She was so beautiful and sexy. We were both at the races with other people and made eyes at each other. We talked. Immediately, she said she was very perceptive and we had nothing in common because she'd backed the favourite and I'd backed the nag, she drank white and I drank red. I made her promise to call me. Which she didn't. I called her, said a breathless hello and said I was dying to meet her again.
She hung up on me.
But she called back, said sorry that I was dying.
I said, "I think you owe me the courtesy of another meeting, don't you?"
"I'm doing that now, by phone."
I talked her into a physical meeting.
I chose the coffee shop. I sat down at the red table and, in defiance, she chose the white table but it had wonky legs so she had to came over.
"So, you like red, I like white," she said. "It's not going to work, is it?"
"Try not to analyse everything," I said. "Just make recommendations. I can either approve or disapprove your recommendations."
She studied my face. "You're weird."
"Ditto," I replied.
"Listen," she said, "the core of me is pink ooze. Exterior of me is independent. I am a survivor. I want love in my life."
"And you think I'm weird?"
She continued. "You've been with domineering women all your life. I can tell. Your journey in life is how to live with a strong woman. I don't want a provider. I'm not interested in wealthy men. You obviously want to be a provider. You don't want love. You don't need love. You just need someone to look after."
"So, what's your recommendation?"
"Recommendation? Okay. Fuck off."
"How absurd. We've just met. We are in a café." I thought for moment. "Oh, I get it. Already you're trying to say goodbye even though we've never lived together. You're rehearsing for the goodbye. How novel."
"You might say that."
"I just did," I said, rather cynically. "But I'll never finish my book if you say goodbye now, the book which I hoped to write if we lived together."
"A book? Oh, puleease. Leave me alone."
She stormed off but I followed her. "Was that all serious or was it just for the book."
"Why don't you just pick me up and fuck me."
"No, that would just be a display of my male dominance."
"Just do it! Bench me!" She looked across the road at a park. "There's a bench. Bench me!"
"No. I won't be told when I should bench you. Besides, we're in the street outside a café. People will notice."
She took me home and spooned me all night, both of us stark naked. No hands wandered nor were they allowed to wander. I never slept. It was getting weirder and weirder.
Next morning, she whispered that she was awake. She said it was almost daybreak and let out a small groan of pleasure as she started recounting the story of
"the party that she had attended".
I'm sure she was exciting herself with her fingers. When I tried to join in she pushed my hand away.