The Pull of Gravity by Brett Battles Page A

stupid.”
    I wasn’t so stupid that I didn’t understand what she meant. When I looked back at Larry and Isabel, instead of seeing two people sharing a friendly conversation, I saw a couple sitting a little closer together than mere friends would. I saw Isabel put her hand on Larry’s arm as she laughed, letting it linger there a moment, but always removing it. I saw Larry glance at her when she wasn’t looking at him, an unconscious smile on his face. More than anything, I saw two people who had stopped noticing there were other people around.
    So instead of going over, I sat down on my stool.
    “I didn’t see that coming,” I told Cathy.
    “I already tell you. That’s because you stupid,” she said, then added, “sometimes.”
    “Don’t you have work to do?”
    “Bar is stocked. Everything ready. Larry is only customer.” She looked me in the eyes. “So no, I don’t have work to do.”
    “Cathy, if you weren’t so damn cute, I’d fire you right now just because I could.”
    “Good thing I’m cute then.”
    “Yeah. Good thing.” I picked up my beer and swallowed what was left, then set the bottle back down. “I’ve got something for you to do. Get me another beer.”
    She gave me an exaggerated smile before turning to the cooler to pull out a new bottle. A moment later, she set an open San Miguel in front of me.
    “No Märzen left?” I asked.
    “Plenty,” she answered, then walked to the far end of the bar.
    •    •    •
    That night was another example of something surprising happening after weeks of boring, interchangeable days. In truth, this new round of excitement started the night before with Mr. Comb-over attempting to force the issue with Isabel. But the next night, that Sunday, things escalated rapidly, so much faster than any of us ever realized. The biggest surprise of the evening happened around ten thirty.
    The place was still fairly empty, probably no more than seven customers. Because of that, the energy level was pretty mellow. That was actually okay by me. We’d had a run of fairly intense nights, so a little ratcheting down would allow everyone to recharge a bit.
    Cathy had decided at some point earlier to rejoin me, and we were sharing a couple of apple martinis she’d just recently learned how to make.
    “Not bad,” I said, as I finished off the last of my drink.
    “Not bad?” she asked. “That’s it?”
    “Given the choice, I’d rather have a beer.”
    “You have no taste.” She replaced my empty martini glass with a bottle of San Miguel. “I think that—”
    She stopped, her eyes moving from my face to a point behind me. I turned to see what she was looking at.
    Standing about three feet away was Isabel, smiling shyly.
    “Something wrong?” I asked.
    “No,” she said. “Nothing wrong.”
    I waited for a moment, but when she didn’t say anything else, I said, “Well, what is it?”
    I heard a sigh of disgust behind me, followed by Cathy muttering, “Stupid, stupid, stupid.”
    I ignored her and kept my attention on Isabel.
    It took her a couple tries to finally say what she wanted to say, but when she did, the words rushed out. “Larry wants to pay my bar fine.”
    My eyes widened. “Really?”
    “Really, really, really,” Cathy said from behind me. “Maybe I should be the one in charge here.”
    I continued to look at Isabel.
    “Really,” she said.
    “What do you want?” I asked.
    This time the words didn’t rush out. Instead they were spoken as if she’d put a lot of thought into them. “I want to go.”
    “You’re sure?”
    A wet towel hit me in the back of the head. “Of course she’s sure,” Cathy said. “Can’t you see it? Her eyes are smiling.”
    And indeed Isabel’s eyes were smiling. It was amazing, less than twenty-four hours earlier, those same eyes looked as if they could kill, and yet tonight all of that anger was gone. There was only happiness, innocence and hope.
    But despite this and Cathy’s insistence,