Danny lived in the apartments opposite when we first moved to northern France, with his mother and a dog. He was a small but cute kid, always wearing improbably large glasses and an improbably large maroon jacket and his hair sported an improbably large quiff. He rode around on a bike too small for even him unless his mates came calling in a black BMW. I guessed he was about 16 and I put him into the 'not available' category, even in my fantasies, on account of both his youth and his on/off soapy girlfriend.
He and his mother moved after about a year, I had only ever exchanged pleasantries with them and didn't know where they had gone until after 6 months or so I saw him in the supermarket and he told me they lived only a mile away- but as we didn't move in the same circles, I never saw them much at all for the next 4 years.
One day I had cause to go to a neighbouring town as my pool was closed for a refurb. It is about 12 miles away and the bus times corresponded reasonably well so I could have a swim and get the last bus back. I had used the same bus only two or three times before and in truth was always a little concerned that it might not show and I would be in the middle of nowhere with a 3 hour walk home. That said, all the buses I had ever gone for showed up, usually within a minute of the expected time and this particular cold and dark evening was no exception. Except for the morning and late afternoon school runs, the buses were like personal taxis and I had them all to myself for most of my journey. Again, it seemed this would be the case tonight.
Just as the driver was closing the door and getting ready to start off, 2 guys came round the corner. I caught them out of the corner of my eye. They kissed goodbye and one set off walking, the other getting on the bus. It wasn't unusual to see 2 guys kissing but normally it was the French, Italian or Spanish kissing of both cheeks, rather than an albeit brief meeting of lips. And down the bus walked Danny. He smiled politely but swayed somewhat and I smiled too as he had clearly spent more time than was good for him that afternoon drinking. He sat a couple of rows behind me and we set off.
We hadn't gone more than a couple of hundred metres than he came and sat the other side of the aisle from me. He had seen my gym bag and asked, quite simply, if I had an empty bottle in it he could have.
"Why would you want an empty bottle?" I asked.
He grimaced and squeezed his crotch somewhat. "Too much beer," he said.
Well truth be told, I did have my water bottle with me and could have finished the last of my water but it cost me good money and I didn't think for one minute he would return it to me so I said I hadn't any such receptacle.
"But I do have a proposition," I said.