My head felt as leaden as the gray sky as I slowed down for the 25 mph speed limit sign entering the small Maryland town. Since I had taken my new job, I had been working too many hours and getting sent all over to concrete plants that were having problems.
I still hadn't caught up with my neglected yardwork from being in Pennsylvania for three days when my boss called and asked me to go check out a plant in Maryland that the company had just acquired.
I parked at the nondescript motel where I had reserved a room, checked in, threw my bag in the room and pulled my Mapquest printout back out to go find the plant. Passing thorugh the center of town, I noticed a small cafe and next to it a bar/pool hall that seemed to be the focal point of downtown.
After I met the people at the plant and determined that I couldn't get everything that was wrong there straightened out before retirement, I called my boss and reported the dismal situation.
His response was "well, I guess you'll have to spend the rest of the week there, then!"
I really wanted a beer and something to eat at that point, so I headed back into town and parked in the lot between the cafe and the pool hall.
The bar was quiet and cool, with an old-fashioned wooden bar out front and a pool room in the back. The few people in the bar took no notice as I walked up to the bar and ordered a draft from the efficient but taciturn bartender.
Taking the frosty mug off the bar, I decided to check out the pool room. There were only two people back there, playing a game of eight-ball, a grizzled looking, sunburned guy in jeans and a t-shirt and his opponent, a tall, statuesque red-headed woman.
I watched in appreciation as she bent over the table to line up her next shot. She was wearing a pink tank top and a short denim skirt which showed off her fair. freckled arms, legs and impressive cleavage. After she sank her shot, I put a quarter on the rail of the pool table to claim the next game and then sat on a stool out of the way.
She glanced up and smiled briefly as she lined up her next shot and I was further impressed by her sinking her next three shots and then the 8-ball to win the game. I was enjoying watching her play and watching her as she moved around the table, bending and stretching to line up and take shots, and jealous of the felt on the pool table and the table rail as she brushed her breasts across them to take her shots.
"Well, hope you have better luck," the grizzled guy said to me and then turned to the woman with a smile. "I've had enough, Carrie, I'm surrendering.....good game."
She thanked him and then turned back to the table and slid my quarter into the slot to release the pool balls.
"Challenger racks," she said with a grin, so I arranged the pool balls at one end of the table.
"You're not going to run the table on me, are you?" I asked her.
"I might," she said, "you never know." She slammed the cue ball into the rack of balls, sending one of the solids into a corner pocket.
I had been more interested in watching her bend over the table and lift one sandaled foot to give herself leverage and give me a view of her curvy leg. She sank another ball on her next turn before she missed, giving me my first chance to play.
It didn't make any difference, since distracted as I was by her freckled cleavage across the table, I didn't sink a single ball.
"You might do better if you weren't trying to look down my top," she said with a smile.
"Yeah, probably, but it's more enjoyable than pool," I said with a smile of my own.
Her next shot required her to really stretch across the table and I was treated to another view of her long leg stretched out behind her, but then as she leaned forward and her top pulled up, I saw a glowing blue moon entwined in flowers and vines tattooed on her lower back.