I was enjoying our conversation with the Stranger. The wine made it easy for me to confide in him, and tell him things I would not have told someone I knew. "My bride and I were virgins when we got married. I still have not been able to get inside of her," I revealed.
The Stranger looked at my bride, who blushed and looked down at the table we were sitting at in the hotel bar. "Your bride is beautiful, fragile, fresh, and innocent," he said. "Perhaps you are so much in love with her that you cannot think of her sexually."
I smiled with relief, "You have amazing insight, and you do not even know me. No one else would understand something like that."
"I am older than the two of you, and I have learned how to read people," the Stranger said. "I sensed your situation before I asked if I could join you at your table."
It was 1:30 AM on a week night. There was no one else in the hotel bar, but the bar tender, who was watching a ball game on television, and too far away to hear us.
"No one can hear our conversation," the Stranger said with a slight smile.
"You are a mind reader," I said.
"Your mind is an interesting read. This must be your honeymoon."
"Yes," my bride said. "I grew up in this city. I have lived with my parents in the same house since I was born. My husband and I will see the sights for a week. Then I will move into his apartment."
"That is sweet," the Stranger said. "This is a fascinating and beautiful city. It will be even more enjoyable for your husband to see it with a woman as beautiful as you are."
"Thank you," my bride said, giggling slightly, and looking at the table.
"Shyness in one as lovely as you is exceptionally appealing. If I may say so," the Stranger said nodding respectfully at me, "any man would be proud to be seen with you. You have a delightful woman's figure, but your face makes you look touchingly young. It is easy for me to imagine you in the bed room you grew up in, in your parents' home playing with a teddy bear you have owned since you were three years old."
My bride laughed gently. "I have had that bear since I was two."
"I envy your teddy bear when you cuddle him," the Stranger said, "and when you come back from a shower, and remove your towel."
My wife looked down at the table and blushed, but smiled. I felt as though my bride and I should leave the Stranger, and go to our hotel room, but she was enjoying this. So in a strange sort of way was I. The Stranger was about my father's age, but trim and fit. His black hair was streaked with grey. He was expensively and tastefully dressed. Anyone could tell he was important, although he had not told us anything about himself. He spoke with a trace of a foreign accent I could not identify. He had a high forehead, and intelligent dark blue eyes that liked what they saw when they looked at my bride.
My bride liked the way the Stranger looked at her. I was sure of my wife's love. If he excited her, he fascinated me. His attraction to my bride was a credit to my good taste, and to my ability to win her as my wife.
"Were you married in a church?" the Stranger asked.
"Yes," my bride answered. It is the church I have attended with my family ever since I was baptized there."
"That is charming," the Stranger said. "I wish I could have attended. I would have given you a memorable wedding gift. I also would have wanted to kiss the bride. Do you have photos of your wedding?"
"Yes," my bride answered. "We have them in our hotel room."
"Do you have plans for tomorrow?"
"After driving around, in the afternoon we will see a Eugene O'Neal play," I answered.
"You are a cultured couple," the Stranger said. "I admire that."
"He was my favorite playwright in high school English," my bride explained.
"Last call!" the bartender interrupted.
"Do you want anything?" I asked my bride and the Stranger.
"Chardonnay," my wife said.
"Cabernet sauvignon for me," said the Stranger.
I walked over to the bar, and ordered one glass of chardonnay, and two of cabernet sauvignon. "Thank you," the Stranger said, when I returned to our table. "Let me propose a toast to the newlyweds: may your marriage be a happy one."
After drinking half of my glass I felt emboldened to say, "So far I have not performed well as a groom."
"You have time to learn," the Stranger explained. "Honeymoons were designed for the sexually inexperienced to enjoy a delightful process of discovery."
When we finished our drinks I brought the glasses back to the bar, and left a generous tip. As I returned to our table my bride told the Stranger. "The bar tender wants to close. Would you like to come up to our hotel room and look at our wedding photos?"
"I would be honored to," the Stranger answered.
The three of us took the elevator to the floor where our hotel room was, and walked to the room. After we entered I turned on a light, and closed and locked the door. The curtain to the picture window was drawn, showing the lights of the city. My wife closed the curtain before opening a suitcase and showing the Stranger a photograph. "This is me in my wedding dress," she said.
"You look especially beautiful in this photo," the Stranger said. "From your shy, and yet expectant smile it is clear that you are a virgin bride looking forward to a life of marital pleasure."
"Some people think there is something wrong with being a virgin at my age."
"I never have," the Stranger said.