He opens the door.
The bar is blessedly cool and completely shielded from the sun. It is smokey and dark, the way they used to be in the States not so long ago. There is a welcoming air there and he guesses that tourists and their money keep the place afloat.
A hostess asks him if he'd like a seat at the bar with a grin that had been carefully cultivated to be just the right amount of inviting. But when he describes The Girl in the way she instructed—A green skirt, hair put up—her eyes dim and smile falls. Instead she gives he guesses a nod in response and asks him to follow.
When our hero sees her, lounging the booth like a lord on their throne, he smiles despite his earlier resolve. She is much more conservatively dressed tonight, the skirt nearly reaching her ankles. The top, a much looser blouse than the dress, pretty and purple and compliments her eyes like it was dyed with her in mind. And indeed, her hair is done up, with a pencil through the bun.
The hostess asks what he'd like to drink in English, but gets cut off. The Girl says something in Arabic—our hero supposes, it could just be some local language he doesn't know the name of—and finishes with a "merci." The hostess gives our hero a look, and he is not sure what she's trying to convey, but she's saying it strongly, and tries to express it for another few seconds before moving away.
"Last night you interrupted to get the waitstaff to speak English. Tonight the opposite?" He asks.
"Oh, My Mister. Last night you needed to hear. To be aware. Tonight you very much do not. Tonight you would do well to disquiet that strong mind. The less you know, the more like a pleasant dream it will be." She shrugs, she smiles, she tilts her head from side to side.
"Are you intoxicated?"
"Oh yes, very much so. From the moment you arrived. From the moment I heard you in your room. From the moment I woke as I woke thinking of you."
It's only then that he realizes there was no drink in front of her. No book, no phone-nothing. Just the woman and the cloth in the semi-round booth in the back corner of the room. He wonders how she kept herself entertained, if she had been there for long. She must have spoken with the hostess for him to get that reaction, but what did she say?
"You're wheels are turning. The exact opposite of what I had hoped." She tisks and offers a small smile. There is no lilt in her voice tonight. No girlish glee. She is controlled and measured as he typically is. Even her arms haven't moved and it's only this far into the web that he realizes she made no effort to greet or touch him.
"I'm trying to figure you out."
"I am very happy. Hah, done. And so quickly."
He laughs and she smiles more. "I'm not used to this kind of treatment."
"No, I imagine not. You told me once that women will often fawn over you too much and then grow cold. Do you remember?"
"I do."
She nods, like it is sad, like it is just another thing in life you lose in time. "Do you ever wonder why that is? If it's you? If it's something you're doing? A pattern you're seeking? Is it even happening at all? Maybe you start to drive them away when you want to be done with them? Maybe you are very cruel, beneath your surface. This monster you speak of? Maybe it deludes you. You only think the women enjoy it. That they said as much. Maybe, maybe, maybe."
"Why are you saying this?"
"Mmm, I made myself a promise, long ago. That if I should ever break every rule and see you I would not be one of those girls. That you would remember me differently."
"Do you think what you've told me will make me remember you differently?"
She laughs then, and it's honest. She shifts, ever so slightly, her shoulders rolling as she does. "Don't trust me, My Mister. Or do. But you agreed at the start, before the start, that you'd have to give yourself up for me this trip. That you'd have to let me make the rules. You've been good about it so far. Don't break such a wonderful streak. I will make you very, very happy. You have my word on this."
The hostess returns with a beer bottle and a chilled glass. She opens, pours, and bows her head in service—then departs without a sound.
"What you have there Mister? Well, it's about the best beer in the world. The world just doesn't even know it exists yet. I fear what will happen once they do. It is so very hard to keep something sacred in the face of temptation." She brings her arms down and lowers them beneath the table. Then she brings the rich, vibrant table cloth up and folds it in itself.
"You're not having anything?"
"Oh—my drink already arrived."
And then she's fluid again, like water, like when she rode him. The Girl slips beneath the table like rainfall and he feels her hands on his knees, his thighs. Her voice, muffled and distorted from below, is like the devils. "Now, you must pay attention. Public indecency here? It's quite the crime. And so much worse for infidels and foreigners." She laughs like a violin, it drowns out the sound of his zipper being pulled.
"You are ready to listen, yes?"
"Yes."It comes from the back of his throat.
"Good. First, you smell the beer. You must bring it close to you, hold it. Take it." As he does, he feels his cock in her hand. She inhales so loudly that he feels the cloth shift. "Oh yes, a rich scent. Very good. The English phrase that always makes me laugh is "full bodied." Silly. For a language with such utility? English is very poor at being poetic. Arabic runs circles around it."
She moans and he feels her breath, the heat of it, on his cock.
"Now bring it to your lips. Push them just inside the rim as you tilt it." Her lips rub over his head. "Mmm, while I think circumcision is a brutish practice? I admit. It does help you out in a few situations." He feels her lips shifting, twisting, rubbing all over the head of his cock as he puts the glass to his his mouth.
"Tell me you have not put it in your mouth yet."
"No. I know the game."
"Of course you do, My Mister. You are so very smart. But you are also tempted. So I think you should know the proper way of things before you get ahead of yourself. First, you should take the sip in and roll it around in your mouth. Then you should take it down your throat and let whatever expression come to the surface that may be. And from there? Well, the first hit is always the most informative, but there is something to be said about reaching the end."
"You're not going to keep up with the game?"
"I am going to play the next part of it, My Mister. I'm going to work up a thirst."