The Referral Game

ladies room and waited for Paula to emerge. I wasn’t going to let my guard down again.
    To my surprise the next person to come through the door I was watching was Susie. To my greater surprise she spotted me and came directly over. And I had thought that I was through with her. She sat down next to me without an invitation.
    “I want to talk to you Randall, she announced.
    “It seems unavoidable,” I admitted.
    “No jokes Randall.”
    “Alright, no jokes.”
    “I’ve been talking with Paula-”
    “And you want two hundred dollars to tell me what she said,” I interrupted.
    “I thought we had a truce.”
    “Sorry, that’s the last one I had in me. Go ahead I’ll be a good boy.”
    She glared hard at me.
    “Just listen. Don’t say a word. Like I said, I’ve been talking to Paula and she says that you’re on the level. And you really are here to help her, so take this back.”
    She stuffed the two hundred that I had given her into my jacket pocket. I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything.
    “I thought that maybe you were scamming me back there, but Paula says that she trusts you, so keep your money. I don’t hustle my friends or people who are helping them.”
    She got up and walked away.
    I was stunned. I tried to figure an angle for Susie’s actions, a reason, but I couldn’t except for the one she had given. It seemed out of character. Then again I had only met her an hour or so ago. I ordered another drink to think about it. I was just finishing it when Paula tapped me on the shoulder.
    “Ready,” she said.
    “Do you know what Susie just did?” I asked. “What she just said to me?”
    “Oh, you can’t believe a word that girl says. Don’t pay her any mind.”
    Paula’s attitude puzzled me.
    “You don’t understand,” I began.
    “I understand perfectly,” she said. “You’re the handsomest man here and you’re leaving with me and not her.”
    That swept all other thoughts from my head and I beamed. I threw a twenty on the bar, gave the bartender a wink and walked out the door with the prettiest girl in the room on my arm. I felt like the world made sense. I was feeling good again. It didn’t last.
    When we came out on the street the young couple was gone and so was my cab and my twenty bucks. I stared at the curb where the cab should have been and counted to ten. When I got to seven Paula couldn’t contain herself any longer and burst out laughing. I felt my face turning red, but she wasn’t laughing at me. She was laughing at the situation. Her mood was infectious and I soon found myself laughing with her. We were still laughing when the next cab came by. I hailed it and we got in. I gave the cabbie the address and we sped away still laughing. The driver figured us for a couple of drunks, but that was okay with him. Drunks were usually good tippers, the happy ones were anyway.
    The radio was on, but we were having such a good time that it was a few minutes before I realized that they were talking about the Hanson girl. There was nothing new to report, but that wasn’t stopping them from rehashing what they did know over and over. I tried to shut it out. The announcer was starting to compare the present situation to the Martin case, saying that was the kind of police work the city needed now. I couldn’t take it anymore.
    “Change the station,” I told the driver.
    “This is my cab buddy and we listen to the station I say.”
    “If you want a dime over the meter, change it.”
    “What’s the matter mister? Don’t you care about a little girl in trouble.”
    “Say that again and I’ll break your neck,” I said in a voice that I didn’t recognize as my own.
    He looked at me in the mirror, mulled it over and turned the radio off altogether.
    We rode in silence. Paula reached over and put her hand in mine. After a few minutes she leaned her head on my shoulder.
    “What brought that on?” She asked.
    “It’s nothing,” I said.
    “It sounded like something. Can’t you confide in me? I’ve told you my family secrets tonight.”
    I turned my head and looked into her eyes. I saw something there that I hadn’t seen, or hadn’t been looking for, in a long time. So I started to tell her my story. I hadn’t opened up in a long time. It felt good. She wanted to hear all of it, so I gave her the whole thing. She was a natural listener. She didn’t ask any questions. She didn’t interrupt. She just let me talk myself out. When I finished she