"If only I knew you were going to come tonight, sir," she murmured, looking up at his weather beaten face as he entered the hotel bar, "I would have invited you to buy me a meal and tell me your sorrows."
"I remember your hunger well," he smiled to see her once more. "Do you remember my thirst as well?"
"Yes."
"Then, there is hope in this world, you tease," he laughed. "I remember you were amazing."
"Thank you for the compliment."
"Could you indulge my thirst again?"
"Would it change anything?" She smiled quizzically, pressing the key to her hotel room into her purse, denying him something without ever saying no.
"Very funny," he frowned. "It would brighten up my life for a hour or so."
"You can last a whole hour drinking in the forest of our dreams?"
"A series of dreams could help us understand all the riddles and all the particular secrets," he promised, reaching out to touch her hand. "A glass of white wine would be a good start perhaps?"
"Would you have to climb a particular vine for that?" She wondered out loud.
"No," he said dryly. "I believe they have bottles of the stuff here, but if you have a desire to climb a particular tree, there is a fine beech in the hotel yard."
"I know, I can see it from my room, when I look out in the morning."
"Could I see it too, then?"
"A glass of wine and I am yours for the night? You must think me very inexpensive sir?"
"It was just a whim," he said, turning away and walking across to the bar. He pulled his wallet from the lining of his jacket and waved several notes to attract the attention of the bar steward.
"Sometimes the whim takes me and sometimes I take the whim," she said pensively, looking away from the bar and back through the window to the beech. She took out her room key and turned it over and over, flipping it in the palm of her hand as if tossing a coin.
"We are twin souls you know," he smiled on his return, depositing two large glassed and a packet of nuts.
"Nuts too, sir. Oh my! Let's go to bed at once!"
"I knew you could be bought."
"I've been known to climb a tree for nothing, I'll have you know, sir."
"I've been known to climb a tree and ask for it to be cut down."
"Do you enjoy the sensation of falling?"
"I was just trying to capture a moment."
"All moments are evanescent, alas," she sighed and sipped her wine.
"Very true - like droplets of water hanging from a leaking tap."
"The last passengers on the plughole ferry."
"Exactly."
She furrowed her brow and looked across at him seriously, furrowing her brow: "Tell me, sir?"
"Yes?"
"Do all the droplets get window seats?"
"All the way down through translucent heaven."
"And back into the drift of the next hurricane."
"But, what a ride. Such possibilities!"
"One always has to consider the possibilities, but sometimes one has to realise the limits of imagination."
"You have a point there," he conceded drinking down a deep draft of the golden wine. "When hurtling down from a tree, it is easy to doubt one's purpose."
"Depends on the landing, I suppose, sir."
"True... the landing is the end of the moment."
She said nothing, but just stared down at her glass, waiting for him to continue.
"Problems of landing are often not reflected in the eye of the beholder," he warmed to his simile. "There again it depends how close the beholder is and what he/she is concentrating on at the precise moment of impact."
Again she said nothing.
"Am I boring you, dear lady?"
"No you aren't. I like drifting with you - it's comfortable, a nice ride - you don't have absurd expectations."
"Thanks - I remember from last time... you're almost too damn intelligent!"
"I have a degree, sir. That does take a modicum of intelligence."
"I do not doubt it."
"And a touch of juvenile silliness."
"I wouldn't trust you, if you didn't."
"I like pranks, sir."
"I can tell."
"And can be very horrid, which makes me a bitch, I suppose."
"I like the way you mistreat those deserving of scorn. I wonder why?"
"Role reversal?"
"You could be right."
"You do know such things go to a girl's head, don't you sir?" she lisped prettily
"Methinks you take advantage of a gentleman's good manners."
"I do believe that you too like to be teased, sir."
"Very much so... I like to be shown the chase, provided the scent is fresh. I love a fresh trail and the promises of what could be warmed up and consumed."
"I only hope I can be of assistance," she murmured gazing over his shoulder through a window at a large beech tree in the park behind him. " Tell me, sir. If I were a tree what sort of a tree would I be?"
"I see you more as a little shrub on the horizon."
"Beast."
"I will not have to climb you, but will find my moment in your thickets."
"Do you have any thoughts on how you might fill them, sir?"
"Of course... but, they are dark and dangerous."
"Oh?"
"Well... Grey and possibly a little troublesome," he compromised. "Do tell," she smiled, sitting down, crossing her legs and waiting for her before bedtime story.
"Oh dear. An audience... what to do?"
"The floor is yours, sir."
"I change. I have many moods. Once upon a time I wanted to dominate and force and make and control. Another once upon a time I wanted to be the victim of a black clad banshee."
"The girl of your dreams?"
"I would be so pleased if you turned out to be both."
"I'm not a great predator, sir, in all honesty."
"That I accept. It is not something I will hold against you."
"What will you hold against me, sir?"
"I will hold much against you, if you will lead me to your chambers, madam, now that our glasses are empty."
"Would you not be lost in my space, sir?" she teased, touching him lightly on the thigh as she stood up and made to walk towards the door.
"I do hope you would offer me somewhere closer," he hinted, pressing his hand to her lower back, almost possessively, but lightly enough for her to say no, if she chose.
