Chapter VI

"Wow, I haven't pounded wine like that since college, and that was cheap stuff," Riley said when she finished, her eyes watering.

"That couldn't have been that long ago," I said, taking another big drink of my own wine. For some reason, I wanted to keep pace with her.

"I graduated...two years ago. But it feels longer," she said. The drink seemed to relax her some and she leaned back in the booth, "How about you?"

"How about me what?" I asked.

"How long ago did you graduate?" she asked, and then she smiled, "I guess that's my not-so-sneaky way of asking how old you are." I laughed.

"Oh wow, I am 34 so I guess I graduated about...11 years ago," I said, had it really been that long?

"Wow!" Riley said, "Wouldn't have guessed that."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't take this the wrong way, I am not saying you are childish or anything but...you don't look 34. I thought you were like 25 or 26 at the oldest."

"I can tell you are under 30, because no one over 30 ever takes being called 9 years younger than calendar age to be anything but a compliment," I said back. I felt a sort of warm glow that was a mixture of the expensive wine settling in my stomach and feeling flattered by the compliment. Maybe my "date" would give me a little ego boost, despite the obvious handicap.

Riley refilled her glass and then topped mine off with the remains of the bottle. I wondered how much money we'd just drunk in a couple of minutes. But I didn't care. I took another swig of the expensive wine and felt the effects already starting to occur.

"So where'd you go?" I asked.

"I'm right here," Riley said and then giggled a bit. She had really been attacking the wine and it sounded like it went right to her head. I laughed at her joke.

"No college, you said you haven't pounded wine since college, where was college? Party school? Hey no, judgment I went to state" I said. Riley actually laughed a little bit. She reached down her shirt between breasts and grabbed something. She pulled the chain of a necklace up over her hair and handed it across to me.

"Oh it was an absolute trip, but it wasn't a party," she said. I felt my brow furrow and I reached out and took the object that Riley offered. The chain was thin silver band, but the pendant was large. When I looked down I saw that it wasn't a pendant at all, but a ring. A class ring in fact, from Davis Bible College.

"Bible College?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. Riley laughed and nodded, taking the ring back from me.

"Yeah," she laughed, "I figured I stood out as a Davis alum from my modest dress, my humorless demeanor, and chaste behavior." She said and then to accentuate she took a big drink of wine. I laughed at her joke, but really couldn't ever see this punky looking girl at bible school.

"I can honestly say that was the last thing I expected. I would've been less surprised if you went to clown college," I responded. At around this moment, the waitress arrived with the first of our giant load of appetizers. We started eating immediately and the food was worth the price. Or at least the price to Kim and Eric.

"Well," Riley said as she finished off a shrimp, "My parents are both INSANELY conservatively Christian. It was choice between Bible College or no college." She explained.

"Not much of a choice," I said.

"Not for me, I needed out of that house. I didn't want to be married at 18 like half the girls at my church," she explained. I felt a sudden well of admiration for this girl. It must've been difficult to buck her tradition upbringing, even just a little bit, and go to school. That took courage. I looked up at Riley now, taking a sip of my wine, and considered her. She was young and a bit wild, but she was also funny, delightfully impulsive, and brave. Not to mention very pretty. I found that I liked her and wondered if Eric and Kim had not set us up as a joke, but maybe so that we could be friends. Of course, if that was the case, they could have just introduced us. Why all this play acting at romance? I didn't spend much time considering that possibility, the taste of wine on my tongue made me realize something.

"Where were you pounding wine at Bible College?" I suddenly asked. "I would figure it would be wall to wall true believers." Riley laughed and shrugged her shoulders.

"Yeah it pretty much was, except for my junior and senior years. When I was a junior another girl like me showed up as a freshman, Heather. We ditched the religious classes together and actually had fun. It was kind of like a a real college experience after that. And I was old enough to buy alcohol, so it was just a matter of finding a place to get drunk," she explained. I figured that that made some sense.

"Judging by that wine glass and your professional demeanor, you weren't much of a partier in college," She said. I felt a little self-conscious and finished the last of my wine. I might not have had quite as much as Riley, but I was a lightweight. I wasn't feeling it too much yet, but I knew I would before long.

"I guess I wasn't," I said, "Every once in a while Kim would convince me to..."

"Kim as in Hot Kim? You've known her for like ten years?" she asked. It was still such a strange nickname, though I had to admit that Kim was a beautiful woman.

"Yeah, longer really," I said.

"Does this seem like...in character for her?' Riley said, switching back to our earlier guess as to our friends' motive. "Like I can't imagine Eric doing this, is Kim a schemer? I've only talked to her twice."

"No," I said, thinking about my friend, who was sweet and kind and sensitive, "No, not like her at all. She is a lovely person." I said, being more honest than maybe I should have.

"So weird," Riley said, placing some sort of fried puff ball into her mouth and chewing, "Oh God!" she said, spitting it back out into her napkin, "Not nearly as weird as that!" I laughed so loudly that people in other booths looked over and I quickly quieted, though I leaned in towards Riley and kept laughing.

"I think it was some sort of sea food," I said while laughing.

"I think it was locker room feet and burnt hair!" Riley said, causing me to laugh again, "god damn hipsters and their weird ass food." She finished ruefully.

"At least it's free," I said and Riley raised her glass. I found my glass of wine and the new bottle, and decided to join her.

I suppose it would be tedious to go over the conversation we held at dinner at length. Not to say that the conversation was tedious, far from it. Just, that the blow by blow is not necessarily essential to the story here. A few more appetizers came and eventually our gigantic meal arrived. There was far too much food to eat and soon we were both stuffed.

The whole while, we carried on a lively conversation. Mostly I spoke about work, because it was really the only thing that I had to talk about. I felt bad, like I was boring her and also driving home to myself that I had no real life. But Riley seemed genuinely interested both in my job and in me as a professional (as well as a person). She asked me for professional advice and I got the feeling that despite her slacker appearance, that she had large ambitions for herself. And the acuity of her questions indicated that she had the perceptiveness necessary to achieve those ambitions.

Regardless, I didn't need to worry too much if I was making boring conversation, as Riley spoke enough for two. I learned that Riley was one of six children, the youngest. I learned that she grew up in an outer suburb of the city and that her parents had nearly disowned her when they learned she took a job at a secular record label. She jokingly said that she couldn't tell if her father was angrier that she'd chosen to work in a "sinful" medium or that she had chosen a profession in a field ripe for extinction. Her mother, whom it was clear she hated, revered, and loved deeply all at the same time, had just feared for her soul. She explained that she convinced them that it would be both a chance to spread the word of God and also to learn transferrable business skills and they had relented. All of Riley's stories were uproariously funny, even the ones that should not have been. Despite the monopoly she placed on conversation (which grew more overwhelming she drank) I wished I could hear more about her. I found her absolutely fascinating and undeniably cool.