There was a Friday.

And by circumstance, the previous Sunday ended with us heading for a bedroom, but, in the nick of time, we substituted an arrangement for dinner. I couldn’t say if it was my decision or hers, nor whether that Sunday was long after the beginning, or shortly before the end. But the ache of the rooted held me in a nut-lock for five days, and no paregoric could dull its knife.

My house shone like the Mercedes bonnet star, with lemon-fresh bed sheets, and the weight of subtle incense crushing beneath it the stale odours of a man living alone. I closed the door on low mood-lighting, Roberta Flack waiting on the turntable, and a perfectly rolled joint of musky Margaret River head—just in case.

The journey was torture.

My gut churned ineffably, and by the time the maître d’ with the Mexican moustache showed us to our table it nursed a brick—for in the presence of a beautiful woman I am a trespasser. 

Illegal immigrant.

No-hoper.

Fraud.

And in the translunary ambience that gloved the mirrored walls of the famous Loose Box, she was the goddess, Redoubtable. 

I was no match for the finesse of the suave Latino maître, with his expert touch at her waist as he, in one deft move, drew back her chair, seated her, placed her serviette across her lap, and settled her under the ledge of the table. His smile beamed his pleasure at the sudden fortune to host such impossible beauty.

And of what a beautiful woman should want to hear, the ocean of my ignorance was shoreless. So I mumbled stupidly. Art? Books? Theatre? She had responses; but her words, no meaning. Instead, they spilt from her lips like pearl drops from the mouth of Aphrodite, warm and coated, barrowing texture alone—devoid of weighty intent. They swept me up in their music, shaping the melody of the restaurant’s murmur, escaping the crescendo by sheer nuance.

Nothing of my interpretation had to do with the conversation. Had I taken more notice, perhaps things may have turned out differently. After all, what had I possibly given that she could love me with?