I was on my way home but I was bumped off my flight until the following day because of overbooking. I can never understand why they do that, but as compensation they gave me some money and an overnight stay in the nearby airport hotel, courtesy of the airline.
I checked in, called home and then ran myself a bath. I was feeling pretty dirty after being stuck in the same clothes for the best part of eighteen hours. A good soak in a warm bath and a change of shirt and underwear would rejuvenate me and give me the energy to get something to eat in the hotel restaurant.
My table wasn't quite ready and so the maรฎtre d' suggested that I had a drink in the bar while I waited.
I walked in and surveyed the place. Because of its close proximity to the airport, the decor was of an airborne nature. Photographs of old cargo planes and domestic airliners adorned the walls. Models of aircraft, like the Boeing 747, hung on gossamer threads from the ceiling. All pretty tacky, I thought, but who am I to discuss bar interior design.
A pianist quietly played in the corner and the place was about one third full. I decided to take a seat at the bar. No sense in taking up a table when I was going to be eating soon anyway.
As I sat quietly, sipping my single malt and passing conversation with the barman, she walked in.
A radiant vision in a black business suit. Her red hair kept short at the neck and parted to one side. I put her age at... well actually I don't go in for guessing a woman's age. It is as impolite as coming right out and asking her. Let's just say that she was older than me and much older than the barman.
She took a seat two down from me and ordered a glass of red wine. She caught me gazing at her for a second and I moved my glance somewhere else for fear that she might think I was some kind of pervert.
"Do you like what you see?" she asked, smiling.
I coughed and feigned deafness. "Sorry, what did you say?"
"I said, do you like what you see. You were staring at me, weren't you?"
I could feel my cheeks starting to flush red. I stuttered and stammered my way through my next sentence.
"Er, yes. Well, er, *cough*, you are a very attractive woman and I would guess that most of the men in here gave you a second glance."
"Yes," she replied smiling. "But only you stared."
I didn't know where to put myself. I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me.
She moved from her seat and came over to where I was sitting. She placed her glass next to mine and perched on the bar stool next me.
"We don't need to know each other's names," she said. "We only need to know that in the morning, we go our separate ways with a lovely memory of this night."
I almost fell off my stool. Women don't, in general, chat me up, let alone proposition me. My mouth was dry, but nonetheless it opened whilst my brain was actively taking a break and I could hear myself asking her to join me for dinner, which she accepted.
But only on the understanding that she paid her own bill.
This was one very independent woman.
She ordered Dover Sole, I ordered fillet steak, medium rare. We sat and talked about all kinds of things, but strangely enough, we never chatted about ourselves.
I couldn't see a ring on her finger and therefore was not able to discern whether she was married or not.
Sometimes, in the quiet moments, my thoughts drifted back to what she had said in the bar...
"We don't need to know each other's names. We only need to know that in the morning, we go our separate ways with a lovely memory of this night..."
My heart started beating like a jackhammer.
As the evening wore on, we sat in the bar, with another bottle of wine, at her insistence, and chatted more.
It was bizarre and surreal. We chatted as though we knew each other intimately, even though I knew absolutely nothing about her. And even stranger, after what she had said in the bar before about the wonderful memory, there was no more reference to it and very little flirting.
I actually believed that it was a hoax. That when the time came to go to bed, she would go to her room and I would go to mine and the "going our separate ways" meant just that.
I glanced at the clock behind the bar and then at my watch. Both read 12.30am.
"Do you have to be somewhere?" she asked.
"No," I replied. "I was just checking what time it was."
She looked her watch and then said, "Yes, maybe we should go to bed."
Still not really reading the situation, I followed her to the elevator.
"Your floor?" she asked.