He looked at her and extended a casual, inviting glance across the room. It wasn’t a blatant come on, it was too subtle for that, but the question it posed was clear enough.
Without reacting the woman looked away, and now he felt sure that he had mis-read the situation. Overstepped a mark. She was simply scanning the room, most likely looking for the person she was there to meet, their exchanging glances had been nothing more than pure chance. Besides, she-
She looked back again, and this time it was beyond doubt. She held onto his gaze, almost daring him to react, to make a mistake, make it easy to dismiss him. But in spite of his surging pulse, he willed himself to remain calm. This was not his first rodeo. Even so, he knew their fates were now in her hands. She remained motionless, enjoying the electricity of the moment, enjoying the power she held in that instant. Deciding.
Then, with a nonchalance that might have deterred lesser men, she raised an eyebrow and turned back to sip her martini. The exchange sent a charge deep through his body, imbuing him with confidence. Picking up his drink he made his way across the darkened room until he was standing alongside her.
He looked the woman up and down. Forget wrecking marriages, in her black one piece, stockings, and heels, she was the kind of woman who could topple governments. Totally out of his league in any other circumstance. But not today.
‘Matt,’ he said.
She raised her head a touch and, through a wave of auburn hair he caught a glint of jade in her eyes. The look winded him slightly.
‘Maria.’
He offered a cigarette. ‘Smoke?’
The edge of her mouth curled upwards. ‘Sure, why not.’
Without taking her eyes off him, she leaned into his lighter, the fire dancing in her eyes. Straightening, Maria turned her head upwards, in profile, and exhaled a thin line of smoke through her full red lips. The motion arched her back slightly and for the first time Matt noticed the elegant curvature of her spine. Out of the corner of her eye she could see him looking. This was working, she thought.
‘I’ve not seen you here before,’ he said.
Hardly the most original line, he might well have asked if she came there often, but she went with it.
‘No, I don’t get out much,’ she said. ‘But when I do, I like to make the most of it.’
Her eyes flashed, and again Matt felt a carnal surge. Her lips parted, beckoning him forward.
In the distance a door slammed, but Matt was too captivated to register anything but her. He was in too deep, lost in the vastness of those luscious, green eyes. Breathing her complex and heady scent, he moved in closer, drunk on the expectation of what lay ahead.
Footsteps now, ascending. And voices, far off voices.
Only inches apart, their lips parted in unison. Matt half closed his eyes in readiness.
Suddenly the dusky world of the bar was floodlit in a harsh, domestic light.
‘Matt, I’ve been calling you,’ another woman said. ‘Why are the curtains close-‘
He froze, an inch away from the surface of the mirror. In the reflection he could see his wife standing in the bedroom doorway, one hand was still on the light switch, the other now covered her open mouth.
Wide eyed, she looked at him, looked at her dresses strewn across their bed, at the shoes scattered across the floor, at the open underwear drawer, then back at the awkward, bony figure standing before her full length mirror. Her expression hardened.
‘What the fu-?’
Editorial
Full disclosure; the initial idea of a man looking into the mirror and seeing a woman’s reflection came from an old friend, also called Matt (how coincidental!) It’s a great idea and I had a lot of fun playing with the setup, mining old school Raymond Chandler clichés – a hero of mine – on more than one occasion, so if it felt as though I was laying it on a little bit thick then that’s my excuse!
The punchline – which makes me smile every time I visualise it happening – reminds me a little of the Steven Appleby‘s, Dragman – A Novel, which I would highly recommend. I mean, who wouldn’t want to escape into a world where a man can fly whenever he wears women’s clothing?
Also, for those less nerdy than myself, the title is a clue to the reveal. Everyone knows Jonathan Demme’s, ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ by now, and anyone who’s seen it will have the infamous ‘tuck’ scene etched into their memory. Demme Fatale covers all those bases nicely.
Oh, and if you want to put a smile on your face, go watch Jay and Silent Bob parody the tuck scene here.
Pl@tpav - Telling Stories 