Quiet Man, You Will Be Ignored Part II

As I was drinking the red wine, I was trying to monitor the entrance, make interesting small talk and trying to scan the hall to see who else was there.

They had started to serve food. People where going back and forth with plates full of flat, tubular pasta stained with the remnants of what once may have been a more moist tomato sauce; some had chosen the strip sautéed chicken passing as some sort of gourmet meat dish.

I took my seat at the round table. All of the tables where round. Some where put into a circle so that the middle formed a round area some round people where using to dance in the round.

Rob had come to the table at this point and after some idle chit chat, I went to get a plate of salad and topped it with the strip chicken. While going back to my seat, I scanned the room again.

I saw Fred, Belina and Quiet Man looking for a table. They were at the far end, very far away. Eh, I thought and seated myself with my group.

Our host chose this moment to make a speech and part of which involved me having to rise from my seat while he spoke. I saw Quiet Man from the corner of my eye looking at me.

Hmmph! The nerve I thought. The nerve!

After the speech, people began to mull about. A man came to table who knew my brother. He was a flashy man, full of confidence. He was very animated and took a quick interest. I decided to rise from my seat so Quiet Man, who was watching, could see this interaction, though he could not hear all the on the spot compliments the man bestowed, while my brother rolled his eyes in his head. He is not used to his friends complimenting his sister as a female.

As my brother had to continue to roll his eyes because his friend was acting 18, and as I was forcing the customary giggles and “Oh, No’s!” that are such a salve to the egos of men, I turned to see what Quiet Man was doing; he, Fred and Belina were rising to leave. At this moment my mind went blank. Liam, the false compliment giver, was chattering so much, he never even noticed my attention was momentarily diverted and certainly did not catch on that his usefulness to me at that very minute was expended on the spot.