The casino was not all that busy and I found a semi secluded table in one of the lounges build a few floors above the casino floor. There were four other people in the lounge, save the bartender and waitress, a pair of older women and a middle aged couple.
I nervously sat in the chair and looked around. The couple talked softly as they romantically touched hands. The pair of women drank their glasses of wine and chatted noisily.
The waitress came over and I absentmindedly ordered a draft beer. She gave me a non committal but pleasant enough smile and left.
Watching the shapely waitress walk away I ran through the grand plan in my mind. I had no idea how any of this would work or if it would work at all. My guess was that the night would be a dismal failure, but here I was trying to make a go of it.
The idea that I could connect with and actually contract a prostitute in this fine establishment was laughable. The possibility that it would be just a regular woman, preposterous.
The waitress, who would have been perfect for the plan based only on appearance, brought the beer and as she placed down a napkin with the glass of beer on top she asked, "Tab?"
The only response out of my mouth was an inelegant, "Huh?"
"Do you want to start a tab," she repeated in a semi irritated tone.
"That would be nice, yes," I responded as I felt my face grow more flushed by the second.
She shrugged and left as so did the couple as they ever so slowly drifted away, close coupled, likely seeking a more private and comfortable location. Her short pleated skirt flapping good by as they left. I envied that woman for wearing that killer skirt and for looking so very good in the process.
I envied him for having such a lovely woman cling affectionately to his arm. Certainly a feeling I had never enjoyed and as dim as my outlook for the future was, not likely to any time in the future.
I was then free to finally get a good look at the waitress as she cleared the table as I was far too flustered while she was waiting on me. Attractive women do that to me as they intimidate me and she was certainly all that.
Her conservative long sleeved white blouse did little to enhance her attractiveness but her short black a-line skirt broadcast her lovely legs. She almost caught me watching her clear that table. She would be so perfect for this because it was clear that she held no interest in me at all.
To my chagrin she walked over to me. I hoped that my face did not blush as bright red as it felt.
"Care for another," she asked sweetly.
I looked down at my glass, which, although I wasn't certain as to how, was almost completely empty. I mumbled a soft, "yes."
She walked away and I tried my best not to have my eyes riveted on the hem line of that skirt as it flipped seductively with each step. And those legs. Whew. A woman like her always made me feel better even if she would have nothing to do with me.
She returned with my glass of beer and smiled again as she placed a fresh napkin on the table and carefully centered the glass, now dripping with condensation, on the napkin.
"Sorry I was snippy before," she said. "It has been a bitch of a day."
"Not a problem," I responded. "We all have days like that."
She turned and left without another word.
'That was the best you could do,' I mumbled to myself. This was the perfect time to strike up a conversation. She was not busy and would have had the time. Well too late you fool. You fail again.
Three men arrived and parked themselves at the bar. They seemed like regulars because the bartender and the waitress immediately started chattering away.
I watched and had to think that those were things I never seemed to ever do. Out for a night with friends and chatting up smiling a woman who seemed to enjoy their company.
My moments of envy and self pity were soon shattered as a purse clattered down on the table and an attractive woman slapped herself into the chair opposite mine.
She smiled at me and with a playful little wink said, "well don't just sit there get me a drink."
I sat there mouth agape virtually unable to speak. I was rescued by the waitress who had seemingly teleported herself from the bar to my table at light speed.
"Can I get the lady something," smiled the waitress.
"Do you have Knob Creek," the mystery woman asked? "I will have that, straight-up if you do. Make it a double."
"Good choice," nodded the waitress who retreated to the bar without another word.
My eyes returned to the mystery woman as my mind going as fast and in as many different directions as a Formula 1 pit stop. I just sat there like a dope and couldn't find anything at all, charming or otherwise, to say to her.
I was getting drawn into her, those dark blue but definitely blue eyes commanding my complete attention. I still had failed to utter a single word. You suck, I said to myself.
She was older than I, but it was hard to tell how old because she obviously took care of herself. She was attractive but not beautiful. Her mannerisms suggested that she was more than comfortable with herself but not to the point of excess.
The waitress brought her a nice glass containing the drink of her choosing, set it carefully on the table and after a little knowing smile to the woman left without a word.
The woman picked up the drink and took a slow almost delicate sip and then another.
"Oh, that is soooo good," she said and with a wink offered, "Thank you for this. It is expensive but well worth it."
'You are probably expensive but again more than likely also well worth it' I thought to myself.
She took another sip of her drink and held it in her slender fingers as she looked straight at me. Studying me. I blushed and tried to look away but those radiant smiling eyes had captured me and and drew me in, commanding my full attention.
My mind raced with a thousand unanswered questions. Surely she was a prostitute because only a professional would bother..... but she was so pretty. So beautiful, at least to me. Surely there were no professional women working this place that looked like her. Surely.
She derailed my train of thought as she leaned forward and said in a low but commanding tone, 'This is the way this is going to work. I will speak and you will listen. I am limiting you to yes and no answers. Nod for yes. Say nothing for no."