I stepped outside the bar, the reduced noise volume was an instant and welcome break. I could hear my ears ringing but what I really needed was a cigarette. I was wearing a short black skirt and a black spaghetti strap top which showed off my legs and cleavage.
Inside my purse I flicked open the lid on the packet of Marlboro Lights and pinched the white filter. Whilst sliding it out of the packet I fished out my red lighter and leaned back against the building.
A few other people were smoking around me. I placed the white filter between my dark red lips and raised my hands to shield the end of the cigarette. That's when I noticed him, smiling at me as he sat with two male friends at the tables which lined the front of the bar.
I paused for a second and glanced at him before refocussing my eyes into my hands as I clicked the lighter. I sucked hard on the filter, drawing breath through the cigarette before inhaling a satisfying lung full of deliciously thick smoke.
Lowering my hands and dropping the lighter inside my purse, I glanced at him again. He was grinning lecherously at me now. I licked my top lip, moistening the dryness then exhaled a long, thick stream of smoke into the night sky.
He was rather cute, but he looked a lot older than me, so I tried not to give him too much thought. I looked up and down the street whilst taking long drags on the cigarette.
However, feeling his presence upon me, I felt compelled to glance in his direction every time I exhaled, just to see if he was still watching me without him knowing he had my attention.
He seemed to dip in and out of the conversation taking place at the table, glancing back and forth at me when he spoke, but then full on undressing me with his eyes again when his friends were in control of the conversation.
Each time I looked it felt as if he knew I was stealing another glance, and his smile would turn into a big grin. The cocky git knew I was looking to see if he was looking. That raised the corners of my mouth into an involuntary half smile.
Under most circumstances having a guy paying particular attention to me in this fashion would heighten my awareness. Survival instincts would kick in and my guard would go up, but with this guy it actually lowered my guard a little.
It shouldn't have because he was easily twice my age. I was nineteen, fresh out of the initial Covid lockdown and enjoying being free again. I was convinced this guy was knocking forty. He could have easily been one of my dads friends, obviously he wasn't.
Drawing the last drag from the cigarette I stared back at him and checked him out. Two can play his game, I thought, inhaling sharply.
He had wavy styled dark hair with a short, neatly trimmed beard. His eyes were very attractive, alluring even, especially when he smiled and undressed me with them. My heart began to flutter. He knew I was now admiring him.
Blushing as he grinned so blatantly at me, his eyes roaming up my legs and over my breasts, I crushed out the cigarette, exhaled and then returned to my friends and the loud music inside.
When I went for another cigarette an hour later, he was still there. We instantly locked eyes and smiled. I pulled out another Marlboro Light cigarette and placed it between my dark red lips again. DΓ©jΓ vu, I blushed, as his gaze skirted the full length of my body once more, causing me to smirk and the cigarette to lift horizontally as I cupped my hands around the end of the cigarette and lit it.
Craving the nicotine as always, I sucked hard on the filter whilst still managing to smirk. I then cast him a serious look as I inhaled the smoke deep into my body. A few knowing moments passed before I smiled once more. I looked away and exhaled.
To appear in control, to show him he had no power over me, I stood up straight and stopped looking at him. Rotating my arm from my shoulder, keeping the cigarette poised between the first and second knuckles of my index and middle fingers, I kept the smouldering cigarette at mouth level, off to the side. With my palm up and my hand facing outward, I languidly drew on the cigarette, inhaled confidently and exhaled through pursed lips.
This silent flirting continued until I finished the cigarette and stubbed it out for a second time.
Another hour later, almost midnight, I stepped outside with a cigarette already in one hand and the lighter in the other. I left my purse on the table with my friends.
There he was again, still socialising with his friends. He looked my way the moment he saw me. With his big lecherous grin and those deeply, dazzling eyes of his, he started at my feet and slowly drank every inch of me in. He nodded his approval and I grinned wider than he did.
I'd never been checked out this blatantly in silence before. I actually wished he smoked so he could approach me for a light, any excuse to come up to me and initiate a conversation, but he never did.
A little drunk and aroused by this point, from all the drinking and dancing inside the bar, I was grinning with each drag from the cigarette. Then I'd give off a little giggle when I exhaled.
Nearing the end of the cigarette, my friends exited the bar, handed me my purse and told me we were moving on. My heart sank for a brief moment. I told them I'd catch them up once I'd finished my cigarette.
Mr Mystery smirked, cheekily telling me to spin around by signalling a twist with his finger. I took my final drag from the cigarette and turned around slowly, not making it too obvious to others around me. So much for being in control, I giggled at myself.
When I looked back at him I was chuckling. I crushed out the cigarette and he appeared delighted, winking at me with a cool nod of his head.
It didn't take long for me to forget about Mr Mystery. At the next bar my friends and I hit the dance floor and ended the night with some silly shots.
When we left the bar I headed in the opposite direction by myself. The girls went for food but I wanted to get a taxi home as soon as possible. The queues at the end of the night were always horrendous.
Taking a short cut down one of the old Victorian arcades, hobbling on the cobbled stone in my ankle strap heels, smoking a cigarette, I heard someone behind me. I stopped and looked but there was nobody there.
I continued on, without fear or concern. The taxi rank was only another twenty metres or so away at the end of the arcade. Then I heard the noise again.