Why did i come here, i thought? A married woman on her own, to a pub she had never been to before...still, it was a wednesday night in February so what is the worst that could happen? The drink that i had been nursing in front of me for the last hour or so was going down well, if slowly, i had chatted a bit to the barman but really not my type and anyway he had spent most of the time talking about his fiance. Oh well. It had been so long since my husband had shown me any attention so i felt grateful to the barman for his half hearted chat. I'll just finish this one drink i thought then i will be off home.
The peace and quiet was disturbed by a group of lads coming in, when they were at the bar i heard them say that they were at the end of a pub crawl, ah students, nothing better to do! The group thinned out over the next 15 minutes or so and there were just a couple of lads left. I looked at them in the mirror over the bar, no older than 20 i thought, they look like every other lad that age i thought, fit and full of bravado but there was something about them, i banished the thought, i must be more than twice their age for crying out loud. When i looked in the mirror again i could see that they were looking over at me, whispering and smiling. I could not help being flattered but really i was being ridiculous and yet it had been so long since a man had given me any attention, let alone anything else.
I had to go to the loo which meant walking past their table, oh well, head down and don't look. One of them just came out with it and asked me to join them for a drink, bold and upfront i thought. I hesitated but what the hell and sat down. They introduced themselves, Ben and Nick both final year students at the university and confident with it. To be honest i was tired and thought about making my excuses but looking at them closely, they were attractive. Ben was a runner, wiry, with a shock of brown hair and dark brown eyes. Nick was taller and broad, with sandy hair and the most intense blue eyes that i had ever encountered. I knew what they wanted, like every other boy or man their age, i could see it in their eyes even though they were playing it very cool. Come on ask me back for a coffee i thought, or a red bull or whatever young people drink these days. We were chatting and we realised that they lived quite close to me, we will walk you home to make sure you are safe they said, how gallant i thought. I had known them only for about 20 minutes but they were walking me home and we had been chatting away like old friends...