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To order a Duffy book, click on one of the covers to the left.

Davida sent me this scene she wrote that just happened to include our mutual friend Duffy Dombrowski. How ff’in cool is this!

She looked at me across the sticky table. The 80s cover band made it almost impossible to hear what she was saying. The air was rank with smoke, some legal and some… not so much. I took a sip of my Jack and Coke and gave her a “Do I have to look”.

She shrugged back as if to say, “It doesn’t matter to me really.”

I turned around on my bar stool and looked about the room. Dumped twice by long term boyfriends, you could call me a two time loser. We had been over this a hundred times before and I knew she was right. If I didn’t take a chance and approach someone, I would spend the rest of my life alone. Men who approached me always seemed to be users and losers who hurt me. The idea was I had to take control of my life. The first step was to go out and actively meet people.

As I looked out over the sea of humanity, I began to think this idea was bunk and maybe the only men I actually needed in my life was Ben and Jerry. But she was a nagging pain when she wanted to be and I knew if I didn’t get up and approach someone, she was going to make my life hell.

I looked over at my sister, sighed and stood up. Better to get this over with. Shoulders back and boobs out I took off across the room. As I stepped up to the bar to order a refill I noticed a good looking brute in the corner attempting to drink his Schlitz and watch the Yankee game on TV. He looked more out of place in this meat market than I felt, and that in itself was promising.

He was favoring his left hand which was wrapped with a bandage. There was some bruising under his right eye which said he had been in a recent fight. As I got closer I realized he was familiar to me. Duffy Dombrowski was a professional opponent in boxing.

“Hi…um you’re Duffy Domrowski, the boxer…right? My name is Tess and I enjoyed the fight last night. You had some great moves out there. MacNelson has a wicked south paw, but you gave him a great match. You don’t normally hang around this place? What brought you in tonight?” I couldn’t believe how lame I sounded. This guy must think I am some kind of boxer groupie. Do boxers have groupies? I wasnt sure, but I felt like I was running around with out underwear on; out there and exposing my vulnerable parts.

“My normal place is closed for renovations. There was uh…a fire…possibly started by my friend Al. We aren’t sure really. And my place lost power recently so I thought I could catch the game here. Didn’t realize it was a hot dating spot. So uh…you like boxing uh? Not too many girls…I mean woman…I mean…well you know what I mean. What do you do?” He took a long pull on his beer and gave me his full attention. Maybe I wasnt such a loser after all.

“I’m a librarian at the local public library. Gosh this feels silly.” I felt like I was filling out a online add. Single female looking for single male to share magical moments with…yuck. ” Uh, I like dogs and volunteer at the local shelter, I enjoy classic rock music, particularly Elvis and I am wondering if you want to run away from me yet. I am pretty bad at this stuff.” I knew I was saying too much but just couldn’t seem to shut myself up. I was suffering from a terminal case of oral diarrhea.

He smiled at me over his Schlitz and finished it off. Pushing back from the bar he said, “Nah, you’re doing just fine. Hey, uh, you wanna get out of this place and go grab a slice of pizza?” Duff asked.

“Yes!” I replied. This meeting men thing might not be so bad after all.

Here’s the link to Davida’s writing site: http://thinkingten.ning.com/profiles/blogs/maiden-voyage