"Will zis table suit you, sir?" the waiter asked. As with most of the waiters in Vienna, his English was pretty good. He motioned to one of the small outdoor tables crammed together on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant.
I sat down next to a handsome-looking black couple who were midway through their meal at the next table. The waiter tried to give me a menu, but I waved it away. I'd already had dinner, and I was just looking for a place to people-watch and enjoy the warm summer evening. "Just coffee," I said.
"Espresso?"
"Um, do you have American style drip?"
"Filterkaffee? No sir, we do not."
"Espresso will be fine then."
The waiter nodded and left.
"American coffee, huh?" said the man at the next table. "Where in the states are you from?"
"Houston," I replied.
"Andre Wheatley. Shreveport, Louisiana." He put down his fork and extended his hand. We were sitting close enough that I could easily grasp it. He gave me a firm, hardy handshake. His thick, rough hands didn't fit with his stylish tan suit and black silk shirt. He was a big man, with broad shoulders and a closely cropped frohawk. "And this is my wife, LaReese."
I smiled and nodded. She was short and thick, the way many black women are, with ample curves everywhere and a cute, chubby, round face and a head of big, black curls.
"I'm Mitch Graham. Nice to meet both of you."
"So what'cha doin' in Vienna?" Andre asked.
"Just vacationing. You?"
"Celebrating our twentieth wedding anniversary."
"And getting away from two teenage boys!" his wife added. She had a little girl's voice that made her sound like a cartoon character or a child's doll. But there was nothing child-like about her figure. Her huge chest strained against her tailored linen blouse, and even seated I could see she had an ample bubble butt under her short skirt.
"Nice," I said. "I'd always planned go to Europe on my honeymoon. But I recently turned thirty, and there's no bride on the horizon, so I just gave up and came by myself."
"Oh, that's so sad. Don't give up, there's somebody out there," LaReese said.
"I just meant I gave up on the honeymoon plans," I explained. "I don't think I could give up searching for a woman."
"No man ever can, even if a lot of them say they have," Andre replied. "Every man just got to have dat ting."
"That thing?" I said quizzically.
"Not 'that thing'," he laughed. "You gotta say it like you're from the islands β 'dat ting'!"
"Dat ting," I repeated.
"Yes, sir! Dat ting!" He held his hands in front of his hips as if holding a woman's hips and pumped them back and forth slightly, while discretely making several slight pelvic thrusts in his chair. "You know, dat ting! Dat ting you NEED!" LaReese put two fingers to her mouth and giggled. "No sir, don't stop looking for the right woman. I found LaReese, and she's the best thing that could'a happened to me."
"Aww, Honey, that's so sweet," she cooed.
"Seriously," Andre continued. "A lot of people are down on marriage right now, but I'm telling you right now, there's no joy like sharing your life with a lady you love. And when you're married, you ALWAYS got dat ting. MMM! Ohhh yea!"
All three of us chuckled at his enthusiastic endorsement of 'dat ting'. The waiter returned with my coffee and I sipped it while they finished their meal. We discussed what we'd seen in Vienna so far, and what our sightseeing plans were for the rest of our stays.
After they finished, LaReese suggested a walk along the canal. They invited me to join them as they stood up from their table. As she rose, LaReese demurely tugged on the hem of her her short, pleated white skirt, then ran her hands down her chubby thighs to smooth it out. Most women her size wouldn't attempt such an outfit, especially without hose. But as I stole a few long looks at her bare legs and watched her big, bouncy ass jiggle under her skirt as she began to walk, I couldn't help but agree that the flirty outfit worked for her.
We strolled down the walkways overlooking the water, staring across the canal at the lights of Vienna. We chatted easily, and I learned all the ordinary stuff about them strangers are apt to discuss. They had two boys, seventeen and fifteen. Andre was a bus mechanic back in Shreveport and LaReese was a physician's assistant. Things were pretty tight, financially, but even though they were saving for the boys to go to college, they managed to scrape together enough for the trip.
"You've got to take care of your marriage," Andre said. "There are a million distractions to draw your attention away from your spouse, but you can't let that happen. You have to protect that spark of passion, or even the best relationship can get stale."