Rain fell all over the big city, light drops of water that could not disturb the sleepless. It was the kind of rain that you could easily dance through if you were in the mood to. Vivian was in that mood. She stepped out of the theater, buttoning up her dark brown over coat and pulling her hair up so that it all stayed under her fedora. Each one of her movements was a small step in some grand dance that could only take place here and now and never again.
Yet a thunder clap disrupted the ceremony and brought down thick sheets of rain, the kind of rain that no matter what mood you had you began to feel depressed because everything was being washed away. The rain soaked Vivian began to run to some shelter, anything that would protect her from the water that was attacking. Finally she could stand peacefully under some ledge, soaked but still happy to be alive while she waited the rain out.
Cars zoomed past Vivian, as if her presence was completely erased, that was until one small black card pulled over to the curb and stopped in front of her. Out of the car stepped Daniel Zardoni, cigarette in one hand and a large black umbrella in the other. While Vivian was completely unaware of who Daniel was, the rest of the world knew.
Daniel stopped before Vivian, putting his cigarette back in his mouth and holding out a hand for Vivian to shake. Vivian’s face was painted with suspicious confusion, her forest green eyes looking over Daniel as if he gave off an air of supremacy, which he did.
“Hello my good lady, I’m sorry to have surprised you, but you seemed trapped within this curtain of rain. I am Daniel Zardoni and you, you must be my wife.” Daniel kept his hand out, open so that Vivian could easily reach out to him, a rare opportunity. But Vivian had been offended by Daniel’s outrageous prediction of her being his wife.
“I’m sorry sir, but I’m not quite so sure if I should be escorted by a guy like you.” Vivian turned her head, so that she could not as easily look over Daniel, though that is what she desired to do. Daniel was taller than her, but not so much so that you could describe him as ‘towering’ over her. He had well kept black hair and grey eyes that were full of confidence rather than dejection from Vivian’s words.
“C’mon, babe, we both know you don’t wanna be stuck in this rain. The man on the radio just said that this downpour was going to last awhile, and I hate for such a pretty young lady like you to catch a cold from standing out in all this rain.” Vivian was compelled by Daniel’s words, and while she had no intention of ever becoming interested in him romantically, she took his opened hand and allowed him to lead her to his car.
Vivian and Daniel sat in the back seat of the car, each sitting against a window, leaving the middle a blank empty space between them. The front two seats were occupied by two fellas that were dressed similarly to Daniel, suit, tie, and fedora. The one driving, Benji, was skinny and tall with brown hair and blue eyes that were focused on the road. The other one up front, Sammy, was well built and had true a Italian complexion, and was eyeing Vivian from the rearview mirror.
“Don, why’d you go and pick this chick up?” It was Sammy who had spoken, but not until they had pulled away from the curb and were emerged in the normal traffic. Daniel looked back over to Vivian with a smile, but his eyes were looking over her, examining the likelihood that she was out to kill him like so many others.
“Just listen to me, Sammy. You think I’m some kind of idiot who falls for any chick with a good set of legs?” With Daniel’s eyes still on her Vivian turned away, not wanting him to see her checks brighten and pulled down her red dress so that it may cover more of her legs.
“I certainly hope not, else you’ll be sleepin’ with the fishes rather than dictating where they lay.” Sammy was some sort of pessimist, the kind that just stated what was a bad idea and made a small side comment on it, but never intervened any more than that.
“Ignore him babe. He’s just sore ‘cause there’s something on TV that he wants to watch. Now you tell Benji here where you want to go and we’ll get you there, no problem.” Daniel patted Benji’s seat, trying to get Vivian to look back over to him. Vivian simply looked up to the review mirror, so that she could address Benji rather than the presumptuous man next to her.
“If you would be so kind, I would appreciate it if you could drop me off at the cafeteria of New York University.”
“So you’re a student at NYU? What are you studying?” Vivian turned to Daniel, since it would have been extremely rude of her to speak to him while facing the opposite way.
“I am not particularly studying anything. I plan on being an actress, in fact I just came from an audition for a new play on Broadway.”
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