you walk away from me, child, no."

From the thinning crowd, a few couples lingered. Three or four guys grabbed their girls around the waist and fell into the sway of the song. One or two of the girls giggled, but they joined the dance, matching the song's rhythm.

"Ooh, so you see, I love you so much...

That I don't want to watch, you leave me, babe.."

Freddie's hand moved from her waist up her back as they swayed to the music.

"Most of all," Etta sang. " I just don't

I just don't want to be free no, ooh ooh..."

"Are you doing this?" Freddie asked. "Is this magic?"

Eliza smiled into his shoulder. "Sort of," she said. "Just go with it, Freddie?"

"How could I not," he whispered. "Good song."

"I was just. I was just. I was just sitting here thinking...

Of your kiss and your warm embrace, yeah..."

Eliza held on - to the words of the song, to Freddie, to the three or four, then eight or ten couples that joined in for the slow, old-fashioned dance.

When it ended, the whole club erupted in applause, and the masked DJ, held up his hands, accepting the adoration.

His laptop screen returned to normal. The couple who had started the dance moved from the center of the floor off towards the door.

"Hey, wait," Freddie chuckled. "I thought you wanted to dance?"

"We danced," Eliza said, grabbing her coat from the coat-check and shrugging it on. "You got a stereo at your flat, right?"

Freddie shrugged and nodded. "I do, sure."

"Whistle up another cab then, Freddie," Eliza said. "It's barely 9. We've got a whole hour and a half left, don't we?"

"Who or what are you, Eliza?"

"I'm a girl on a night out with a guy," she smiled. "And the night is young."

They flagged a taxi and went straight back to campus. Again Freddie tipped the cabbie liberally. "Not once?"

"Never," the cabbie said. "Only happens in movies."

Eliza smiled at Freddie as the cab pulled away from the curb. "What movie did you see that in, exactly?"

"Um," Freddie pondered. "Now that you mention it, I can't recall. Something black and white, though."

They went up. Freddie took her coat and hung it by the door. "Did I compliment your dress?" he asked.

"No," Eliza said. "At least not verbally, until now."

"Well, I've been working up the courage," he said. "Music?"

"Yes... only..."

"Only? What?"

"Well, let's say you were trying to seduce me?"

Freddy smiled. "Okay, let's say so?"

"And let's say I'm a classy girl you want to spend more than just one night with?"

"... Interesting."

Eliza waved him off in the direction of the stereo. "Wow, me, Freddie."

"No pressure, eh?"

He went off to the stereo. He pulled an iPod down and shuffled through a list of songs. "Can I get you a glass of water?"

"How about something stronger?"

"I think there's vodka in the mini-fridge," he said. "But I'm just about sober, now. You?"

"Sober enough," Eliza cooed. "Maybe we split a shot?"

"You're the bartender," he said. "Got it. Don't laugh."

"I'd never!" Eliza said, pulling out a bottle of vodka from the mini-fridge. "Our shot glass?"

He went to a cupboard as the song started. It was a smooth and orchestral opening, and then a deep feminine voice began to sing. "I have often walked, down the street before... but the pavement never seemed to leave my feet before..."

Freddie poured the vodka into the shot glass, singing along with the music. "All at once am I... Several Stories High... Knowing I'm on the street where you live."

He offered her the shot glass. Eliza downed it in one gulp.

"I thought we were splitting it."

"Here's a test. 'Responsible!'"

Freddie nodded, pouring a second shot. "Before," he said. "Testing, testing... Responstible!"

Eliza giggled.

Freddie took the shot. "After," he said. "Testing, testing... Your kiss left me bewildered."

"I-I'm sorry-"

"Responsible," Freddie said. "When you kissed me that first time...I was... It felt... It's been hours since and yet minutes in some ways. Then this afternoon, it happened again. Suddenly, Eliza... The center of my universe seems to have something to do with kissing you."

"Freddie... I..."

"I know. I'm probably just another guy in a long queue of guys..."

She lunged in and kissed him. It was long and deep and... (three, four, five, six)... She remembered to come up for air, for his sake.

"Freddie?"

"Yes, Eliza?"

"You jumped to the front of the queue a sentence and a half ago," she smiled. "Then I stopped listening."

He nodded. "Bedroom?"

"Bedroom." Eliza nodded.

"What about your dad?" Freddie brought his wristwatch up to check the time.

"We're going to be late. I overpowered you. You resisted. But I know three different forms of martial arts."

Freddie laughed around the kisses. "Okay, seriously, you don't know martial arts. He was just teasing, right?"

Eliza maneuvered him and then swept her leg behind his left ankle, and he tumbled back into the bed. She pinned him with her knee while pulling the LBD up over her body, revealing her matching black bra and panties. "Totally teasing," she smiled.

Freddie nodded. "Pretty sure I get British humor, now."

"Good. The safety word is 'Cornwallis.'" She began unbuttoning his waistcoat. "Incidentally, that was Judo, not Ju-Jitsu."

"Cornwallis?"

"Are you asking for clarification on the safety word or employing it?"

"Um..."

Eliza brought one of his hands up to cup her left tit, still clad in her lacy black bra.

"Clarifying," Freddie nodded. "60 percent sure I was just clarifying."

Eliza took her knee off of the arm she'd pinned to his chest. "Sit up," she said.

He sat up and let her remove his vest. Together they started unbuttoning his shirt, he from the bottom, she from the top.

"Can I ask you a question, Eliza?"

"Of course," she said, helping him off with his shirt. "Shoot."

"Well, I'm all for the getting naked thing, don't get me wrong."

"I'm enjoying it myself quite a lot," Eliza said, unbuckling the belt on Freddie's trousers.

"And I'm fine with both of us being completely naked," Freddie continued. "But..."

Eliza stopped. "Too fast?"

Freddie smiled. "Look, just come here." His hand went up behind her neck, and he pulled her down so that her head was on the pillow beside his.

"It's called 'making out,'" he said. "We kiss a bit and tease a bit.. at first."

He kissed her neck and pulled her close. She felt a bulge in his pants and his free hand moved over her left hip.

"Okay," Eliza nodded. "It's tame, but... I... you smell terrific! What is that?"

"See," Freddie chuckled. "That's my cologne mixing with whatever scent you're wearing. And beneath it?"

"Your clothes," Eliza said. "The starch from your shirt. It's still there on your skin mingled with..." Eliza smiled. "Sweat. Fresh sweat. Not just yours but... mine... ours! Oh, Freddie, this is fun."

He nibbled her ear lobe, and she brought his hand up to her mouth, suckling his forefinger.

"Next?" She asked.

The dampened finger she had suckle moved first to her chin and then down her neck, along her collarbone, then down her sternum. From behind, she felt the clasp on her bra snap open. He kissed her shoulders and helped her pull her bra away, up over her head. He flung it off the bed into a void outside their universe.