\u201cI couldn\u2019t care less!\u201d announced Roger, sucking down the last drops of champagne from the flute, fashioned of Baccarat crystal, he held fast before refilling it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what did you do to be banned from the restaurant? \u201d asked Tanya.<\/p>\n
\u201cI simply said the music was too loud, and the paintings were not up to scratch.\u201d<\/p>\n
At this, Tanya eyed him with some suspicion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess they are getting all high and mighty,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps I said it twice.\u201d Offered Roger, in a lower voice.<\/p>\n
To herself, Tanya thought, \u201cOnly twice? That would be a first.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Contessa was with me. She saw the whole thing. All I said, was that the music was too loud, and then I saw the band leader come over to thank\u00a0Nick.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you mean, thank Nick<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat the fuck do you think I mean? The band leader walked right over,\u00a0and thanked him\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Roger\u2019s famous temper was flaring. Again. His face turning red and blotchy.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd after all the business that you brought them\u2026\u201d\u00a0 said Tanya, in a conciliatory tone.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Contessa is my witness. She saw the whole thing. All I said, was that the music\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI heard you, Roger. The music was too loud and the paintings were crap. I got it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe music was deafening. You know how loud it can get? Well, it was even louder than that, and the band leader came over to thank Nick\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo…Nick was doing him a favour\u00a0? Letting him play that loud, and blast the place to hell?\u201d she didn\u2019t quite comprehend.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with you? I\u2019m just telling you that the band leader came to thank him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRight\u2026\u201d Tanya knew better than to point out a few historical facts. Why risk it?\u00a0 But recently she\u2019d noticed that his manner, always exaggerated, even grandiose, was becoming more erratic. Ordering a cappuccino at the local cafe, he\u2019d begun to wag his finger at the waitress in a peculiar way. Incapable of self-reflection, Roger was oblivious to the abrasiveness of his own comportment and consequently, the now resentful waitress\u2019s\u00a0 scowl.<\/p>\n Tanya concluded it’s better to be banned from your favorite restaurant than to admit you are an arsehole after all. Next time they had a coffee at the cafe, when he wagged his finger, she joined in with him, wagging her finger at the waitress too. He laughed at that and even the waitress smiled.<\/p>\n She didn’t remind him that a month earlier, he\u2019d gotten drunk and shouted abuse at Nick. What would be the point\u00a0? She could predict what he would say. That one event had nothing to do with the other. After all he\u2019d been back to apologise and his apology had been accepted. Done and dusted.<\/p>\n He couldn\u2019t see that the magic was gone. Once someone saw the ugly side, they couldn\u2019t unsee <\/em>it. It was unforgettable. Up until that point, he\u2019d been like the Godfather. Sitting at Nick\u2019s restaurant,\u00a0at a corner table, with a bottle of champagne, or at the bar, greeting his friends and looking so important. Everyone thought he was \u201csomeone,\u201d because he behaved like he was \u201csomeone\u201d and maybe he was<\/em>. The facade was convincing and it had worked for so long.<\/p>\n That bad temper. It was always there. No one was more familiar with his temper than Tanya, and until now, it had been reserved for his nearest and dearest. She wondered if the famous facade\u00a0 was crumbling, due to old age. There were now holes in the fence and the world was watching what before only Tanya\u00a0saw. The flaws, that for so long, she had bent over backwards to hide.<\/p>\n \u201cEven this year you introduced new customers to Nick\u2019s place, and they\u2019re serious spenders. You can be sure he\u2019s shooting himself in the foot.\u201d Tanya foretold.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t care.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNick must have taken this personally.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll I said was that the music was too loud\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow many times are you going to repeat that? I told you, I got it the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t usually repeat myself. You are the only one that I have to repeat myself to.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo what will you do now?