The Mayor of Lexington Avenue

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Lucy liked to fish in the daylight. She enjoyed seeing her prey, but it was even more important that they see her. Focus their eyes on the feast while she set the hook ever so gently. She hooked Rudy the first time she walked into his store in her dungaree short-shorts and tight tank top.

“Hypnotize ’em and hook ’em,” she would have told her class if she had taught the sport. Rudy could have been exhibit number one. He couldn’t keep his eyes off her and he couldn’t hide it either. Luckily there was only one other customer in the store, an old man Rudy rang up without so much as a glance. Lucy could tell she had him without even looking.

“Weight on the line. That’s how you do it, ladies. It’s all feel. And be patient. Don’t yank too quickly or he’ll get away. Let him run a little till he’s out of breath. Then you’ve got him. Catch him first-you can always throw him back.”

Rudy could have done some fishing of his own if he’d known how. Unlike Lucy, who packed it all into a small, tight body, Rudy was tall, the olive skin of his chiseled face punctuated with fierce brown eyes and framed by thick, coal black hair that shone like silk-hair that women dreamed about for themselves. Lucy wasn’t the first woman who had tried to hook young Rudy. They came in every night to the convenience store where he worked, every shape and size and age, but Rudy had been oblivious until now.

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