I sure noticed her when she walked in the diner. Tall, somewhere around 5'8 or 5'9 -- a bit hard to judge, since she was standing but I was seated at the counter, eating my Country Boy Burger -- and somewhere around forty years old. She'd apparently called in a carry-out order, so she was standing just inside the door, near the cash register, while I was seated just a barstool down from it. Despite her age, she was college-girl slender, wearing skinny jeans and a tight t-shirt showing her not-quite-flat chest, plus a parka-style coat over that. She had long hair, about down to her elbows, which would have looked a bit better if she didn't have bangs, making for a less attractive hairstyle. Her hair was a nice auburn, but the roots at her part showed that the color was courtesy of Clairol.
It was cold out, and the Weather Channel's Winter Storm Hunter had hit us with an ice storm, followed by snow the previous night and morning. The storm had been over for half of the day Saturday, when, at 4:57 PM, the power went out. Here it was, a few minutes after noon the following day, and the power was still out for a large part of the county, and naturally, that was the main topic of conversation.
What had knocked out the power? That was more rumor than fact, a car took out a power pole on Driftwood Drive, no someone hit the substation on Route 52 and Miller's Creek Road, no, a transmission line came down out in Lee County. So, deciding to flirt, even though she had a very obvious wedding set on her left hand, I said, "Maybe your husband is out working to restore power to my place right now?"
She laughed at me, saying, "Nope, that's not his job."
Hey, it was a reach, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. "Well, if he's at work until five tonight, perhaps you could take me to your place to keep me warm until around four."
She laughed at me again, saying, "You do realize he's outside in the car, waiting for me, don't you?"
I glanced out the window, and, sure enough, there was some guy sitting in a car, along with a middle school aged kid. "I guess I've struck out completely today, huh?"
"Yeah, you have, but it was a good try." Still, I could see a twinkle in her eye; she liked me flirting with her. She was checking me out just as I had done with her, and I knew that I looked good enough. I'm 44 years old, still have all of my hair, cut Army short, I'm tall, with broad shoulders and a waist smaller than my chest. If her husband hadn't been out in the car, I'd have had a real shot.
"Well, is he working tomorrow?" I asked. She smiled, and I could see the wheels turning; her husband was working tomorrow, I knew without her answering, and her kid should be back in school.
She didn't answer the question, but had a sort of wry smile on her face, and I wondered how to contact her again. But giving her my cell number was an obviously bad idea, and she didn't offer hers to me. So I simply said, "I'll be here for lunch tomorrow at noon. If you show up, then maybe we can have some fun." She still didn't answer, and just then the waitress brought out her carry out order. She paid, and left, but not before giving me a huge smile. I knew that she was thinking about it.
oo0oo
"You know, you really shouldn't be chasing after married tail," the waitress said to me, after the woman left. "That never works out good." The waitress wasn't smiling.
"Well, I didn't see a decent opportunity to flirt with you, you know." I thought that might disarm her.
"Wouldn't've done you any good, sugar; I'm married, too," she said. "I just can't wear my rings at work, is all."
I finished my lunch, got in my truck, and headed back to my cabin. It wasn't a big place and yeah, the power was still out, but it had both the original fireplace, a big one, plus a modern wood stove, so I wasn't going to freeze. I'd just made the ploy about the woman, whose name I still didn't know, as a flirting technique.
Yeah, I know: I'm an asshole. I'm an accomplished flirt, and the ladies usually seem responsive. Yeah, I get turned down a lot, too, but by sheer repetition, I get laid a lot too, and I lost count of how many different women I've screwed at over 200. I had one long-term girlfriend, but fuck it, I didn't want to get tied down, women were just plain easy, and I'm good enough in the sack to back up my promises.
And, let's face it, if I get a woman up to this cabin, especially during the winter, yeah, I'm going to get laid. It's an old, rustic cabin that I'd bought a couple of years ago, and restored. Oh, I didn't add a top of the line kitchen or anything fancy, but cleaning it up, and keeping the antique touches were just the thing to seduce women. A handmade log-frame queen sized bed, plus a second fireplace in the bedroom, created a place where no woman ever said no, if she ever set foot in there.
So, would this woman set foot in there? I figured that my odds were at least fifty/fifty that she'd show up tomorrow. I was horny now, and I figured that I'd take matters into my own hands, so to speak, just to be sure that I wasn't too worked up tomorrow, in case she was there.
There wasn't much to clean up in the cabin, mostly because I never made big messes. I had done my breakfast dishes, in lukewarm water heated on the wood stove -- my hot water heater is electric -- this morning. I hadn't gotten around to new windows yet, so I closed the shutters to keep the place warmer, since there was a fairly stiff breeze, and then settled down to read a book, by the light of an oil lamp.
Still, I couldn't get my mind off the woman from the diner. She was clearly no coed, even though she dressed like one, and had the college girl bod I like so much. She was cute rather than pretty, kind of an odd way to describe a woman of her years, but it was true.
Come the morning, I threw some wood in both fireplaces; I didn't like leaving blazing fires going in the fireplaces while I was gone, but with the possibility of bringing this so-far nameless chick back to my place this afternoon, I wanted the place warm, and by the time I left for the Wig Wam Diner, the fires would be down to glowing logs, not blazes. The wood stove, on the other hand, could be packed with burning logs just before I left. I wanted the place conducive to seduction when I brought her back -- if I brought her back -- though, realistically, if she showed up at all, there wasn't much chance that she hadn't agreed to getting laid.
By now, the power had come back on, so I had all of the modern conveniences, and was able to take a hot shower, rather than a bird bath in lukewarm water off the woodstove. Things like being clean, using deodorant and clean teeth were pretty much part of any successful seduction.
There really wasn't much work to do. Although women just love seeing a brawny man splitting firewood for the cabin, I already had probably eight cords split, stacked and in varying stages of drying in the outside sheds, plus wood inside for immediate use. With the power back on, I was able to gather my dirty laundry and start the washing machine, and while it was going, I cleaned up my breakfast debris and put the dishes away. Other than putting the laundry into the dryer, I was completely done with chores, so I read some more before it was time to head out.
I got to the Wig Wam just a few minutes before noon, and it was pretty much empty; I guess that the lunch crowd doesn't get there until after the clock strikes twelve. Mary, the waitress who had scolded me yesterday, came up to the booth I took, asking if I wanted something to drink while I was considering my order. I picked coffee, which I knew was good there, and then she said, "You don't really expect Judy to show up, do you?"
Well, that was good: perhaps without intending to do it, Mary told me the name of my intended conquest. "I'm cautiously optimistic, Mary."
"You know what happens when you go looking in a woodpile, don't you? Sometimes you come across a snake. Then again, maybe you're the snake."
Mary took her time getting my coffee, perhaps thinking that she needed to wait for Judy to show up to take a double lunch order, but finally she came over, "Have you figured out what you want, sugar?" Judy had not showed up yet.
