Parts of this story are absolutely true. It's not really about Mary, but one of her friends...
I lived in London for a long time and played in a few bands. One of them was a jazz band; usually six or seven of us, always with a female vocalist and occasionally with a drummer. We all knew each other from other musical ventures and we all had an interest in early jazz and blues so had got together to see if we could do something with jazz with an emphasis on dancing. We had a common repertoire of jazz standards from between the wars -- mostly songs which people might know and could sing along to but with a few more unusual tunes which we introduced gradually. We practised every week and got some regular residencies in local pubs and a few decent gigs, the most prestigious being a well known London jazz restaurant -- only a small place but it was one of the places that the top artists would play as a warm-up before doing the bigger venues. Admittedly, we got the booking because our banjo player wrote the house magazine for the proprietor but we got a good reception. We played at street fairs, garden parties, Christmas events and so on and we had a weekly residency in a pub near one of the big railway stations. We were pretty reasonable as a dance band and got some well paying and prestigious gigs (at London Zoo in the Aquarium would you believe!) but we all had full-time jobs so no-one really had the motivation to get more fully professional.
The banjo player's wife, Mary, was a producer at a big media company. She was due to leave the company so we were booked to play at her leaving do in the basement of the building. It was a good party; we played well enough and had fun, there was plenty of food and drink and the audience seemed to enjoy what we were doing. The punters were mostly drinking and chatting but some were dancing which always makes us play better. It was a media company, so there were a lot of people around who were dressed in trendy and wild fashions and their dancing, conversation and in their movements and conversation was flamboyant -- sometimes extremely so. I guess this was because they were media types -- without being actors, they were nevertheless around creative people so lived up to the reputation and felt they had to be dramatic.
We finished our set and the party-goers started to say their goodbyes, get their coats on and drift off. As we were packing up our gear -- thankfully not much as we mostly played acoustically - one of Mary's girlfriends came over to the band area and started chatting with us; she was looking for a lift home. I'd noticed her earlier in the evening as she was one of the more striking looking women there. She was quite attractive, not stunning but well put together physically and nicely dressed as well; tight black curly hair, trim figure, pretty blouse and calf length skirt with knee length boots in a sort of gypsy-Bohemian style. She was also clearly very outgoing; she'd danced exuberantly and been very animated in talking with a large number of people. She was probably slightly older than me (but that wasn't unusual as I was the youngster in the band).
She didn't fancy the tube or a taxi at that time of night as she was a little tipsy and tired and affected by the emotion of her friend leaving. All the other members of the band lived on the opposite side of town - in the wrong direction so since I was going roughly in her direction and could pass her street without too much of a diversion, I volunteered.
The woman - I'll call her Jen - lived not far away in central London. It was only about 3 miles but it would still take 20 minutes to get there with traffic lights and general London traffic, even at the time of night. My car wasn't far away so we didn't have to walk far as I carried my instrument and led Jen to the passenger door. We got in, buckled up and she told me where she lived. This was before GPS and SatNav so I worked out roughly how to get there and hoped she could direct me once we got close. I had most of my concentration on the traffic and navigating the route to her region of London which I wasn't very familiar with. My plan was to get us in the rough vicinity of her flat and let her tell me the details of which streets to take and where to park. There were lots of one-way streets and it was easy to get disoriented. She sobered up as I drove and was very talkative. She did most of the chatting but I glanced across to her as we drove and had to stop at traffic lights.
She complimented our playing and our outfits (not a uniform, but we all dressed quite sharply and colourfully). She asked how I long I'd known Mary and her husband; how long we'd been playing together as a band; whether I had a day job or earned my living playing music. I was mildly amused by her questions and comments and began to take an interest in her, asking what she did at the company, how long she'd lived in London, whether she was single or not and so on.
She was stretching and wriggling in the seat as we drove, playing with the seat belt as it went across her chest. It didn't seem that she was really uncomfortable, just a bit hot as she shrugged off her jacket. I had a people carrier at the time so the seats were a bit vertical -- more like a bus or van seat than a saloon or sports car bucket seat. I thought perhaps she just found the position a bit unusual.
"Are you hot?" I said, "Shall I turn the heating down or open a window?"
"No, it's OK -- I'll just take my jacket off. These clothes are just a bit tight. I can't wait to get out of them."
She slipped her jacket off -- I couldn't see why her blouse should be tight, it seemed loose enough to me but maybe her skirt was digging in. As I thought this, I saw that she pulled it up a little to show her knees and bare skin above her boots.
"I'm really grateful for you giving me a lift," she said. "It's really not safe to wander around central London at this time of night. There's all sorts of weirdos around and a girl can't be too careful."
"But you're quite happy to take a lift from a total stranger?" I replied, with a little smile. "You don't know how weird I am yet."
Then she started asking more personal questions, again starting with the band but then more directly about me. How did I know the other band members, was I married, how long had I been married, was I happy? I was amused more than offended -- I wondered if she'd had more to drink than I thought and had lost her inhibitions. I was very slow to realise that she was flirting with me.