The next day was Saturday. We were on the computer, looking at possible websites where we could advertise when the phone rang. Tina picked it up. ‘Oh, hi Louise,’ she said. ‘How’s it going?’ Her face fell. ‘Oh no! I’m so sorry!’ She went quiet for a while. Then she said, ‘Yes, of course, I’ll meet you there at seven.’ She put the phone down and turned to me. ‘Louise and Nathan have split up.’
‘You’re kidding. They’ve been together longer than we have. What happened?’
‘I don’t know exactly. She just said he’s been working away a lot.’
‘Working away or playing away?’
‘I’ll find out later. Can you fend for yourself tonight, babe? She wants a shoulder to cry on.’
‘No problem. Boris and I can have a boys’ night in.’
‘You’re going to play poker and have a few beers with your dog?’
‘Something like that.’
Tina left the house at half past six. Even though I was very happy she was back with me, I liked the idea of a quiet evening with Boris. But at eleven o’clock, she still hadn’t come home. I tried her cell but there was no answer. She finally came back just before midnight.
‘Everything okay?’ I asked her.
‘You were right about one thing,’ she said. ‘Nathan has been playing away. He’s having an affair with someone at work.’
‘No good can come of that.’
‘Louise wanted to talk about it. But that’s not all she wanted to do tonight.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘She was out for revenge.’
‘Oh dear.’
‘I thought we’d just go for a drink somewhere. But she dragged me to this club. When we first arrived, I thought we were the only people there over twenty. And I started thinking things like: why does the music have to be so loud? I felt like such an old woman.
‘Louise got onto the dance floor. She might as well have stripped off and told the men to form an orderly queue. She was flirting with every guy in the place. And if none of them had gone for it, I think she’d have started on the women. She danced with this guy who was about twenty-five. At least he could buy his own drinks. She brought him back to the table where I was sitting. He didn’t say much, but that could have been because Louise spent the rest of the night trying to lick his tonsils. I sat there, watching the people on the dance floor. Oh babe, did we look that stupid when we were their age?’
‘Probably.’
‘I was quite relieved when this guy came up to the table and asked me to dance.’
‘What did you say?’
‘I said yes. I was happy to leave the face suckers to it.’
‘Who was he?’
‘He was older than most of the people there. Maybe in his thirties. He had blond hair. He was in good shape – big shoulders, broad chest. He said he was in the Air Force. He also said his Porsche was parked outside. He asked me if I wanted to go for a ride.’
‘You didn’t fall for that old line, did you?’
‘Believe me, babe, I just wanted to get out of there. I said goodbye to Louise, but I don’t think she even noticed I was leaving. I went out to the parking lot with this guy. He had some sort of sports car, but it definitely wasn’t a Porsche. We got in and went for a drive. It just happened to take us back to his place.’ She stopped and looked at me. ‘Are you okay? You’re shaking.’
‘Tina, have you any idea how dangerous that was? You meet some random guy in a club. And you just get into his car. You could have been killed.’
‘You watch too many crime dramas, Rob. Things like that don’t happen in real life.’
‘I also watch the news. And yes, they do happen in real life.’
‘If something’s on the news, it means it doesn’t happen very often. Do you want to hear what happened next?’
‘I’m not sure. I guess so.’
‘Well, we arrived back at his place. I was a bit suspicious when I got there. It was just an ordinary apartment. It wasn’t on an Air Force base or anything. And I couldn’t see anything in there to suggest he was an airman. There were no pictures on the wall of him and his buddies posing next to a plane. When he went to the bathroom, I took a quick look in his closet. I couldn’t see a uniform or anything with Air Force insignia on it.’
‘So, not just a stranger, but a stranger who suffers from delusions.’
‘I don’t think he’s delusional. It’s probably just a line he uses to pick up women.’
‘It obviously works.’
‘Anyway, he came back from the bathroom. We kissed a little bit, but he wasn’t really into kissing. He put his hand down my trousers and felt my pussy. He told me to get naked, so I took my clothes off. He didn’t bother taking his off. He just pulled his trousers and shorts down. We didn’t make it to the bed. He just laid me down on the floor. I was already wet, so he didn’t waste any time on foreplay. He just put a condom on and got on top of me. It was good sex. He didn’t make me cum, but he had a decent-sized cock and he kept going for quite a while. I enjoyed it. I was hoping he’d finish me off with his tongue, but no such luck. As soon as he’d cum, he just said, “Well, you’ll be wanting to get back to your friend.” He didn’t even offer to drive me home, so I had to call a taxi.’
‘I can’t believe this,’ I said.
‘What? We agreed that I’d start seeing lots of different people.’
‘We agreed we’d place a couple of ads, go through all the replies, and find someone suitable for you. That’s very different from letting a guy treat you like that.’
‘I respect him in a way.’
‘He doesn’t respect you very much.’
‘At least he was honest.’
‘By pretending to be in the Air Force?’
‘That’s not what I mean. He didn’t come out with any bullshit like, “I’m expecting a phone call from Tokyo, so you’d better go.” He didn’t even say, “I’ll call you.” He didn’t pretend it was anything except a quick fuck on the floor. Look on the bright side. At least we don’t need to worry that he’s going to fall in love with me.’
‘That’s very comforting.’
‘Do you want to fuck me now?’
‘No, I’m still shaking.’
‘Babe, I was fine. I trust my instincts. And my instincts said it would be okay.’
I got ready for bed. Maybe Tina was right. Maybe a regular diet of crime dramas had blown my fear of stranger danger out of all proportion. But I still wanted to protect her. I went into the bedroom. Tina was already in bed. ‘Next time you go out to meet someone,’ I said, ‘I’m coming with you.’