The singles bar was empty. No, not quite. Over in one of the booths sat a girl, around my age, early thirties, blonde, like me and attractive with what looked like a great figure.
"Hi, Harry," I said to the bartender.
"The usual, Miss?" he responded. Harry's old-fashioned. He calls every female Miss and every male Sir, irrespective of age or marital status. I've always liked that.
"Sure, why not. You mix the best Negroni this side of Florence," It's true. Harry is best cocktail mixer I've ever met and it's one reason, not the main reason, but certainly up there, why I like this particular bar.
I glanced over at the girl in the booth. She caught my eye and smiled. An invitation? Maybe, maybe not. I decided to find out.
Picking up my drink I walked over to her booth. "May I join you?" I asked. "It's pretty quiet in here tonight but then it often is on a Tuesday."
"Yes, of course," she smiled. I sat and we introduced ourselves. "I'm Laura," she smiled again.
"And I'm Joanna, but people generally call me Jo, which can sometimes get a bit confusing," I laughed. "Cheers," and we clinked our glasses.
Within minutes we were swapping life stories like only two girls can. She lived only a few blocks away, was a realtor, and was outgoing and entertaining. I liked her. In fact, I liked her quite a lot.
"Shame about the absence of guys," she said quietly. Then, she changed tack. "Have you ever been with another girl?"
"How do you mean, 'been with'?" I queried.
"You know," she laughed quietly. "Had sex with."
"No," I blushed. "Sure, I've thought about it but never done anything about it."
"Perhaps we should do something about it, then," she laughed.
Before I could reply and to the savior of my blushes the door to the bar swung open and two younger guys walked in. We both looked, and then at each other, and then back to the guys.
"Mine's the blond guy," Laura muttered so that just I could hear her.
"OK, I'll take the taller one," I responded quietly. "How are we going to do this?"
"Wait," she replied simply. "Let them come to us and they will. This is a singles bar, after all."
They certainly had seen us and were now in earnest conversation with Harry, who was busy mixing cocktails. They sat on their bar stools watching Harry as he put two of the drinks he's been mixing on a try and walked over to us. "With the compliments of the gentlemen at the bar," he said solemnly. "They also asked whether you'd be interested in them joining you."
"Well, I suppose they could if they really wanted to," Laura said half-heartedly.
Harry walked back behind the bar and said something to the guys who slid off their bar-stools and came over to us.
"Hi, ladies" the taller one (mine) said. "Do you mind if we join you?"
"You mean you want to interrupt our girly tΓͺte Γ tΓͺte?" Laura said, somewhat rudely, I thought.
They looked at each other, confused by Laura's direct approach.