This story is based loosely on true events in my life. Aside from the names of the women involved (which I've changed to protect their privacy) I will let the reader guess where the story turns from fact to fiction.
As a single man of 31, I would often go to my hometown's bars on weekends, carrying a guitar on my back in case I might get to serenade a few people (and once in a while I did get such a chance). The other thing I liked about bars was that most of the women, including bartenders and waitresses, were friendly to me. Like most men, I craved female attention, and bars were my most likely places for getting it. I could walk up to almost any woman, and she would let me greet her with a hug and/or kiss; sometimes she would return the gesture. I was mindful, however, that most women already had husbands or boyfriends, and I had no intention of infringing on those relationships. So kissing was as far as it went. Well, maybe the occasional slow dance if there was a dance floor and a live band was playing.
Then one mid-winter Friday night, I walked to a table where 3 women were sitting. They seemed very receptive to my affection, for each one not only kissed me back, but allowed the hug to last a full minute. Once I finished embracing the last one, they invited me to sit down with them. I took my guitar off my back, draped my coat over the empty chair, and took a seat. The ladies told me that 2 of them (Amanda and Andrea) were sisters and the other one (Kristin) was their neighbor. Amanda's hair was black, in a short, geometric style; Andrea's was dark-brown and shoulder-length; and Kristin's was either light-brown or sandy-blond, ending just below her neck. When I mentioned to the sisters how interesting it was that both their names started with A, they told me their mother had wanted twins, but instead they were born 6 years apart, with a brother in between. Amanda, 30, and Andrea, 24, lived all their lives in a small town a short distance south of my own; Amanda had graduated from her high school the year after I had from mine.
Soon the band began to play a slow song. I asked Amanda if she'd care to dance; she accepted. For 3 or 4 minutes we danced cheek to cheek, my eyes closed most of the time. Once the song was over, we kissed and embraced tightly, then walked back to our table. A few songs later I got to do the same with Andrea, and a song or 2 after that, with Kristin. Thus I got to dance at least once with each of the 3, but the one with whom I clicked the most, and thus the one with whom I got further dances, was Amanda. We seemed so comfortable dancing in each other's arms that I began to wonder to myself whether Amanda was just another woman to kiss at a bar, or something special was starting to bloom.
The next several Friday nights, I saw the same 3 ladies again and danced more slow dances, again mostly with Amanda. Soon Amanda and I got comfy enough with each other to exchange last names and phone numbers. We expanded our relationship beyond the bars, each of us treating the other to dinner on alternating weeks. Then, about 3 months after we first met, I offered to take her to my place; she accepted.
