In the last hour, the four friends had all felt the stares coming from the table of cute guys at the other end of the bar. In fact, one of the girls, Allison, had wondered out loud how long it would be before one of them came over and tried to hit on them.
"What do you care," responded her friend Karen. "You're married. Unless of course you're not feeling married this weekend."
All of the girls laughed at the inside joke. A few years ago, one of the women, Trish, had had an affair that she later admitted to the girls. When they asked how she went through with it, Trish had responded that she was horny and "just hadn't felt married that weekend."
They were friends since high school and all married, with the exception of Karen. They were currently enjoying a weekend at a desert resort to blow off some steam and get some sun.
"Out of curiosity, though, which one were you hoping would come over here," Karen needled.
"If you're asking which one I think is the cutest, it's the black guy," Allison said. "And don't get any weird ideas, Karen. I am definitely feeling married this weekend. However, that doesn't mean I can't enjoy myself a little."
"Really? You really get turned on by black guys," Trish asked. "I just haven't ever been attracted to one."
"Look at him," Allison said. "He's in great shape, tall and well dressed. Then look at how comfortable he is with himself. He just screams confidence and character."
All of the girls looked over at the table at once. The black man felt four sets of eyes on him and turned to see who was looking at him. Rather than being ashamed, the girls kept staring.
"He is cute," Melinda, the last of the four said while they all continued to stare. "I would definitely not kick him out of my bed."
"What would Chris say," Karen said in mock horror. Chris was Melinda's husband and a prosecutor in the district attorney's office. Several times when he had been drinking, he had made very unkind remarks about minorities, especially black men.
"I'm his wife, not his slave, and I definitely don't agree with or condone everything Chris thinks," Melinda said. That's his issue and I think he gets like that because of the type of people he is around. Because that black man is definitely not dangerous."
After a pause Melinda added, "Unless I'm sitting on his lap."
"Melinda," Trish squealed in shock. "I can't believe you just said that."
The black man stared at them, trying to figure out what the girls were talking and laughing about. After a while, he raised his glass to them, smiled, and turned around to continue talking with his friends, all of whom were white. As he did, the girls lost interest in the conversation and found other topics to amuse themselves. All of them, however, peeked over every once in a while to steal glimpses of the black man.
Twenty minutes later, the girls watched as the well-built black man began walking towards their table. The conversation stopped and all of them just stared at each other, wondering what to do.
"Excuse me," the black man said. For a moment, none of the looked up. Then, taking their lead from Allison, all of them turned towards him at once.
"Good evening," he said when he had their attention. "You can think of me as an ambassador. My friends and I have run out of things to talk to each other about and wondered if we might combine our two parties to stimulate some conversation."
"Sure, come on over," Karen said. "That is as long as you guys are buying the drinks."
"Of course," he said.
"Chivalry, it appears is not dead," Karen said, "and has appeared in the form ofβ¦what did you say your name was?"
"Ben. My name is Ben," the man said. "By chance, do any of you girls like to dance?"
"Of course," Allison said. "Why do you ask?"
"Because I'd like to ask you to dance," Ben said, staring directly into Allison's eyes. There was no mistaking the instant heat that seemed to develop between them.
"But no one else is dancing," Allison said, pointing to the empty dance floor.
"Even better," Ben said. "I never liked crowds. Shall we," he asked holding out her hand.
For a second, they were all back in high school and there were several oohs and ahs as Allison stood up and took Ben's hand. "Are you a good dancer," Allison asked.
"Excellent," Ben said.