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll go to the restaurant next door. I\u2019ve never gone there before, but I guess I\u2019ll go there now. \u201c<\/p>\n It’s happening, she thought to herself. The choices are being made for him because of his misbehavior. He\u2019s not a bad person. It happens because he doesn’t question himself. He is so sure of himself. He has convinced himself that he is beyond reproach. He is certain that everyone else is at fault, not him. Or else it\u2019s the opposite. He fears that he is a fraud and is afraid of being found out.<\/p>\n \u201cActually, I prefer it at Freddi\u2019s Bistro. The room is just as nice, and the food is better.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNick is just an ordinary Joe. He\u2019s no loss to you.\u201d\u00a0She was saying something she didn\u2019t mean, to see where it would lead. How could she convey that he was cutting all his lines loose\u00a0? And if he wasn’t careful, he\u2019d soon be adrift and\u00a0all alone.\u00a0But maybe, just maybe she had it all wrong. Maybe it had all happened as he recounted. Maybe it was Nick who was going through a midlife crisis. All the same, and here she felt quite vindicated, he was out of order, like a geysers shooting up, frequently with no pressure at all.<\/p>\n What amazed her most, was how he continued to find new people to admire him. They\u2019d get taken in by the front, the impressive walls and large gate, and that distant look that implied I\u2019m beyond your understanding<\/em>. I am a man of substance.<\/em> I am thinking lofty thoughts. Don’t take me Lightly.<\/em> Sucking down his booze with the kind of dedication that would shame a baby.<\/p>\n But is it so? Is there a palace behind the impressive gates, or is it a decaying dump? Tanya couldn’t make her mind about that. Though she could read his mind, did she really know him\u00a0? And if not, was that important? He was a human being, full of flaws like everyone else.<\/p>\n Unless he was an alien. He could be so heartless, so programmed, so circular in his dialogues. Repetitious, as a broken machine. Or was that his most human trait? There was a terrible aggression in repetition, like hammering nails into a wall. It drove her insane with a rage she had to swallow each and every time. You can’t have two people living together and both losing their temper with each other. They wouldn’t be living together for long. One of them would have to be a wonderful<\/em> person. God knows, it takes stamina to be wonderful.<\/em> To eat humble pie. To be bored out of your mind. And well, blow me if the other half doesn’t go and congratulate himself for having survived so long.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat are you thinking?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh…Nothing.\u201d she said, somewhat distracted.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat did you say?\u201d he insisted.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing. I didn’t say anything. Since when are you interested in what I think?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI am interested. Of course I am. It’s just that you always interrupt me.\u201d Roger corrected.<\/p>\n \u201cRight. Anyway, Charlie says that it’s a badge of honour to be banned from \u201cNick\u2019s. His wife agrees about the noise. They are all fed up with the noise.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo you told Charlie, did you?\u201d Roger sprinted to accuse.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s not a secret is it?\u201d asked Tanya.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s none of your business. It\u2019s my business. It\u2019s up to me to tell.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll keep that in mind. Must be a coincidence but Nick\u2019s has been quiet since you\u2019ve been banned.\u201d Tanya confided.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t care one way or another. I don’t wish them any ill will.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd Tanya knew he was telling the truth. Roger really didn’t. His outbursts were brief and tempestuous, but once vented, they blew over, as if nothing had happened. It was only the people on the receiving end of them that obsessed about his tantrums. Tanya contemplated the question\u2026 Can a brilliance simply disappear? Be hidden, forgotten somewhere, deep in someones mind? Would that brilliance, dying to break loose, remain forever locked in, because of a simple lack? The ability to let it find it\u2019s way out?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cI couldn\u2019t care less!\u201d announced Roger, sucking down the last drops of champagne from the flute, fashioned of Baccarat crystal, he held fast before refilling it. \u201cBut what did you do to be banned from the restaurant? \u201d asked Tanya. \u201cI simply said the music was too loud, and the paintings were not up to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":8278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[799,8359,10264],"class_list":["post-8325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","tag-banned","tag-short-fictcion","tag-yona-caffrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}