Saturday, 1am
He noticed my girlfriend and I standing by the bar and navigated his way through the salacious silk scarves, the makeshift tops women wore. Approaching us, he hesitated, well-aware that he was outside the acceptable generational barrier. But I was bored, so warned him with the precautionary white-lie: I had a boyfriend and madly smitten, but would gladly accept the merlot and conversation. My girlfriend glared at me as she was on the prowl, whereas I was just a curious journalist sidetracked by a colorful character. Seemingly benign, he appeared out of place in the posh crowd. My Aussie gal was flirting with some bloke, so I sat on the leather stool with whom I learned; a graduate of MIT and Harvard. Now an international lawyer/investor, he specialized in the hospitality sector in China. Not a bad dude to ask for some advice re: my portfolio. Sure, we chatted about how easy it was for him to raise capital in America to invest in international real estate development, which was a bit disconcerting, which eventually brought us back to about two decades before, when he was married to a woman named Mary, She was also from a small city in Kansas. He paused. I paused. I texted Sarah, who’d, disappeared awhile earlier with some guy on the dance floor.
I started to give him grief for roaming a lounge intended for the 35-under crowd, but his sad eyes stopped me. Sure, men tell women random and wacky stories, sure they fake equity in this company, or a claim a faux degree from that college, but when you’ve got an educated and successful, grown man pouring his heart out to stranger and more importantly, he was completely sober, he must have felt alone. Not the type of alone attempted during a weekend away on a reprieve. I cannot imagine that the crowd around us made his gnawing loneliness better, until he said “My son died of leukemia when he was two. My wife and I ended up getting a divorce. In an effort to do something, anything I started building companies. Companies after company, from India, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, China … each merger or acquisition ate up more time, until I looked in the mirror and realized it had been fifteen years since I’d entertained the idea of moving forward. And that was last May.” And i realized that this man wasn't scouting out for the next woman of his life, or business partner or one-night stand... He was simply seeking out humanity at this late hour.
This poor, well, filthy rich man… Life could get ugly no matter how beautiful of clothes you’re wearing. I excused myself to the restroom. Hit his name into google to make sure he wasn’t heaving lies toward my empathetic ears. Sure enough, thousands of results popped up with his name - all legit. I felt like a jerk, but a resourceful journalist. Note: Thank you Blackberry.
Walking back to Channing, who was staring haphazardly out into the crowd of people decades younger, his expression was melancholy; he seemed more comfortable observing from afar, than attempting to join.
Tapping his shoulder lightly, he jumped. "Guess what?" I chirped.
More tomorrow…
