As I walked into the restaurant bar I saw her, she was sitting at the bar with her back to me, looking down into her drink. As I came up behind her she looked up at the mirror across the bar and saw my reflection. A smile came across her lips as she turned to greet me. She said that she was glad to see me. We had seen each other at the market and spoke there as people do in such places but didn’t introduce ourselves. We formally introduce ourselves and made small talk, her name was Carmen. As the evening progressed we talked about work; she worked in a deli in fact at the same market that I first saw her in. We continued to talk about the weather, work and other things.
You know how they say Italians talk with their hands. Well, when Carmen talked, she talked with her eyes, she would flash them up or around as she spoke. They were big and brown. Her eyelashes were long and flashed up and down as she spoke. She would accent something by moving her eyes up and blinking, you know a kind of fluttering, looking away but not really looking away. Carmen’s eyes would flash seductively as she talked. The talk slowly worked its way to more personal subjects and maybe a little kinky. She talked about making love in a pile of crab salad, or a big bowl of chocolate pudding or Jell-O. She said those things because she worked with those items every day. I gather that she was not married, though she did tell me had a daughter. Carmen talked about having to go home alone to her vibrator. I kidded her that it was a Black & Decker Industrial Strength size, one that she had probably almost worn out. She laughed.
We talked and laughed together. Then she asked me about my sex life. That was something I didn't like to talk about. My wife has had a lot of emotional problems and right she was in a sexual downturn. Over the past couple of years sex is something that does not fit into her present state of mind. I told Carmen the truth, I don't know why but I did. It had been a year and 6 days since I last made love to my wife. That was painful to say, for this woman was a woman I had just met and was basically a stranger.
As the night went on she drank a little more and I nursed the beers I had. I am not a drinking man, so I milked the ones I had. It was almost closing time so we got ready to leave. When it came time to leave I walked Carmen to her car. The night air was cool but not so cold it that it made you uncomfortable. As it turns out I was parked next to her. She moved to unlock her door and turned around. Carmen was right next to me; somehow she flowed like a cloud into my arms.
