Tommy had talked about some bar around this area. She saw one across the road and jaywalked across. All eyes were on her. All gay eyes were on her. She sat on a stool and asked for a glass of Chablis and a glass of water, both on ice. The bartender looked at her, surprised.
 
“Chablis on ice? Are you sure?”, he asked frowning. He was of average weight, around forty. Bleach blond straight hair worn in a very trendy hairstyle. His eyebrows were beautifully kept, his brown eyes were outlined in black kohl. It gave him a slightly gothic look.
 
“Yes, I am. Different people, different tastes.”, she replied boldly.
 
“As you wish”, he said smiling. He served her and left. Maeva was not going to get drunk. She hoped to find who she was looking for quickly but, needed to balance her drinks if this took too long. She gulped about half the water. It was so hot, she felt her body was shriveling. She then put what was left of the water in the wine. She tasted it. Perfect. She looked around. The guys had gotten used to her being there. They all got back to chatting and flirting. The bartender was back.
 
“You are not going to get drunk with that!”, he said, laughing. He had obviously seen what she did with the drinks. Maeva laughed with him.
 
“Well, that’s the idea.”, she took another sip from the diluted wine. “Have you worked here for a long time?”
 
“Oh yea. Been here since… ten years, I think.”, he said drying glasses.
 
“Do you have anyone here that would have been around like, twenty years ago?”, she asked.
 
“Strange, a lot of people have been asking about twenty some years ago, these days. Are you also looking for Sky Finnegan?”, he asked.
 
“Yea.”, she said.
 
“Really? Come to think of it, you look like his wife.”, he said, surprised.
 
“Keep your voice down, OK? I don’t want to make a fuss and then have paparazzis on my trail, OK?”, she said quickly.
 
“OK, I don’t usually help out paps or gossipers, but you, yea, I will”, he said leaving. He walked over to an old guy at the back of the bar. They talked for awhile. The old man looked at her and continued talking. When the bartender came back, he signaled for Maeva to join the old man. All heads turned towards her again and stared when she sat at the old man’s table.
 
“Hello, I’m Maeva Hathorne.”, she extended her hand. The man looked at it for awhile and then, took her hand in his hands.
 
“Good afternoon, Miss. I’m Ernest Hemmingway.”, he said, waiting for her reaction. Maeva frowned and smiled a half smile. She laid back on her chairs.
 
“Good afternoon, Mr. Hemmingway.”, she understood he didn’t want to give his real name.
 
“Colin tells me you need some information.”, he looked at her.
 
“Did you know Sky?”, she asked.
 
“Did I know him? We all know him. He is famous.”, he said sarcastically. “Do you know what happened to him?”, he threw the question at her as if he was sure she knew.
 
“No. Do you?’, she returned the question taking a sip.
 
“No. I wish I did. I cried when I learned of his demise. Such a rare beauty lost to the world.”, he seemed to be genuinely sad.
 
“Yes, he is a beautiful man, in and out.”, she said. Ernest caught the present tense.
 
“You believe he is still amongst us?”, he seemed surprised.
 
“What would you think not?”, she asked interested.
 
“How long has it been? Have you seen him since then?”, he asked.
“No.”, she put her head down, almost like admitting defeat.
 
“Then, I question your sanity, my dear.”, he said, signaling the bartender.
 
“I have no proof that he passed.”, she said. The bartender brought the old man a whiskey on ice.
 
“Do you have proof that he is alive?”, he took a sip of the amber liquid.
 
“No.”, this time, she looked at him defiantly.
 
“Yes, I knew him. He bartended here for quite awhile. He was so young, so innocent. So beautiful. I fell in love the day he came here for a job. I asked him what he was good at. He answered he did drinks well. He would have told me he wanted to be a manager, managing nothing at all, I would have given him a job.”, he said taking another sip from his drink.
 
“Did people like him? Did he have any beef with anyone?”, she wanted to know everything she could about Sky.
 
