It was just as I was about to take the final slice of apple tart, when the young woman stopped by my table on the sun terrace, and asked me. "Is this seat taken?"
I looked up and there she stood, sunglasses perched on top of her head, in a long thick imitation fur coat over a gray suit. She wore a cashmere scarf around her neck, and snow boots on her feet. She also wore a very inviting smile.
"No, please!" I hesitantly beckoned to the chair.
Nodding her thanks, she sat down opening her coat, and let me see that she was indeed very well proportioned under that fake fur in her smart well cut suit, giving me a full panoramic view of her ample alps.
She must have been in her late twenties, early thirties, I really couldn't tell. What I could tell though, was that she was an extremely attractive woman, with short styled auburn hair and almost green eyes. She could have been Irish, but her accent was not from the Emerald Isle, and sounded American from her short request to sit at my table.
I smiled at her, rather embarrassed now, as I ate my apple tart with a large spoonful of whipped cream on top. It tasted just out of this world, and showed on my face in an expression of pure bliss.
"Are you here to ski?" I asked her as she watched hungrily, while I devoured the tart.
"No," she shook her head, still intensely watching the tart disappear.
"Maybe you'd like a coffee?" I offered, quite put off by her staring at me.
"Oh yes please, and a slice of that, if I may? It looks so delicious."
I caught the café waitress as she passed, and ordered two coffees and some more patisseries. May as well give her a selection I thought.
"So you are not here to ski, then perhaps you skate?" I asked politely, " or maybe you curl?"
"No, not those either, I'm just here to have some fun!"
"Good place to come. Sun, snow, and lots of beautiful people." I remarked.
The coffees arrived and she ate the first slice of apple tart like she hadn't eaten for a week.
"Forgive me, but you do seem a bit on the hungry side?" I wondered.
"Oh I'm sorry, but it has been a long day getting here, and yes, I am very hungry."
"What about a proper meal, a dish of something more filling?" I asked her, as she started on the second slice of fruit tart.
"No thank you, this will be fine, I will soon fill up my little stomach."
"Where are you staying?" I also wondered.
She stopped eating and then looked at me very intensely, and said quietly, "I thought I might stay with you for tonight!"
"You what?" I spluttered almost choking on my coffee.
"Only till I get myself settled in. It would only be for one night, or two maybe. What do you say?"
"Hell's teeth! How do you know I'm on my own, and not with someone else?"
"You just look as if you are here for a good time too." She replied, taking the last patisserie and munching into it.
"Can't you find a hotel, is that it?"
"Sure, I can find a hotel, but without any baggage and not much money to buy some, I would be out on the streets in no time. It turns pretty cold, up here, in the mountains at night.
Look Sweetie, please help Nikki, she'll be very good to you, she knows how to be nice, believe me!"
"I'm sure you do, ... Nikki." I stammered. "But it's not that easy. Swiss hotels do not take kindly to people bringing in unregistered guests. They don't mind the sex bit, it's the loosing out on the cost of an extra bed they get angry at. I know from past experience, they get very angry indeed, and besides I happen to like my hotel and don't want to be thrown out."
"You tell me the room number and the name of your hotel, and I'll get in with no one seeing me, it's that simple!"
She touched my hand, and not only because her hand was cold, did it sent a shiver down my back. Her green eyes looked deep into mine and I was lost for a moment in all her sultry, female pleading.
"It can't be done it, I'll be caught and thrown out."
I blurted out, trying to reason with her, but she still had hold of my hand and was still searching my face for some kind of help.
Some days you throw caution to the wind and to hell with the risk. This could be just one of those days, I thought, as my mind raced, and I looked once more at those perfect breasts she had hidden under her pink jumper and jacket.
"Just one night?" I hesitated, hardly believing I had asked.
"Or two!" she replied smiling, knowing full well that she had won.
"Okay, but I'm not happy, not happy at all. It's number thirty- eight, on the third floor, Hotel Berg, just across the square, over there. Use the lift, but go into the underground car park and take it from there. The third floor ... can you remember all that?"
"Yes, but can we go now? I would love to take a hot bath."
I paid the café bill, and walked away from her, and over to my hotel. A new building, but done in a pleasing Swiss style, giving an air of old looking modernity, so as to blend in well with the many old traditional chalets in the town.
I collected my room key from the front desk, and then took the lift, and strolled on down the corridor to my room overlooking the frozen lake and the surrounding mountains. It would be a pity to get thrown out of this lovely room with a view, however beautiful the prospects it might afford.
I smiled at remembering Gerald Hoffnung's reading of an alpine hotel brochure that stated there was, 'A French widow in every bedroom, affording great prospects.' I wondered if my American was going to be just plain affordable?
She had to be on the game, I decided. No doubt about that, but the hell if I was going to pay her for services rendered. She owed me now!
A knock at the door brought me back to reality, and I quickly let her in.