She turns out to be, in fact, an ex Vegas showgirl, at least that’s what she says. Her BF is much younger than her, with tats and rolled up sleeves over steroid biceps, but compared to her he is nearly blending in with the financial district crowd.
I learned a lot about them in short period of time since Patsy talks nonstop about her life on stage, and about the difficulty of installing the right values in her teenage daughter while living in the city of sin. (a parenting technique in this case based on, I assume, “do as I say, not as I do).
As we near the line up of Broadway strip-clubs, she points to all of those that she used to work at, back in her San Francisco days. “A pimp gave me a $200 tip, when I worked the door at the Condor", she says, with some melancholy in her voice. “That’s how they get you started”, adds the boyfriend.
The ride gets more interesting when we stop to pick up another passenger headed the same way. He is a dapper finance type, in an italian suit and Don Draper hair. I get distracted discussing Narcos, the Netflix series, with the BF, who is sitting up front, but then I notice in the rear view mirror that Patsy is fondling the fabric on the business-dude’s sleeve. And did I just hear her say “You have pretty eyes” as she leanes into him? The suit dude looks part mesmerized, part alarmed, and I note his hand clutches the handle of the car door: all I can hope for is that he doesn’t step out into traffic, though he probably wouldn’t be the first of Patsy’s casualties. The BF turns around and takes in the back seat and whispers, with a sigh “Babe, I thought we talked about this”, but otherwise he stays remarkably collected. Patsy gently slaps her boyfriend’s ear as to suggest that it’s all in good fun, and then she leans into my space to plant a fat one on a side of his face. They kind of make out within the limits of back-seat front-seat spacial complexity, while I am operating in the cloud of her perfume. I note her left hand is still fondly resting on the businessman’s thigh.
I am kind of relieved when we drop the businessman off without a further incident and I take the couple to the Golden Gate bridge for further tourism. On the way, the conversation turns to Jesus, I couldn’t tell you how.