Little Did I Know: A Novel Read Online Free PDF

doob”). Doob, who had spent three highly decorated years in and around Saigon, clearly put in hours at the local gym. His Red Sox T-shirt burst at the seams, barely holding his muscles in place. He was friendly and accomplished at the bar, popping beer bottles, mixing drinks, taking food orders, and carrying on four or five conversations with his customers without missing a beat.
    There was a small kitchen just to the left of the bar that kept pumping out oceanfront delicacies at incredible speed. Sea-salted spicy fries, lobster stew, grilled corn on the cob, quahogs, steamers, mussels in white wine and garlic, fish and chips, and more, all served with homemade bread and fresh churned butter. Doob’s mother, aptly named “Ma,” was the conductor of this culinary music.
    I ordered a bottle of brew and searched for Mrs. Barrows, but found no one who resembled the explosive knockout from this morning. I decided to sit at a table outside, just a few feet from the ocean. Before I could settle in a young woman approached me. She was the essence of understated class. She wore little to no makeup; just a soft-pink lip gloss and something that made her eyelashes fetching yet unworldly. Her light-fuchsia dress stopped at the knee. Her breasts, although covered, were more than enticing. She wore her hair back, held in place by an aqua silk headband, and she had diamond studs in her pierced ears. She held a freshly lit Lucky Strike in her manicured fingers. It was quite clear that Lizzy Barrows was a chameleon.
    She sat across from me, and before I could get up she made herself at home. An eager young waiter with JIMMY stenciled on his T-shirt brought an iced pink drink in a martini glass. The color of her cocktail matched the lip gloss she was wearing and her drink was garnished with a juicy orange slice suggesting a tribute to the young juicy woman about to drink it. “Jimmy” brought me a fresh beer as well and with his most sincere smile said, “Nice to see you, Mrs. Barrows. Enjoy your evening, Mr. August, sir.” He ambled away like a young puppy as I thought, There is no “Mrs.” here, just this young lovely babe , and that “Mr. August” was my father.
    Lizzy leaned into the table, lifted her glass and said, “Congratulations.”
    “For what?”
    “So many things. The sunset, the road ahead. I’m sure there’s more.”
    “Being driven by your chauffeur to the most popular hangout in town is not worthy of congratulations. If it were this whole town would be toasting my accomplishments.”
    “Everyone will be, Auggie. They certainly will. By the way, people often get lost on the way to anywhere, let alone to a rendezvous that will change their life.”
    I noticed she was wearing perfume. I wasn’t sure whether there was innuendo in her voice or just hope inside my head.
    “Well, I’m happy to be here.” I took a long pull on my beer. “I just followed the pheromones . . .”
    “Pheromones?”
    “You know, the scent we all unconsciously convey to others.”
    She smiled a sultry, sexy grin as she realized the nuance of the word. “So you just followed my pheromones and they led you right to me. I bet you couldn’t wait.”
    “Mrs. Barrows, let it be noted that you asked me here tonight.”
    “Yes, that’s true. But you picked up my pheromones.” She said this gleefully, as if taking ownership of the word. “I never knew what to call it, but they’ve often come out in the early summer. And you picked up their scent?”
    “Absolutely, Mrs. Barrows,” I replied playfully.
    “Then, as I said, congratulations.”
    She clinked her pink drink against my beer glass and drank it all the way down. Then she licked the orange for punctuation. She stared at me for a long time and winked. “How’s your day been?”
    I thought for a moment about the wink and the question. “Good. In fact, better than good. My day was excellent. Thank you for asking. How was your day?”
    “Like all the rest. Except you showed