"Hi, I'm Paul."
Fiona didn't hide her skepticism as the man in the bar stool next to her introduced himself. She looked him over quickly. Handsome guy, nice suit, probably there for some conference just like herself. In a different life maybe...
"And you are?" he continued, giving her a friendly smile.
"I'm married," she said shortly, wiggling her ring finger.
Paul laughed. "I see."
On one level she felt that she should be flattered that men constantly approached her. She was blessed with curves in all the right places, and the perfect flow of her long brown curls seemed to draw attention to her. But the attention was just a bit much sometimes, and far from everybody could take her rejection with grace.
"So, Married, can I buy you a drink?" Paul continued.
She took a deep breath. "Listen Paul, I'm sure you're a nice guy. But in my experience most guys that approach me in a hotel bar fall into one of two categories. When I tell them I'm married, they either immediately lose all interest in talking to me, or they persist, hoping they might get lucky anyway. And when they don't — because they never do — they get mad and start calling me all sorts of things. And since you're still talking to me, I'm guessing that you fall under group number two."
Paul chuckled, but he didn't seem particularly taken aback by her refusal. "So, I take it I'm not the first man that approached you in a bar."
"Not even the first one tonight," she said and looked at her watch. "And it's not even eight a clock yet."
"Well, I'll leave you alone then. But if you rather share a drink with a stranger than drink alone, I'm right here."
With that he leaned away from her and tried to get the bartender's attention.
Fiona glanced him over again. Yeah, he would have been her type back in the days. He had a nice smile under that neatly trimmed beard, and the suit couldn't hide that he was in good shape, with broad shoulders and strong arms. And perhaps most importantly, he could take a rejection without turning into a monster.
She downed the rest of her drink and waved to the barman.
"I'll have another martini please," she said, and lightly grabbing Paul's arm to get his attention she continued. "And whatever my friend here wants."
Paul looked confused at first, and then broke out in a wide grin. "I'll have whatever she's having." He turned to Fiona as the bartender prepared their drinks. "Thanks — seems like you had better luck getting his attention."
She smirked, knowing full well that her cleavage had done the trick when she leaned forward over the bar when she called for the bartender. Was that what Paul was hinting at?
"And don't think you'll get lucky just because you bought me a drink," he continued and winked at her.
OK, he was definitely flirting. But maybe she could live with that. Her husband had told her many times that he didn't mind when men came on to her. This guy at least seemed like he would accept her no when she'd that it was enough.
"I'll try not to get my hopes up," she said with a crooked smile.
"So, what brings you here, married?"
She didn't catch his drift at first.
"Ah," she said and held out her hand. "I am indeed married, but I'm also Fiona."
"Nice to meet you married Fiona. What brings you here? Conference?"
"Yup. You too?"
"Yeah. There's a lot of that lately."
She nodded. "Tell me about it."
Two drinks later, Fiona was glad that she had taken this stranger up on his offer. These work trips tended to get tedious, and she hated being away from her husband so much. Talking with Paul took her mind off it for a while.
"Well, I got to say, your husband is a lucky man," Paul said as he finished his drink. "You should tell him I said so."
Fiona frowned. It had happened before that a guy who approached her in a bar eventually tried to persuade her that she had married some sort of a loser who didn't deserve her. It would be a sad ending to an otherwise pleasant evening.
"Speaking of my husband, I should call him before it gets too late."
She brought up her phone and called her husband David.
He sounded happy to hear her voice. "Hi honey, how are you?"
"I'm fine. I'm in the hotel bar, having a few drinks."
"That sounds good. Did your colleagues join too?"
"No, I..."
What should she say? That she was alone? She had no reason to hide anything. But on the other hand, she didn't want her husband to get suspicious about some stranger talking to her in the bar. She shook her head at herself. Why was she suddenly worried about that? Her husband was far from the jealous type.
"Did some guy start hitting on you?" her husband teased.
She realized it wasn't uncommon for her to call her husband to show persistent suitors that she wasn't interested.
"I... I don't know about that," she said.
Her husband chuckled. "But?"
"No but," she said, suddenly feeling defensive.
"Is he better looking than me?" he continued to tease.
"Of course not," she said sarcastically, at the same time looking Paul over. No, not really better, but certainly attractive.
"Is he still there?"
"Yeah, he is actually. Why?"
"Give him the phone," David said.
"What?"
