It was darker in the café than I remembered, but for the most part it was just as I recalled. I hadn’t been there for some time, but it was one of those places that almost seem to welcome you back of its own accord after you have been absent a while. The smells were familiar and nostalgic to me as well; the sour tang of beer and acrid cigarette smoke, and also the fainter scents of lemon and parsley coming from the kitchen. I smiled and took another sip of my wine. Oh, I had missed this place.
I leaned back in the chair watching the stage, and saw Eric step up to the keyboard. His eyes met mine briefly and I saw for a brief second an amused smile touch the corners of his mouth. He winked at me, sat down on the barstool he had appropriated for his use onstage, put down his cigarette on the edge of the keyboard and started to play. Even though I had seen him do it many times before, I was still shocked to see him treat his instrument so carelessly. I found myself wondering if he was so careless with all of his things, but I shook my head to clear the thought from my mind. As if he had heard the thought, Eric looked directly at me again, smiled knowingly, and started a rendition of “Lovers in a Dangerous Time”.
An hour or so passed that way, with me sipping at my wine and him onstage playing up his sexuality in my direction. By the time his set was finished I was so wet that I would have fucked almost any man there, but I decided to sit tight and see if he approached me. I didn’t know Eric too well, but unless I had been very mistaken the past few times I had caught his set at the café, there was a certain amount of sexual tension between us. I was determined to break that tension tonight.
He stepped down from the stage, and I tried to be discreet as I watched him mingle with the rest of the crowd, his distinct laugh carrying over to where I sat. I saw him laughing with a curvy blonde near the bar, and when she reached over and hugged him, I felt a sudden flash of jealousy. My expression must have betrayed my emotions, because I saw him look at me over her shoulder with that knowing smile again. I caught myself and forced a more neutral expression onto my face, but it was too late. He had definitely seen my anger, and I saw him speak to her briefly and squeeze her hand before heading in my direction. I looked away, but out of the corner of my eye I could see him practically swagger as he walked over to my table. He pulled out the chair beside mine, and seated himself next to me. God, he was arrogant. I hate arrogant people, but I wanted him more in that moment more than I had ever wanted anyone else. I wanted to fuck him so hard it would wipe that smirk off his face.
“So.” he said, not finishing the sentence but just trailing off. “So what?” I replied. I hated the way he made me feel- something about being near him just made me feel like such a bitch. I hated how attracted to him I was and I hated the urge to be as vicious as possible in order to hide that attraction. “So you’ve been watching me all night.” he said, looking at me over the pint of dark red ale he lifted to his lips. “Well, being onstage means that a lot of people are going to watch you. Isn’t it kind of an occupational hazard?” I said, steadfastly refusing to look him in the eye as I said it. That brought another hearty laugh from him. “That’s too bad. I was going to ask you if you’d like to come home with me and we’ll fuck like bunnies.”
I looked directly at him this time, amused myself now. “That’s quite the terminology.” He shrugged and butted out the end of his cigarette. “Do you pick up all your dates this way?” He chuckled and said “For the most part, yeah.” I couldn’t help but respect how honest and direct about his intentions he was, and we sat that way for a few long moments- me biting my lip and deliberating whether or not to follow through with what I really wanted to do, him lighting up another cigarette and downing the last of his ale.
I stood up, looked over to him and said “All right, then. Lead the way.” He laughed, and the smug expression on his face spoke volumes. I swear that look said, “I knew it all along” far more eloquently than any words could ever have conveyed the thought. My only desire when he looked at me that way was to wipe that smug expression off his face, to surprise him and make him feel he didn’t know me half so well as he thought.
He walked out of the café a few feet ahead of me, and I followed him out into the night. It was a clear, slightly cool night. I could feel my nipples hardening under the thin fabric of my dress. He stood just outside the door and waited for me to catch up to him, and once I stood beside him he started walking again. Now that I was totally alone with him and there were no pretences between us about what we were going to do, I felt awkward. He seemed to sense how discomfited I was, and he made small talk for a while before we both fell silent. As we walked, he put his arm around my back and across my shoulders. I could smell the scents I had noticed earlier in the café, but I could also detect his own scent underneath. My breathing deepened when he touched me, and I found it harder to walk. I found myself relieved when we reached his house and stepped inside.
It was dimly lit and I could smell candle wax, and fresh paint. Glancing around, I could see a few cans of paint on the floor next to a couch covered in an old paint-splattered sheet. There was a set of very steep stairs before me, with a heavy banister. He took my shawl from my shoulders and placed his palm on my cheek, caressing me and lifting my eyes to his. He kissed me then, his tongue gently searching for mine and his hands slipping into my hair, pulling me closer to him. My arms went around him and one of my hands found a place at the base of his spine, the other around his neck. He kissed the corner of my mouth then, and started to place little kisses along my jaw line, tracing the line down to my neck. He pulled back a little, and laughed softly. He put his hands on my shoulders then, turning me, and giving me a pat on the ass he said the first and only word he had spoken since we had come inside. “Upstairs.”