Sipping their Veuve Clicquot bubbly and talking about life, Alfredo placed his hand into his trouser pocket and withdrew a transparent plastic pouch. Next, he sprinkled a small amount of the white powder on the table top, and with a knife made it into two thin short lines.
Without further ado, he took a paper dollar bill from his wallet, rolled it up, bent over the table where the powder was sited, and sniffed in through his nose. Then he repeated the process until all the remaining particles were inhaled.
Turning to face Natalie, he whispered. “Would you like some?
“Oh… no thank you, it isn’t for me,” she replied.
She was opposed to taking drugs as her father’s strict upbringing had resonated with her disposition when she was young, and the desire, although then she had always managed to neglect participation in the mischievous habit.
Alfredo unemotionally repeated in a slightly sterner tone, “You don’t know what you are missing!” Then he got closer and whispered in her ear, “Cocaine sorts you out, you know!” He continued, “You’ll get a feeling of alertness, power and energy. Then you’re likely to feel more confident and excited.” He finished by saying, “You’ll thank me afterwards, I promise you!”
She wanted to resist, but after tantalizing gestures from Alfredo, she continued to resist the temptation to sniff a line of the white stuff, COC through what looked like a bank note of some denomination.
Nevertheless, they chatted for what seemed like hours though it was more likely to have been less than an hour. She had fun, but had agreed to meet up with inspector Lee.
She thanked him for his invitation and hospitality. As she stood up, they grasped hands. Then she made her gesture that it had been fun. He wanted to stay to ride out his fixation, thanked her profusely, and said they should do it again.
Finally, they parted. Natalie walked toward the exit. The man in the corner stared at her directly in the eyes and winked.
‘Bloody cheek,’ Natalie thought. She didn’t know him, and had no idea that his name was Guzim.
Take care!
Prof. Carl Boniface
Vocabulary builder:
Bubbly (n) champagne, cava, sparkling wine
Pouch (n) = bag, sack, purse, money bag, small bag
Sprinkled (v) = simple past of regular verb. (syn) scatter, spread
Without further ado (idiom) = without any fuss or delay; immediately.
"Without further ado he hurried down the steps."
Sniffed (v) = inhaled, breathed, snuffled, smelled, breathe in
Strict (adj) = severe, firm, stern, harsh, authoritarian, (ant) lenient
Resonated (n) = reverberated, vibrated, resounded, rang, rung, echoed
Denomination (n) = value, quantity, money, coinage, change, penny, currency, fifty pence piece
Fixation (n) = obsession, fascination, addiction, passion, complex
Profusely (adv) = abundantly, copiously, plentifully, freely, liberally, generously, (ant) meagerly
Stared (v) = gazed, gaped, watched, ogled, look intently, (ant) ignored
Winked (v) = regular past of wink. When a person winks, they are closing one eye quickly and immediately opening it. Flash, twinkle, sparkle, glitter
Bloody cheek (n) = an insulting reply to a reckless (or imagined as such) comment, or action, or a perceived retribution, threat or expose. E.g., “They've got a bloody cheek down-sizing me after all the work I've performed on this project!”