“That is without saying. He brought in so much clientele. I wasn’t the only one who found him beautiful. At the beginning, Sky liked the attention. You could look at him all you wanted, he would even be accommodating, kind of making his little show. If you touched him, even just a little, he would move repulse and move away as far as he could behind his bar. He would never make eye contact with you again. Everybody got to know that with him, it was “look all you want but, don’t touch”. There were some guys he liked more than others. He would sit down at a table with them after his shifts. When he wasn’t closing up. He would often be with a little blond guy, and some others; totally unremarkable guys. There was one guy. A tall, body builder type. He was a colored guy and quite good looking. He spotted Sky the first time he came here and kept coming back just to look at him. He hardly spoke to anyone. Just kept staring. You know bartender make a lot of money with tips. Sky mentioned that that guy tipped the best, but he mentioned how much. Some of the other bartenders noticed and decided they wanted the tips to be pooled. Sky refused. If the bartenders start working in a place where the tips are pooled, no one gets a say. But if they keep their own tips to themselves, the owner cannot change it unless all the working employees agree. All. Sky refusing, did not make anyone happy. They started looking at ways to get to the customers before he did, if they were two behind the bar. They also aliened him and stopped including him in out of work social activities. Marcel, the colored guy, kept coming buy and started to sit at the bar and insist to be served by Sky. Other guys started to do that. Sky was back at serving almost everyone. He didn’t boast about it, but he continued on with his little mixing shows. It infuriated the other employees. Marcel noticed what was happening and, there was a terrible incident after awhile. I didn’t find out about it right away. I just new that two out of six bartenders I had on shifts called in one day saying they had found a job that paid more somewhere else. I tried to offer them some benefits to retain them, but they were not interested in even discussing it. Sky continued working as usual and Marcel continued to visit the bar everyday Sky was on shift. Sky was still pleasant with the clients, but I could feel something was different. I confronted him with it and also spoke to the other bartenders. From what I gathered, the two bartenders decided they would entice him to go to the back road with the intention of roughing him up some. Marcel, who was also observing Sky and anyone interacting with him, had seen the signals between the two guys and when Sky left from behind the bar, he ran to the back road from outside.  He caught the two guys getting ready to beat Sky up. One was holding him and the other and started to punch him in the stomach. From what I was told, Marcel didn’t have to do much for them to flee and threatened to kill them if they ever did anything to Sky again.”, he stopped making a suggestive face.
 
“Well, that’s a story. How long after did Sky stop bartending? And Marcel, what happened to him?”
 
“Oh, he stopped just a few weeks after. Marcel never showed up once Sky left.”
 
“Would you happen to know where this Marcel was from?”, asked Maeva.
 
“No. Maybe Tommy would know. They spoke sometimes.”, he finished his drink. Maeva thought it was a good time to leave.
 
“Thank you so much, Ernest. Can I have your number just to keep in touch?”, she took down his number. He didn’t ask for hers.
 
 
 
On the way back, Maeva was pensive. She could believe that Sky was self-centered and narcissistic at that point in his life. Most actors are like that or, most actors have that type of personality and that’s why they are attracted by that type of work. But some things didn’t add up. Sky was quite prude when she met him. She had trouble thinking he would walk around nude in front of all Tommy’s friends. About him not liking being touched, that was really possible. He didn’t really like anyone to touch him. He would definitely react if it was unexpected. Furthermore, this story about Sky and Marcel was strange. Did anything happen between the two of them after the fight? Maeva couldn’t recall Sky telling her anything about that. Even if she still had unanswered questions, she was relieved that Sky had been honest with her.
 
 
When she arrived at the mansion, everyone was asleep. She looked at the monitor an saw Neve sleeping her head at the bottom of the bed in a star-fish position with her mousseline blanky covering her legs. She went to the fridge to look for a snack. She loved carrots and saw that Yvonne had prepared some for her. She took a little pack of goat cheese and dipped the carrots in it for some protein. She wanted to relax for the next few days. She might try to find Marcel. She would call Tommy tomorrow. She also had to look at the video and pictures she took of the Club building.
 
Once in bed, she saw images, like watching a movie, od Sky working at the bar, mixing drinks his well-cut body muscles rippling under his tight white t-shirt. She saw him with his longish light brown curly hair, bright expressive blue eyes, and charming smile. She just could not imagine him naked, in front of a bunch of gay men.

That night, she dreamed of their torrid lovemaking.