The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy

“MACHO NACHOS?” A waiter has arrived at Matthew’s elbow, holding what looks like a tray that must, surely, hold several orders of nachos.     “Oh,” Matthew says. “Yes.”     The waiter smiles and places the entire platter in front of Matthew, on the bar. It is so large that it reaches beyond what, observing the informal boundaries civilization provides us in settings where we are forced to be side...

ONE OF THE handsome lads in the group of students is saying, “My father has this thing about getting the whole family together, right?” He pauses to take a pull at a bottle of Anderson’s Denver Beer, pauses again to savor that Denver cachet, and continues: “Like he thinks we all really want to be together, but circumstances keep us apart?” Pause. “Right.”     This is well received. ... Get full ac...

     Let’s go on. Next on my list is your obsession. ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

A GROUP of students arrives at the bar.  Now look at that, Matthew thinks. That’s the sort of thing that makes me think there’s reason for hope.  What Matthew finds heartening about them is the fact that they are a racially mixed group of students, quite thoroughly mixed, exhibiting skin tones ranging from his own sandy pink to the rich brown of a good strong cup of coffee, the step from one tone...

IKE’S is a large, hard-edged room, formerly a firehouse, now a restaurant selling a version of fifties prosperity and complacency. The smiling face of the eponymous Ike is everywhere, in black-and-white photos and framed magazine covers on the walls, interspersed with artifacts of the era, ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterle...

FOR SOME TIME NOW, Matthew has had the mistaken idea that margaritas don’t make him drunk. That is why, sitting at the bar at Ike’s, he’s getting drunk on margaritas. He began the evening at the bar at the Alley View, where he had a frozen Bombay and, since it tasted so good, another. Now, sitting here, he’s trying to decide, first, whether or not to review this place, and second, whether or not t...

The entire cast and crew of the Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy will be vacationing “in an undisclosed location” from Saturday, July 29, 2023, through Sunday, August 6, 2023. The serialization will resume on Monday, August 7, 2023. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscr...

The entire cast and crew of the Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy will be vacationing “in an undisclosed location” from Saturday, July 29, 2023, through Sunday, August 6, 2023. The serialization will resume on Monday, August 7, 2023. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscr...

The entire cast and crew of the Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy will be vacationing “in an undisclosed location” from Saturday, July 29, 2023, through Sunday, August 6, 2023. The serialization will resume on Monday, August 7, 2023. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscr...

The entire cast and crew of the Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy will be vacationing “in an undisclosed location” from Saturday, July 29, 2023, through Sunday, August 6, 2023. The serialization will resume on Monday, August 7, 2023. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscr...

The entire cast and crew of the Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy will be vacationing “in an undisclosed location” from Saturday, July 29, 2023, through Sunday, August 6, 2023. The serialization will resume on Monday, August 7, 2023. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscr...

     Once upon a time, we knew a couple who seemed quite content in their life together, but read on. After fourteen years of marriage, they began a little game, something the husband discovered in his idle reading. The Romans, he learned, had a custom of marking each day as happy or unhappy by dropping a white or black pebble into an urn. To the husband this sounded like fun. ... Get full access...

THEY REACH THE CORNER in silence. Then Liz stops and turns on Matthew a look he takes for sadness. Actually it’s the look that people employ when they have to convey bad news to someone toward whom they feel bottomless enmity. “Listen, Matthew,” she says, “I guess I’m kind of on edge. You know? It’s an unsettling period for me. Exciting, but unsettling. I’m a nervous wreck, to tell you the truth....

     Liz sits in silence, fuming. She looks around the room. Matthew sees defiance in her eyes, as if she were daring anyone to look at her, to register any acknowledgment of the little scene. In the mirror, he scans the room himself, to see if anyone is registering any acknowledgment. ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy....

     A waiter is suddenly at their side. “One of you wanted an order of bouillabaisse stir-fry?” he asks. “Oh, God. What jerks,” says Liz. Matthew has the fleeting impression that she’s about to cry. “We did order it, but I canceled the order,” says Matthew. The waiter stands looking at him with no expression. ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of P...

     “I asked her for a spoon, and I told her to bring you some of this bouillabaisse stir-fry.”     “Oh, you didn’t.” “I did. You’ll like it. You don’t like that stuff. Why should you have to eat something you don’t like?” ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

FOR A WHILE Liz and Matthew sit in silence and eat. Matthew is eating something really delicious, a concoction of the chef, identified on the menu as “bouillabaisse stir-fry over angel-hair pasta.” He ordered it partly out of incredulity, but he’s finding, to his surprise, that the chef swims very well. ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Le...

MATTHEW LOOKS down at his glass. The drink does not quite cover the olive. “I should have ordered another martini,” he says.     “Here, have some of mine,” says Liz.     “I don’t want some of yours. I want one of my own. A full one.”     “You know something, Matthew? You drink too much.”     “This from the woman who passed out on my couch a couple of weeks ago?”... Get full access to The Personal...

     She glances around the room, to give the appearance that she has no intention of speaking further, but her glance falls on the angular beauty and she discovers that the angular beauty is looking at her, so she turns back to Matthew in self-defense. She finds him staring at her. He’s wondering whether he ought to tell her that she doesn’t play the game of waiting to be asked what she means as...

     Two fire trucks pull up outside the restaurant, lights flashing, but without sirens. Red light sweeps the length of the restaurant, again, again, again. The waif leads a beautiful young couple into the dining room. The woman is slender and extraordinary. She has the kind of cool beauty that has always attracted and intimidated Matthew. ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures,...

     “This place hasn’t changed at all,” says Liz, looking into the mirror behind Matthew, using it to look around the room, then twisting on her chair to look into the lounge. “Not at all.” “I was so late getting here,” says Matthew, “I was sure you’d already be here.” “Oh, I’m sorry, Matthew. You’ve been waiting here. I’m sorry. I lost track of the time.” She puts her hand on his arm. “I found a...

     He can’t see the new arrivals the moment they enter, because the door is hidden from him, but he can observe the reactions to their arrivals. Each brings a gust of cold air, and Matthew can see its effect on the people at the bar. As the draft advances, heads turn toward the door. There’s a delay, a rippling effect, like the effect of a breeze on a field of grass or, Matthew supposes, on a fi...

     He wants to order a drink, but he isn’t certain who might take his order. He suspects that the young woman walking past his table is connected with the restaurant in some official capacity, since she has been walking around since he arrived, but she isn’t dressed as a waiter, and she seems to have no idea what she should be doing with herself beyond walking around. ... Get full access to The...

     “HI,” he says when he steps through the door, full of secret self-satisfaction. “I made a reservation for seven o’clock, but I’m afraid I got delayed.” He doesn’t sound like himself, and he likes it that way. ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

     He chooses a gray shirt with a spread collar, a gray silk tie embellished with what look like brush strokes of white here and there, as if applied by a hasty, impassioned artist. [. . .] He wears a charcoal-gray suit that fits him better than any other he owns, [. . .] I look good. I really do look good, and none of what I have on is what I would have worn when Liz lived with me, [. . .] Get...