PALINDROME Read Online Free

Ford’s
excellent reproduction of the original Mustang, Chevy had recreated
the sixties muscle car in exquisite fashion. The exhaust burble was
deep enough to give you blunt-force liver damage. The muscle car
was waxed to the extreme—the tires were dressed over twenty-inch
rims. Does bartending pay that well? If it did, I would have
to pick up a couple of nights at the Suds Shack after this mess was
over and sorted out. Ax and I were always hard up for the rent and
made money wherever we could.
    Allie was impressed with his car. She met
Keith at the gym. Equinox was not a gym for the faint of
pocketbook—annual membership at the classy workout club ran well
over a grand. When you met someone there, you figured they had some
bucks. Allie was looking for someone like that. She would have
preferred that Keith drove a BMW or a Benz, but the Camaro was a
classic design and as mentioned, it was polished up real
pretty.
    Keith had sold her a bill of goods. He had
told her that he was studying at Hofstra Law School and was only
tending bar to keep busy over the summer. He told her that his
father was the inventor of cell phone technology and that the
licensing royalties from Verizon, AT&T, and the rest pulled in
millions each year. Yeah, good one. So, while Allie was not
totally sold on Keith’s story, he was not hard on the eyes and the
possibility of getting close to all that wealth excited her. She
agreed to a first date.
    Allie was a Muttontown girl. Muttontown was
part of Long Island’s Gold Coast where people of prominence and
wealth lived. She came from a good home, and her parents both
worked hard to pay the monthly mortgage bill, the exorbitant Nassau
County property taxes, as well as the school superintendent’s
absurd 500K annual salary. Like most good parents, they strove to
provide Allie with a better life than they’d had themselves. To
keep up with the Joneses in a highfalutin North Shore town like
Muttontown, her parents had to pony up: a 3 Series BMW for her high
school graduation gift, fifty thousand per year for Ivy League
college tuition, iPhones, iPads, designer clothes, and enough
spending money to feed a working-class family of six. So, Allie
didn’t want for much. She was, however, a bright girl and had some
doubt that her future NYU theater arts degree would go on to earn
her a humungous salary. Allie was working Plan B, looking for a
Long Island money player to marry.
    Prime was the place to take a girl when you
wanted to impress her. The posh eatery was located on the water in
Huntington Harbor with a view to die for, and prices that could
stop your heart if the cholesterol from the aged steaks didn’t clog
your aorta first.
    Allie was dressed first-date appropriate in a
white jean skirt, wedges, and a knit top that drew modest attention
to her pretty cleavage. They had a drink on the outdoor deck, which
overlooked the marina. Keith drank basic and strong: Kettle One on
the rocks with a splash of tonic water. He had gone into great
detail about the precise quantities of how much vodka and tonic
water to add to his drink. He proffered his instructions to Prime’s
bartender as if no one else was capable of matching his skills as a
mixologist. Allie picked from the cocktail menu; she ordered a
pomegranate martini made with Gray Goose Vodka.
    Their table was ready much sooner than Allie
had expected. Keith commented, fabricating, “I know people here,”
taking credit for the quick seating at the exclusive
restaurant.
    “You’re an impressive guy,” she said.
    Keith shrugged in an effort to appear
modest.
    She was mulling over Keith’s
cell-phone-fortune story as the waitress pushed in her chair. The
martini was beginning to take the edge off, and the
air-conditioning felt good after coming in from the warm night air.
Intellectually, Keith was no match for the NYU guys she had dated
during the school year, but he was an acceptable change of pace. He
spoke about his experiences on Long Island and