"Hey, Mick! Get me another."
"Sure thing, Andy."
Andy sat alone, sipping dark rum, in the same seat at the corner of the bar that he did every afternoon when he left work. He wasn't a particularly handsome man and maybe not the best dressed in New York City but he was far from unattractive. He didn't have the best job in the world but it paid his bills and left him enough to play with. The problem Andy was drowning daily wasn't his looks or his job. It was his confidence, or his lack there of.
The cool autumn breeze blew across his back and he heard the door close. He turned to see a lone woman walking toward the bar. The click of her high heels on the hardwood floor drew his attention downward to the slender but shapely legs. He followed them up to the hem of her snug black skirt; the fabric shifting with the movement of her thighs mesmerized him. A thin leather belt accented the line of contrast of her silky red blouse and her cleavage peeked out at the top of a line of buttons that were not fastened above her breasts. Raven black hair draped over her shoulders and framed a face that surely belonged on a magazine cover. Piercing blue eyes set above high cheekbones and cherry red lips so glossy they begged to be kissed.
She glanced at him and smiled as she approached the bar next to him. She motioned the bartender with a single finger and he poured a Manhattan and placed it on a napkin in front of her. She took a sip and turned, brushing Andy's arm and spilling a few drops of her drink on his shirt.
"I'm so sorry!" the concern in her eyes kept Andy's even temper in check as she lightly brushed the surface drops away.
Andy waved his hand in acceptance of her apology. Andy didn't say, 'No problem.' And offer a witty come on. She didn't laugh at the attempt he didn't make and introduce herself. Andy didn't ask her to join him and she didn't accept. They didn't talk through the evening and she didn't laugh at the jokes he didn't make. When the band started she didn't coax him to floor show him her sexiest moves and Andy didn't buy her more drinks.
They didn't dance til closing and Andy didn't invite her to go home with him. She didn't smile wryly and accept and they didn't walk to his apartment in the rain. He didn't offer to lend her one of his shirts while her clothes dried and she didn't go into the bathroom to change and freshen up.
He wasn't stunned by her beauty when she didn't return wearing his shirt unbuttoned to her belly button. He didn't reflect on how much better his shirt looked on her than it did him. She didn't straddle him as he sat on the sofa and he didn't wrap his arms around her when she didn't press her body against his. She didn't cradle his face gently in her hands when she didn't kiss him and she didn't feel the swelling in his groin, as she didn't unbutton his shirt.
