Four Hundred of What?

By early 2017 I owned a little better equipment, a much better shirt and an increasing number of evenings I had promised to enjoy. Nora could turn a private room into an event people wanted to remember, while our qualified crew did the work that should never depend on a man's enthusiasm. We hired where it made sense and bought only what we could use often enough. The centennial season brought private dinners and visiting families. It also brought the discovery that two people could both say Saturday with great confidence while referring to entirely different rooms. I began carrying a proper calendar, which made Luna tease me about needing a machine to tell me when I had agreed to be happy.

Rose was twenty-nine and made cakes for private parties. Mia was twenty-five and photographed adults who often insisted they looked better when nobody was looking at them. At a supper with friends, Rose asked me to hold a plate, Mia asked me to stop posing and both appeared delighted when I obeyed the wrong instruction and looked frightened by the cake. Rose took my hand afterward and said I could try dinner without being given something to carry first. Mia leaned close to show me the photograph and asked if I would like an evening where neither of us needed an official reason to keep the other in view. I accepted both invitations on separate days and told them I was not dating exclusively.

Jade was twenty-seven, worked with water sports and could make a man understand exactly how much she was teasing him without changing her expression. Faye was twenty-four and sang original music. They joined an adult birthday gathering, heard my story about the prediction and demanded something more useful than a baseball result. I said I could predict I would look foolish if Faye asked me to dance. Jade adjusted my collar and said the forecast was already improving. Faye took my hand, pulled me close and said I should stop giving the audience an explanation before the entertainment began. Jade invited me for a meal later; Faye asked me to hear her work on another evening. Both made me pleased that I had come out from under the table.

Tess was thirty and cooked for private groups. Ivy, thirty-one, taught adults. They met me through friends rather than through a promise that our company could make their lives important. Tess wore red at a dinner where she caught me looking and asked whether I was preparing to compliment the food again. I said I had a more immediate observation. She smiled, touched my arm and told me to be brave enough to finish it. Ivy invited me for a walk another night, took my hand when I began trying to make a modest story sound impressive and said she liked the part where I had admitted being uncertain. Each evening ended with a kiss, and each woman expected me to remember more than the feeling of having been wanted.

Bea worked at the post office and was twenty-six. Joy was twenty-eight, a nurse who enjoyed an evening in which nobody required her to assess how he was coping. We sat together at a friend's gathering while I tried to keep a conversation alive after spilling a drink on my own sleeve. Bea said she had seen better ways to make a man become quiet. Joy helped with a cloth, laughed and said I could stop treating it as the end of a promising reputation. Bea later asked me to dinner; Joy invited me to a small concert. On both evenings I discovered how much easier company became when I let a woman enjoy the man rather than his best attempt to look prepared.

Lea was twenty-five and worked at a hotel reception desk. Nia, twenty-seven, had an ordinary public-service job and a laugh that made a dull conversation difficult to maintain. They were friends of Luna's and joined a meal where Nora told the story of our first profitable job. Lea asked if I always looked so pleased when somebody mentioned eight hundred dollars. Nia said that was probably healthier than looking pleased only when the room mentioned him. Later Lea slipped her hand into mine on a walk and asked me out properly. Nia invited me to dinner and wore blue; when she kissed me goodbye she told me that remembering to ask about her week had been an excellent improvement on my opening speech about the lights.

Nora enjoyed our private evenings and also noticed that I could make my own life more complicated than any client's seating arrangement. Luna liked me enough to ask questions I could not answer by saying we were all adults. I was honest about dating other people, but honesty did not make everybody want the same arrangement for the same length of time. Nora wanted to know whether the man beside her existed when there was no next booking. Luna wanted a promise I could keep without relying on the atmosphere of a beautiful night. I had returned with eight years of future investment gains in my head and was still capable of making the next conversation feel like the difficult part.

The misunderstanding began over food. Rose asked how the investment was doing. I said I still had the four hundred. Someone interrupted before I said shares. By the end of the evening a version had travelled through the room in which I had four hundred thousand dollars and continued working late because I did not want anyone to know. Mia asked if she could take a picture of the secret rich man while he collected used glasses. I thought she was teasing me about my shirt. Nora heard the rumour, laughed once and asked whether I had accidentally bought the whole company while she was checking the equipment return.

Luna heard it on a day I had already cancelled a personal plan to rescue an avoidable booking problem. The money did not interest her as much as the possibility that I had been using financial worry to excuse a choice I did not want to admit. She asked why a man who could remember a championship result needed so much help remembering he had invited her out. I began explaining the difference between shares and cash. Luna said she understood the difference between an investment and an account balance. What she wanted explained was why my promises seemed to become movable whenever a customer sounded urgent. I had prepared a very convincing answer to the easier question. It was much less useful than I had hoped.