A good friend of mine, David, and I ended up in the same state on business. He works for one of the cell phone companies and I was out there to give a lecture about airport parallel runway operations at the University of Michigan. We caught up with each other the 2nd day we were there and Dave said we had to go to this sports bar that was, as he'd say, "the best" with women crawling all over it. I thought of sports bars as being a conclave for guys but he assured me in Washington, D.C. things were different. He said we'd go to this place called The Touchdown Café' and if that didn't work out we could head over to another place called The Arena. I wasn't too sure of either of these places but David had a pretty good nose for finding hot women. I guess he would as he was a bar tender for a lot of years and still does it occasionally.
So I met him at the Touchdown at 8. I saw him at the bar chatting up a cute little blonde. Now David is a six three toe head jock type. He's just turned 40 but still looks something like a kid and acts like one too. He is a very personable guy and women are naturally attracted to him. Being over 50 I like hanging with him because some of these "hotties" who he attracts end up talking to me too. I'm about 3 inches shorter than Dave and although I've been called a one time jock it's not a label that is either applicable or appropriate anymore and I'm just as happy. David likes these really thin women with really tight bodies. I kid him that I know who's on top in his bed because I say he'd crush her otherwise. So attraction for us is two very different types of women.
My taste runs more towards women who I think of as being cuddly. As cuddly as she may be a really thin woman just isn't that attractive to me so I'm usually drawn to a woman who is obviously carrying a few extra pounds. The last time David tried to set me up it was with a woman who was maybe 95 pounds soaking wet and of course didn't have an ounce of fat on her. She was absolutely a very pretty woman, a head turner actually, and while she was very engaging my comfort level with her wasn't very high. I'm not sure why but at the end of the evening she indicated she wanted to see me again but I declined.
As soon as I get to the bar David sees me and says, "Hey, it's about time! This is Crissy and," he looks around, "her friend is around here somewhere." Now I don't like being set up and David always tries to push the type of woman he likes towards me. I shook her hand and when I could I asked her what she did and some of the other usual small talk questions. She was a trainer at a local gym. She said she was going for her masters in some sort of sports training program and she was in training for the Boston Marathon. All I could think was she was way too high energy for me. So David had his blonde with the tiny but very toned body.
Oh, one thing you should know, David came up with this plan about eight years ago that when we go to a bar we never drink because it leads to bad decisions and we have both made lots of those. But at this point I was thinking how nice a drink or two would be so I could be okay with being with this woman who I hadn't actually met yet but was already passing judgment on.
After a short while Crissy's friend Rachel showed up and we were introduced. It felt a bit awkward and the conversation was more than a little stilted. To David's credit Rachel was more towards the type of woman I might like but we just could not seem to find common interests so there were lots of periods where we just listened in on David's conversation.
After a short while Rachel excused herself to the ladies room and that was the last I saw of her. I was working on my cranberry juice and soda war and chatting the bar tender when she had spare moments. I was also contented to watch this group of about ten young women who were crowded around a table near the bar. I guessed that not one of them was more than 26 or 28 years old. They were having a lot of fun, drinking a fair amount and seemed to have a never ending line of stories to tell. I overheard from their conversation that one of them was getting married although it wasn't clear just who. What was clear was it was a girls' night out and they were into it. They had managed to land the lone pretty boy waiter and as they drank they made the sly comment or two to him. When I pointed this out to David his response was, "The guy's gay."
When I asked him how he knew he replied, "Trust me, the guy's gay."
After a while I heard one of the women excuse herself to the ladies room and it occurred to me that I should probably hit the men's room. But this woman had also caught my eye so it was an opportunity, as I saw it, to see her closer up. She was, I'd guess, about five two, had a killer smile, gorgeous curly hair, brunette, and a lush figure. We had to briefly walk towards each other and the back towards the rest rooms. I got a good look at the fair amount of cleavage she was showing and had all I could do to keep myself from staring.
The whole thing lasted maybe ten seconds and I was into the men's room. I dawdled a little in the men's room as I considered calling it a night as I feared I'd just become frustrated from seeing so many pretty women but having to leave alone. Just as I left the men's room I heard a woman say, "Oh damn!"
As I looked to my left I saw it was that same woman I had sort of followed over. She had dropped the small hand bag she had been carrying and spilled its contents all over the floor. I quickly bent over and helped her pick up her stuff.
"Thank you so much," she said smiling at me.
"You're welcome," I replied but wanted to say more. I really wanted to get a conversation going but found myself tongue tied.
"Most guys would have walked over it," she said sarcastically.
"Guess I'm not most guys."
"No, you're not," she smiled as she walked away.
So I took my place back at the bar but couldn't get my eyes off this wonderful woman I'd just met. I feared she'd catch me staring at her and she did but instead of looking annoyed she winked at me. So now my mind flooded with ideas of how to be with her but there was the ever present reality of her being with her friends and our age difference so I decided to just enjoy the pleasure of seeing a woman I felt extremely attracted to even if it was pure fantasy.
"Where's Rachel?" David's question caught me off guard.
"I dunno, she left," I stuttered.
"Bitch!" He said strongly. Krissy, Rachel's ostensible friend, easily heard David's remark but seemed unfazed by it.
"Don't worry, I'm doing fine." And I was. I was quite content being able to see all the pretty women in the bar but particular the one who had caught my attention. Once David has a woman with him he becomes pretty single minded and so you're on your own. I didn't mind that at all.
About an hour passed and the table of the ten women had become five, then shortly after that four and a few minutes later two. I saw the woman I'd been attracted to head for the ladies room once again. She winked at me as she passed the bar and when she was returning she looked at me and I said, "May I buy you a drink?"
That is actually very much not me to do such a thing but I didn't know what else to do at the moment. She paused a second and then said, "Okay, but I've got to say goodnight to Leah first. Be right back."
I was thrilled, of course. I'd expected her to politely turn me down but she hadn't. Then my mind raced a little and I thought that maybe she was seeing me through a few too many drinks. I was kind of all right with that but also kind of guarded. She spent a few minutes talking to her girlfriend, nodded towards me once and her girlfriend looked over and smiled. I always wonder what women are saying at such times.
Finally she came back over to me, held out her hand and said, "I'm Cassie by the way."
"Pleased to meet you Cassie, I'm Peter."
So we spent the next few minutes with the usual questions of who we were and why I was in Washington, D.C.. I hadn't noticed how loud it was in the bar until I tried listening to Cassie and I found myself having trouble hearing her, it was that loud.
"Would you like to go some place a little less loud?" I finally asked.
"Where did you have in mind?" She asked coyly.
