The singles bar was empty. No, not quite. Over in one of the booths sat a girl, around my age, early thirties, blonde, like me and attractive with what looked like a great figure.
"Hi, Harry," I said to the bartender.
"The usual, Miss?" he responded. Harry's old-fashioned. He calls every female Miss and every male Sir, irrespective of age or marital status. I've always liked that.
"Sure, why not. You mix the best Negroni this side of Florence," It's true. Harry is best cocktail mixer I've ever met and it's one reason, not the main reason, but certainly up there, why I like this particular bar.
I glanced over at the girl in the booth. She caught my eye and smiled. An invitation? Maybe, maybe not. I decided to find out.
Picking up my drink I walked over to her booth. "May I join you?" I asked. "It's pretty quiet in here tonight but then it often is on a Tuesday."
"Yes, of course," she smiled. I sat and we introduced ourselves. "I'm Laura," she smiled again.
"And I'm Joanna, but people generally call me Jo, which can sometimes get a bit confusing," I laughed. "Cheers," and we clinked our glasses.
Within minutes we were swapping life stories like only two girls can. She lived only a few blocks away, was a realtor, and was outgoing and entertaining. I liked her. In fact, I liked her quite a lot.
"Shame about the absence of guys," she said quietly. Then, she changed tack. "Have you ever been with another girl?"
"How do you mean, 'been with'?" I queried.
"You know," she laughed quietly. "Had sex with."
"No," I blushed. "Sure, I've thought about it but never done anything about it."
"Perhaps we should do something about it, then," she laughed.
Before I could reply and to the savior of my blushes the door to the bar swung open and two younger guys walked in. We both looked, and then at each other, and then back to the guys.
"Mine's the blond guy," Laura muttered so that just I could hear her.
"OK, I'll take the taller one," I responded quietly. "How are we going to do this?"
"Wait," she replied simply. "Let them come to us and they will. This is a singles bar, after all."
They certainly had seen us and were now in earnest conversation with Harry, who was busy mixing cocktails. They sat on their bar stools watching Harry as he put two of the drinks he's been mixing on a try and walked over to us. "With the compliments of the gentlemen at the bar," he said solemnly. "They also asked whether you'd be interested in them joining you."
"Well, I suppose they could if they really wanted to," Laura said half-heartedly.
Harry walked back behind the bar and said something to the guys who slid off their bar-stools and came over to us.
"Hi, ladies" the taller one (mine) said. "Do you mind if we join you?"
"You mean you want to interrupt our girly tΓͺte Γ tΓͺte?" Laura said, somewhat rudely, I thought.
They looked at each other, confused by Laura's direct approach.
"Come on guys, sit down, I was only joking."
They relaxed visibly and sat. Turned out they were in the city for a placement in their university courses and would be here for some months.
Although they were some years younger than Laura and me we all got on really well together. They were outgoing and funny and obviously had a good friendly relationship with each other. Peter was the blonde one's name and Mike was the taller one. Both Laura and I noticed the absence of wedding bands on their fingers and looked on this as being promising.
Eventually, the time came for Harry to close up for the night. "Sorry guys," he called, "but I've got a home and a wife to go to and tomorrow is another day."
"Let's not break this up yet," Laura said. "I live only a couple of blocks away, so come back to mine and we can carry on a while."
A ten minute walk later and we were outside a very smart apartment block. A ride up the elevator took us to the top floor and then into Laura's apartment. It was breathtaking. She had stunning views across the city and the apartment itself was luxurious to say the least. Just plain gorgeous.
"Wow," was all I could say.
"Do you like it? I call it home," she laughed. "Let's see what we've got to drink."
She produced a couple of beers for the guys and white wine for us. "Here's to a good evening," she exclaimed. "Now, I think we need some music."
She picked up a remote from the arm of the chair where was sitting, aimed it across the room and some quiet smoochy music filled the air. "Come," she said to Peter. "Dance with me."
They melded smoothly into each other's arms and danced closely together. Not to be out done Mike was on his feet in a moment and said, "Shall we?"
I moved into his out held arms and felt his hard body against me. He moved gently against me and I felt a hand slide gently down to my ass. "Whoa," I whispered, "Not too fast. Let's take some time." He removed his hand and held me tight to him as we moved slowly around the floor.
I looked over to Laura. She certainly wasn't wasting any time at all. She and Peter had their lips locked together in a long deep kiss and his left hand wasn't on her ass, it was on her left breast which he was stroking gently. You could already see the effect as her nipple was showing clearly through the thin material.