Gin and Cognac
A woman enters a bar in a hotel. A bartender raises his head and looks at her. She is dressed in a simple black dress. He sees her looking around the bar, and thinks,
“She’s supposed to meet someone here.”
A bunch of people are drinking at the tables. They all have companions. After seeing that the person she is looking for is not here yet, she walks toward the counter, where nobody is sitting. She seats herself on a stool.
“Good evening,” the bartender says.
“Hi,” she says with a small smile.
Her husky voice helps him recognize that she has been here a few times. But the last time she came in was quite a long time ago, if he remembers it right. He tries to remember what drink she used to order, which is what he believes he should do as a pro.
He immediately assumes gin and tonic and asks her,
“What would you like?”
The woman glances at her watch. It looks like a tiny antique one with a thin black strip. He notices that she is wearing a ring on the ring finger of her left hand. He cannot remember if she was wearing it before.
“I'll have, um, a gin and tonic.”
He nods and smiles with confidence. Then asks,
“Is there preference in the kinds of gins?”
She rests her elbow on the counter, sets her head on the hand, and says,
“Yes. Bombay Sapphire, please.”
Then he begins to make the drink for her.
While the bartender is preparing the gin and tonic, she glances around the room again. She notices that a song by Billie Holiday is playing. She feels the stares of the men in the room but pretends not to notice. She raises her eyebrows and crosses her long legs with the natural grace of a leopard. The stares move to her legs. The bartender puts out a paper coaster in front of her and sets the glass on it.
“Thanks,” she says.
She does not sip her gin and tonic as soon as it is served. With her arms folded, she looks at the bubbles in the glass. She taps her fingers on her upper arm. An emerald ring glimmers on one of her fingers, and her nails are meticulously painted firecracker red.
“Can I request a song if you don’t mind doing so?”
“Yes. Of course. Which song would you like?”
“Something Cool by June Christy,” she says without a pause as if she had already planned to request it.
“Very good choice,” the bartender says, as he thinks it perfectly fits this woman with the singer’s husky voice.
She hears somebody come in the door. She dares not turn around. Footsteps are coming toward the counter. In the corner of her eye, she sees a man in a white shirt. At the same time, she takes a sip of the gin and tonic.
“Hennessy,” the man says as he sits down on a stool, which is a couple of seats away from her. She looks over her shoulder and sees that all the women in the bar are studying him. He takes out the pack of Marlboro and lights a cigarette with a match.
“Thank you,” he says as the bartender serves the cognac and an ash tray. He inhales and exhales the smoke leisurely.
“Could I have a cigarette?” She asks the man.
He turns his face to her with the mechanical precision of a well-oiled machine and locks his penetrating gaze deep into her eyes.
“Certainly.”
The bartender brings the man’s drink as he moves to the stool next to her. She picks up the Marlboro from the box he is holding, and he lights it as she places it in her lips.
“Thanks,” she says, exhaling.
“Are you expecting someone here?”
“Sort of. What about you?”
“Kinda the same.”
He grins slightly.
“You come here often?” she asks.
“Used to. You?”
“Same here.”
They take a simultaneous drag on their cigarettes.
“Can I buy you a drink, madam?”
“Sure, the one you’re having.”
He waves to the bartender and orders another cognac.
“So who are you waiting for?” he asks, watching the tip of her cigarette glow like a searchlight in the fog.
“A man I met here ten years ago. And you?”
“A woman that I met around the same period,” he says grinning more broadly.
The bartender brings her cognac. She lifts up her glass.
“Happy anniversary, honey,” says the husband.
The wife giggles. They clink their glasses together.
ボギーとローレンに捧ぐ（建物内の喫煙描写は数十年前に設定しています）
