Elly lifted her cup. “TO SAKE!!” she yelled. Then she stage-whispered, “I can’t believe this little cup of liquid packs so much PUNCH! I’ve never had it before!”
Isaac motioned for the check. “I think it’s time to get you back to the inn.”
“Ooohhhh…the inn. It’s so pretty. Like you. And you have a nice voice. I like when you sing. And talk. I like watching your lips when you talk.”
“Okay drunky. Can I have your credit card?”
“Sure thing” Elly sang. She handed it over and licked the inside of her sake cup.
“You better get your shoe,” Isaac said, laughing at her and tossing back his drink. Elly stumbled over to the family’s table and grabbed her brown shoe, much to their horror. Isaac signed the check with a dramatic flourish and they headed out of the restaurant, his hand on her behind.
Twenty minutes had passed– the time it had taken them to find the car and get Elly buckled in– and the headlights of Isaac’s black Honda roared up the Hermann vineyards. He stroked her face with one hand.
“Elly. You’re incredible. You are so intelligent, running your own business and helping your friends, and you know who you are.” He paused. “I’d like to show you tonight how much I know you.”
Elly couldn’t understand anything he was saying. She was concentrating on the swirling lights flying by outside her window and wondering how God ever made the sky so big.
Back in the inn bathroom, Elly pulled on her reindeer pajama pants and white tank top. All she could think about was how much she wanted to crawl into the wide bed and fall asleep. The world was still a bit tipsyturvy, and the allure of 400-count sheets was calling her seductively. She rinsed her face off in the sink and headed out to the bedroom, which, to her surprise, had been turned into a bordello.
Oh, crap.
Isaac stood by the bed, his pale chest muscles reflecting the light of dozens of lit candles above the room. The red carnations that Elly had previously moved to the trash had been de-stemmed and were sitting on the bed in the shape of a heart. The air pulsed with an uncomfortable pretense of passion and music filled the shimmering room. A familiar band sang in the background: “The man is holding me underwater and the trees are burning. I submerge myself in her flesh…”
Seriously? Isaac wanted to make out to his own band?
A candle flickered in his right hand and he gestured for her to lie down on the bed. Elly held up her finger with an embarrassed smile and ducked back into the bathroom. She grabbed her phone out of her suitcase and dialed frantically.
A very sleepy and annoyed Kim answered the phone. “Uh…hello?”
Elly whispered quietly. “Hi, it’s me, Elly. I’m sorry I woke you. Tell Sean I said hello. Hey, how is my dog?”
“Elly?? It’s 11 pm, what do you want? Are you…are you drunk?”
“Yes. I’m great, thanks for asking. So, I had a bunch of these little drinks that turned out to make me a lot drunk. I’m still a little tipsy and I’m in the bathroom and Isaac is out there in a room that he somehow turned into the Moulin Rouge and I don’t know what to do. He keeps putting the moves on! He grabbed my butt in the restaurant...is that NORMAL? I mean, we never talked about that. Don’t people have like a ‘Hey, let’s touch the butt’ talk? Oh Kim, he is so hot…”
Kim sighed. “Elly. You told me that you weren’t ready for anything physical. Don’t do something you will regret. I know how you are when you drink. You tend to make rash decisions.”
“You are right, you are right.” Elly bit her fingernail. “He’s all OVER me. And you should see the room. Candles, carnations…”
“Did you just say carnations?”
“I know, so tacky right?” Elly hissed. “But he has his shirt off and I can’t think; my brain is a little spiny. Oh, and hey, I got lost in a wine cellar today – isn’t that funny?”
Elly could hear Kim whispering to Sean. “Hey! Don’t whisper to him about me. WHAT DO I DO?”
“Elly. You are a strong, independent and intoxicated woman. Stand your ground and only do what you are comfortable with, which I know, at this point is not very much. You are the leader in this dance. Say it with me, ‘I am the leader in this dance.’”
Elly repeated after her. “I am the leader in this dance.”
“You got it. I’m going to bed now. Keep your clothes on, hussy.”
“Will do. I owe you Kim!”
“Yes, yes you do.” Kim hung up the phone.
Elly took a deep breath and looked in the mirror. “I am the leader in this dance,” she said to herself, and stepped outside the bathroom.