A Request

John looked around the room once more.  His first thought was, "That woman couldn't be named John."  His next thought took him to the note left on his car.  "Someone is stalking me."

He saw that there was a rolled up piece of paper in the bottle.  He popped the cap off and fished it out..

It read, "John, I need you to work for me.  I need an open minded journalist.  Call this number.  I will pay you handsomely.  555.231.4545."

"I didn't know you took pills!"

Cindy was back.  She saddled up on her stool and gave him a smile.  As if from a above a waiter approached the table.

"Another round?"  He asked.

"Yes!  Thank you!"  Cindy replied.  The waiter walked away pleased as a clam in sand.

"Sorry, I was distracted.  I found this on the ground and tried to find who dropped it."  John shook the the see through orange container.

"You don't need to make anything up, John.  I used to take pills.  After I lost my job as a weather reporter I didn't think I would like working for a newspaper.  I had a heavy dose at first, oh ha ho!  I can't even remember those days!"

She kept on with her story until it finished with her sleeping with her boss.  That was the only part John heard.  John sipped his drink so not to make a funny face.  It was hard for him to listen and not think about Cindy naked, and if there was one thing John knew about women, they usually knew when a man was thinking about them naked.

"It must be their sixth sense."  He thought.

But his thoughts kept wandering.  "Who keeps giving me these notes?  What type of work would it be?  Private journalism?  Why me?"

He could use the money though, if this was real.

"Maybe this isn't real.  I have been drinking a lot.  Maybe this is ironic."

John realized he was staring at Cindy's breasts.  He looked up, right into her eye.  She was talking away like she hadn't noticed.

"She had to have noticed.  But she didn't act like she noticed.  She must be used to it and like me enough to give me a mulligan."

John finished his drink and told Cindy about the time he was chased by an All-Pro offensive tackle for breaking a report that the footballer was a cross dresser and danced at burlesque shows.

"My photographer and I were parked outside his house.  He drove up to park and got out in a full feather coat and boa.  My photographer took a photo and the football player saw the flash.  Before I could start the car and drive away he had the door open and dragged the photographer out by his hair.  The only thing I could think of doing was to throw my cold coffee on him.  When I did he yelled that I ruined his coat.  He chased me for three blocks.  I have never seen a 300 pound man run that fast for that long."

She laughed into her glass and finished her drink.

"You ready to go?"

"Yeah, I'm ready."  Cindy said.

They walked to the door and like magic someone had her coat hung in the air for her to slip on.  They drove back to her place as the radio played softly.  Cindy sung along when Stevie Wonder's, "My Cherie Amour" came on.  She didn't know all the words and she sung out of tune but she was smiling the whole time and it was quite endearing.

John pulled up outside her house.  Cindy smiled and thanked him for the ride.

"I"m glad it's Friday night," she said, "because I'm sort of drunk."

She and John chuckled.  She looked right at John after a slight pause and said -

"Goodnight, John."

"Goodnight, Cindy."

They smiled and she got out.  John thought that maybe he should have opened her door and walked her  in.  But he hadn't.  He drove home thinking about the note again.  When he went to bed it was his last thought.

"Who the hell is stalking me?"