"I think that's it." Mike said as he routed through the stuff piled on the table. "I think we got it all."
I had just spent a Sunday afternoon at a friends house helping him take pictures with my digital camera of an assortment of items he wanted to sell on e-bay. Mike is engaged and, with the wedding day fast approaching, he thought he'd clean out his closets of stuff he no longer wanted and try to pick up some needed cash by auctioning it all off.
"Thanks for helping me out, Dave." Mike said. "I really appreciate it."
"Don't mention it." I replied as I packed away the camera. "It's fun to do things like this. I'll download the pics to my computer and e-mail them all to you tomorrow."
"Do you have anywhere to go now?" Mike asked. "Karen and I are going out for dinner, why don't you come along? I'll buy for the work you're doing for me."
Before I could answer, Mike's fiancΓ©e Karen came through the door and greeted us. Mike told her about all the pictures we had taken and showed her some of the items he wanted to get rid of. As he did we began debating what things were worth. Soon, however, Mike returned the conversation about my joining them for dinner.
"I don't want to interfere with you guys." I said. "Nonsense." said Karen, "We'd love to have you join us. Did you decide where we're going?" She asked Mike.
"I thought we'd drive up to Montgomeryville to the Joseph Ambler Inn." Mike responded. "I better call them and tell them to make the reservation for three instead of two."
I decided I was pretty hungry having had no lunch, so a paid meal sounded okay to me. I stopped protesting and decided to just go along. I liked Mike and Karen and the restaurant he had chosen was fairly close to home so "why not?" I thought. It's a great restaurant too, so if he's paying I wasn't going to miss out.
As Mike dialed the phone, Karen suddenly stopped him.
"Hey wait! If we're going up that way, why don't I call Rose and see if she's busy. Maybe she'll go along so we have four. That way Dave won't feel like he doesn't belong. Beside, Rose is a lot of fun and she's been feeling a bit lonely since I moved out and she broke up with her boyfriend."
Mike looked at me and asked me what I thought. I said it was fine, so Karen grabbed the phone and dialed while she walked out of the room and into the kitchen. Mike explained that Rose was Karen's roommate for the last few years and is one of the Bridesmaids in the wedding. He went on to explain that her boyfriend had broken up with her about six weeks ago and then Karen moved out last week, so they were always trying to think of ways to cheer her up.
I couldn't quite make out what Karen was saying but I could hear she was talking. Another moment went by and Karen came out of the kitchen still talking on the phone.
"Oh he's about 5-feet-nine, blonde hair, nice build......."how old? I dunno."
"How old are you?" she asked me. "Forty-Four." I replied.
"Almost Forty." she said to Rose on the phone. "But I would have guessed mid 30s" she continued. "He's married though." She said disappointingly. After a pause, listening, she laughed. "We're just having Dinner, Rose." Karen stated. "We really just need a fourth body." Then she laughed again.
I was really wishing I could hear the other end of the conversation. Especially the part when Karen said on the phone, "Would I?" Then she laughed, looked over at me, winked, and said to Rose, "Yeah, why not? He's cute."
The Mike grabbed the phone and said to Rose and Karen, "Stop it you guys! Rose, meet us there at 7:00." He hung up the phone and said to Karen, "You guys are unbelievable."
"She just wanted to know what to expect." Karen protested. "I have to get dressed."
Karen went upstairs and I told Mike that I should stop home since it's on the way and change into something nicer, since this restaurant is fancier than the shorts and polo shirt I was wearing. He said that would be fine and that they'd meet us there at 7 o'clock.
"So what's Rose like?" I asked as I was walking toward the door.
"Oh she's really nice." Mike responded. "She's an Italian girl and really fun."
"So she's got a great personality, huh?" I laughed.
"Yeah, she does" Mike said as he chuckled along understanding what I was getting at. "But", he continued, "She really is cute. She's about 23 or 24, long brown hair, fairly short, I guess about five-three, Not real thin, but not fat either...medium I guess. But she really is a riot. You'll like her a lot."
