Lola

 

At a dinner party given by none other than the great Kai Leiko and his new squeeze, Daisy Swizzle, I saw Lola for the first time since she’d introduced me to Kyra.  And boy, she must have aged twenty simyears seemingly overnight. 

I was startled to see her.  And our first words to each other were pretty awkward. 

“Um, hi, Lola,” I croaked, in plain view of her companion, Tiara Angelista.  “You look different.”

“I had my hair done at the new salon that opened up in town.  You know Bronson – the Littler boy – he’s become a fine stylist.”

I noticed Lola was unsteady in her stance and her eyes were again concealed by huge, thick glasses.  I didn’t know how to tell her that she looked like a skeleton.  She was so frail, so thin, that I worried about her. 

“I became an elder – an age I’ve long dreaded.  I have not looked forward to growing old at all.  I looked in the mirror this morning and I saw my grandmother.”  If I didn’t know any better, I saw a few tears leak from beneath her jet-black glasses. 

“Lola, it’s going to be okay, really.”

“Easy for you to say,” she shot back, “you’re a young buck.  You’ve got so much time left, it isn’t even funny.”

Her tone of voice shook me.  It took me a bit to really grasp the meaning of what she said.  I thought about my parents back at home.  They don’t really have much time left.  Life is something to be cherished and savored.  They savor their lives and have, indeed, grown old together.  My sister and brother-in-law look like they’re going to grow old together.  I can’t say the same for Lola.

Here was a woman who prided herself on her youth and vitality.  She dated younger guys and worked out like a maniac.  But Father Time catches us all, eventually.  Even Lola.

Then I spotted Lola in the kitchen talking to Todd Lynch, one of the paid bartenders she has in her home. 

Lenny Shutter, who works for one of the (many) gossip rags here in Bridgeport, was also in attendance.

Tiara spotted me from a distance.  “Sebastian?” 

“Yeah.”

“Come here, I need to talk to you.”

 

“Lola appreciates that you showed up here tonight.  She won’t say it, but she’s extremely fond of you.”

Really?

“For awhile there, before the video came out, you were pretty much all that she talked about.”

Really?

“She raved about your Goopy Carbonara.”

“Tiara,” I whispered, “she’s really, really thin.  Is she ill?  I mean, if she is, we have to get her to hospital – she’s wasting away.”

“You have to understand something about Lola, she’s very, very stubborn.  She’s not going to listen to us.”

“Not even to Jupiter?”

“Least of all to him.  She blames him for Kai leaving her.”

“Well, what about her fitness trainer, what’s her name, Foxie, Roxie –"

“Moxie.  Moxie Logan.”

“Yeah, her.”

“Moxie quit after marrying Romeo Rake.  She and Lola are barely on speaking terms now.”

I shook my head.  “Wow.”

“Moxie went and started her own family.  I can’t say I blame her.”

 

I spent most of the rest of the night in a deep fog…

…and only came out of it when Todd Lynch asked me to pose for a pic, with Lola standing right next to him. 

I went through the rest of my night in a fog.  A lady at Eugi’s asked me to pose for a pic. 

When I went into Eugi’s, I participated in a “play-off,” a guitar-playing contest, mostly at the spur of the moment.  My “opponent” was an elder lady who could certainly move her strings. 

So I got up on stage and I saw everybody was dancing and murmuring.  I didn’t see any celebrities but I didn’t care. 

A guy walked up to me and asked for my autograph.  Some of this I still can’t get used to.