Amanda date part 2

The thing I love about sushi is that it's not a lot of food. There's little chance of messing things up because it's simple, you don't feel bloated afterwards, and it hits tastebuds that most people never knew they had. The hardest thing to get over is how to eat rice with chopsticks, but after you've mastered that and overcome your western addiction to oily food taste, you'll be master at eating sushi cleanly.

It might not be a surprise that I was planning on hitting this sushi place with Drew on the weekend. It's good enough to look forward to and I was aching for it by the time I'd finished drinks at the other place with Amanda. In our cars she was following me quite closely, litterally up my ass so to speak.

I called Drew on my cellphone while driving and informed him that he should make like we didn't have plans to meet up tonight at this restaurant. If Amanda flaked on me I was still going to have sushi that night! I didn't even know if Drew was going to show, it wasn't important.

We step into the place and it's not one of those shoji screen booth joints, but more open plan. After removing our shoes we sat and ordered some sake, she had red nail polish on her toes.

"nice work on the toenails", I interrupted her telling me about a guy she works with.

"oh you like them?" She cut to my compliment immediately.

"Sure" Sure was a word she used a lot. "but I think with your complexion a lighter color would have been better". I'm not smiling, but I'm keeping her gaze. She looks down, looks back and I'm still not averting.

"well, I'm usually more tanned than this..." She's still looking at me and I am sure she's puzzled. My stern look immediately drops to a smile and I laugh. I'm thinking that her long slender tanned and toned legs are folded up under this table, and under that small black skirt my mind playing the guess the panty color game, of course she can't know this as I am sure my skills in body language suppression are better than her detective ability.

"Me too. I usually go to Rio during the winter and spend a couple of weeks playing beach volleyball with (a well known director)'s posse. It's hard not to get a good tan down there".

Ok, so this wasn't really a lie, but didn't go last winter because I'm no longer working for that studio. She knows of the director because she's in the business also, but I am pretty sure she didn't know him or his staff because they're a horribly incestuous bunch and Amanda would have been on the board for all the boys.

"I've never been down there, what is it like?"

"Hey, you know the scariest thing that ever happened to me was down there in 2001?" I lower my voice and make like I'm telling her a secret.

Her eyes open up like bambi, she's gorgeous. she smiles and pushes her shoulders back and asks me to go on.

"We're down in Rio with the Director, and we're driving around some barrio in an open topped jeep. I'm in the back seat with his girlfriend, and his minder is driving. He's been told about a street corner for a commercial location that is the eptiomy of the image of rich versus poor, nice houses down one and shanties down the the other. At the corner, they meet up at a store that apparently caters to both. You can visualize that right?"

"Sure" she looks up and back again.

"Well it's almost 8pm and the sun is thinking of dropping out of the sky. The Director can't read a map for shit and we're going around in circles."

I'm momentarily distracted. Her shoulders are golden brown, her neck muscles are toned. I'm thinking horror story words to say, but feeling the need to run my fingers through her hair and bite the whole length of her neck.

Her eyes are sucking me in, how do women do that? Her lips drawn slightly uncovering her teeth. Reminds me to do britesmile again now it's getting to summer.

"The director's girlfriend is smacking him on the head telling him to stop and ask for directions. He tells the minder to ask a bunch of guys we're approaching, and the minder who is the only fluent portuguese speaker in the jeep is telling him that's not a good idea."

She interrupts, "who was this minder?"

"oh you know, like a bodyguard. I liked him, he was the same social type as me."

She blinks, "huh?"

"We were the same build and had the same haircut, and he was into hardcore blackjack just like me."

I went on to describe how minders get their work, they're rough and tough and take no shit, but they have to have a soft side to be able to deal with assholes they work for.

"So the director out and out tells the minder to shut the fuck up and ask these guys where this street is."

I ask her, "have you ever driven around East LA in the dead of night and got that feeling?"

She sucks in her breath and nods. I lean over the table, look her in the eye and patted her arm. "I had that feeling at 8pm. Apparently Mr Director-Guy had no clue. Anyway, as ordered, the minder pulls the jeep over and calls out the guys. They're bigger than he is, and the hairs on my neck start to go wierd because they looked scary."

She grabs my arm and asks me what happened next.

"While the minder is talking babble to the gang, and they're clearly a gang, one of the guys looks at the directors girlfriend, she used to be a Laker Girl, so he's getting that crazy look in his eye. He starts slapping his buddies on the shoulders and leans forward to grab the girlfriend who's leaning out the side of the jeep listening, like she knew Portugese."

Her grip is tighter now and she's leaning all the way over.

"and and and?"

"oh you really want to know?" I have a smile that can only be described as wry, and it's for these situations that I use it.

"Sure, just tell me!!!"

The waiter girl drifts by and I delay the story by ordering sushi and rolls and more sake.

"ok, where was I?"

"You were in the jeep when the big guy reaches for the girlfriend".

"Ah yes, ok so he literally manhandles her out of the jeep and puts her over his shoulder. Like that, she's just gone, and the minder looks up and starts saying something like hey hey hey. I think his muscles transformed like the hulk or something, but anyway, the guy he was talking to pulls a pistol out from somewhere and points it at the minder sideways like you see in the movies."

I put my fingers in the shape of a gun and hold it skewed sideways to her head to illustrate.

"So then all hands go up, including mine." I put my hands half up to better drive it home. "and they back off carrying the girlfriend."

Amanda is quite literally terrified. She's reached both hands over and is holding my arm like she's going to be sucked into space if she lets go.

"Once they're around the corner, the minder looks at us and says to start the jeep and go back to the hotel. He pops the glove compartment and grabs an even bigger gun. Like THIS big. He gets out of the jeep and yells at us to go. The Director is sitting in the passenger seat scared out of his mind kinda catatonic, so I jump into the front and start the engine."

I can feel her red painted toes snaking around my ankle now.

"The minder is yelling at me to get out of here, so I reverse around the corner and just go"

"Then what happened?"

"Two hours later the minder appears at the hotel with the girlfriend. She was shaken up but the only real damage was that she had someone else's blood on her shirt."

By this time the food was on the table and I'm really starting to jones for the unagi.

-To be continued-