Mick Sinatra: For Once In My Life by Mallory Monroe Page B

worth.   She held
her peace.
    But Mick
didn’t.   “I think she’s stunning,” he
said to Agnes.   “Inside and out.”
    Barry, from
the back of the bar in the back of the room, watched Mick as he watched
Roz.   Mick almost never gave his date a
compliment like that.
    “We weren’t
expecting you to bring your own date, however,” Agnes continued.   “That’s my point.”
    Roz knew
this date wasn’t exactly long term planning on Mick’s part, but she at least
thought he would have warned their dinner hosts that he was bringing someone
with him.   But apparently he had not.
    “I knew an
additional person would not be a problem,” he said.
    “But what if
I would have defied Barry, as I am known to do, and invited that nice young
lady along anyway?   This would have been
a very awkward situation.”
    “No, it
wouldn’t,” Barry said from behind the bar.   “Not for Micky, anyway.   He would
have told that chick to get lost without giving it a second thought.”
    “And by
hurting her feelings he would have hurt mine,” Agnes pointed out.
    But Barry
snorted.   He knew his wife too well.   “You would have gotten over it.”
    “And sooner
rather than later,” Mick added, and Barry laughed.
    “Very
funny,” Agnes said, smiling too.
    Barry
arrived with their drinks on a tray.   Roz
took hers, Mick took his, and then Barry gave his wife her drink and sat down
beside her.   Agnes, Roz noticed, slanted
away from Mick and toward Barry.
    “So,” Agnes
said to Roz, “how long have you known this rascal?”
    “About three
weeks,” Roz said.
    “They met at
the auditions,” Barry said.
    Agnes looked
at him.   “Your auditions?”
    “Yup.”
    “Oh.”   Agnes was surprised.   “So you’re an actress too?”
    “I am, yes.”
    “Of any
note?”
    Roz didn’t
realize she had hesitated, but she did.   Mick and Barry both were looking at her.   “I’ve had some success off-Broadway,” she said.
    “When?”
    “A few years
ago I was in--”
    “Not the
past, love,” Agnes interrupted her.   “The
past means absolutely nothing in this line of work.   You have to know that.   What success have you had lately, not years
ago?”
    Mick stared
at Roz.   How did she handle
hostility?   Because it was clear to him:
Agnes was gunning for her.
    “I have not
had any success lately,” Roz said without flinching.  
    Agnes seemed
to wait for her to give an excuse for her lack of recent success, but Roz
didn’t go there.   Mick was pleased.   Agnes was pissed.
    Barry
intervened.   “Agnes can relate,” he
said.   “When she was trying to make it
she stumbled along too.   Until she met
me, of course.”
    “I wouldn’t
characterize my career that way,” Agnes responded.   “Unlike her, I had success.   And it wasn’t off-Broadway either.”
    “No, dear,”
Barry said, “it was off-off-Broadway.”
    “Don’t
listen to him,” Agnes said. “I’ve had great success.”
    Barry patted
her hand.   “If you say so, dear.”
    Agnes smiled
again and placed an arm around Mick’s and her husband’s.   “It’s so good to have my two favorite men
together again,” she said.
    And it
wasn’t until she said that did Mick remember their past.   And the fact that he and Barry had had a
threesome with her once upon a time, before Barry asked her to marry him.   It would not have bothered him at all if any
other woman was sitting in that chair looking at them.   But Rosalind was sitting there.   It bothered him mightily.
    He remove
his arm from Agnes’ entanglement and leaned forward, as if he had to shield Roz
from the contamination.   It was an
absolute rebuke of Agnes, and Agnes and Barry both knew it.    Roz knew it too.   What she didn’t know was why.
    They stayed
for dinner, and enjoyed the meal, and Roz even got used to Agnes flirtatious
behavior toward Mick.   What she couldn’t
understand was how Barry was not only allowing it, but seemed to be enjoying
it.   The