"Yeah, so, would you fuck her?" I laughed as Mike seemed to understand that that's maybe what Rose asked of Karen.
"Yeah, I suppose I would." Mike replied with a chuckle.
Okay...sounds good. I'll trust your taste in women." I said as I went thru the door. "What the hell, I'm alone this weekend, so anything is better than sitting at home."
I quick went home and got changed. I had about a half hour to kill before it was time to leave, so I straightened up the kitchen a bit and went outside to skim the debris off the pool. I was half thinking I had made a mistake agreeing to go to dinner. It was so hot and humid this August Sunday evening that staying home and floating in the pool sounded like a better idea. But it was too late now, so soon I was on my way to the restaurant. With my wife away on business, it was something to do.
I got there first, or so I thought, since I didn't see Mike's Jeep yet. I decided to just wait in the car, but I was startled by a knock on the window. I looked and saw this cute, very young looking female standing by my car.
"Are you Dave?" She asked as I opened the door.
"Yes, I am. Are you Rose?" I could only hope.
"Yes, I'm Rose. Mike and Karen are late as usual."
I looked at my watch and it was only about two minutes past seven so I shrugged my shoulders a bit and said, "Not too bad yet." But I would not have been upset if they had forgotten to come. Rose was definitely cute.
"You want to wait out here or go in and wait at the bar?" asked Rose.
"Doesn't matter, what do you want to.....yeah...let's go in and get something." I figured halfway through my reply that if she mentioned it, she probably wanted to do that, so I wasn't going to sound like an idiot saying "whatever you want to do...blah, blah." So we went in.
We found the bar and both ordered a glass of Merlot and began to chat, exchanging basic information. I decided as we talked that not only was she cute, but very charming and I was now very glad that Karen had made the suggestion. I was sure I would enjoy her company. After we talked a short while there was a pause in the conversation. I was just about to say something when Rose spoke first.
"So you're married huh?" she asked.
"Yeah" I answered unenthusiastically.
"Figures" Rose responded. "First guy I meet that I like and he's attached. But I guess it really doesn't ma....."
I thought she was about to say it doesn't matter, but she was interrupted by the entrance of Mike and Karen.
"HEY guys....so you met?" Mike said. "How long have you been here?"
"Just a couple of minutes." I answered.
"Wow, that's great." Mike went on. "Do they have our table ready?"
Just then the hostess came over and asked Mike if he had a reservation which he said he did. He gave her his name and she told us to follow her. It was about ten after seven when we sat down.
Dinner was very nice the food was good; the conversation was spirited and fun. I thought Rose was a little flirty at times, but not excessively. And if she was, I figured the wine may have loosened her up a bit. I didn't really get any impression about what she thought of me. And since Mike and Karen were not in any way trying to "hook us up" I wasn't daring to charm her or flirt with her either. We simply had a nice meal, talked about their wedding plans, how Mike and I became friends, how Mike and Karen had met and just a little about Rose's ex-boyfriend and the residual problems she had with that. It really wasn't much different than a bunch of people from the office having lunch together.
Until....
Until Mike started asking me about my backyard pool. Rose seemed so intrigued when Mike mentioned the pool and the fact that my yard was very secluded. She asked me if anyone could see it from neighboring properties.
"Nope." I told her.
"Wow, that's so cool." she said. "Do you ever swim nude in it?"
"A couple of times." I responded nonchalantly. "At night though, not during the day."
Rose giggled and blurted out, "Oh I'd do it all the time."
I swore I saw this gleam in her eye as if she had something in mind, but I didn't really think much of it as I continued by explaining that it's rarely warm enough to swim in the late evening.
Other than that brief moment, nothing that happened or nothing that was said gave any indication of what was soon to happen.
Mike paid the bill and we got up from the table to leave. Mike and Karen started to walk from the dining room towards the entrance. I stepped back to let Rose pass me so I could follow her out. She walked quite slowly like she was trying to get distance between her and Karen. And when Mike and Karen were far enough ahead that they couldn't hear her, she grabbed my elbow gently and semi-whispered, "Let them leave first, okay?" I nodded and we continued out.