The whisky shot burned my throat and sent a buzz reeling through my head but I felt I needed it after what I'd just heard. I was at the bar of a quiet country pub chatting to the girl behind the bar. It was very quiet; besides us there was only a couple of old regulars in a booth very close to falling asleep in their cups. I was on a cycling tour and the bartender was taking the opportunity to tell all her troubles to a stranger in a twist on the clichΓ©.
Her name was Marion and she was beautiful. Dark hair hung straight down her back and framed her pale face with its pixie-like features and pointy chin. She was slim too but fit and robust. Mostly she was tired of living in such a small town. I didn't mind listening to her vent her loneliness and frustration but I didn't expect the turn it had just taken. "The biggest problem," she'd said as she passed me a whisky I hadn't ordered, "is I haven't had sex in months cause there's no-one new round here to fuck -- well there wasn't." She was looking me straight in the eye. I gulped the whisky.
"I'm not that hard on the eye am I?" she looked at me half-mockingly.
"Far from it," I blurted out, my head trying to fathom her invitation and deal with the rush of Dutch courage. "You're beautiful, I just wasn't expecting ..."
"Expecting what?" she grinned slyly and pushed her hair back over one ear, sending a buzz to a different part of my body.
"I," her sharp blue eyes were toying with me and I didn't know what to think. I wanted another whisky. "Didn't you just suggest that we ..."
"That we what?" she leaned forward on the bar and I could see straight down into the cleavage between her small, pert breasts.
"That we," I had to just say it, "have sex."
"Are you saying I'd proposition a complete stranger?" she stood upright and put a hand on her chest, seemingly in indignation.
"Well, I ..." I stammered helplessly and looked around the room as if I'd find some clue. When I looked back the hand on her chest had moved slightly and she was pinching one of her nipples so it stood out against the thin cotton, tempting me. Then she dropped her hand to her sides. "I'm just not that kind of a girl," she laughed. I slumped on the stool. What was she toying at?