The Number

Written by: HedbangerSA

One man's loss is another's gain; if he's got the nerve.

THE NUMBER 

HedbangerSA 

It would be Chinese food tonight.  My return flight from Philadelphia to
Atlanta always left from either the B or C terminal and each had only 
one restaurant, this one and one with a rock music theme where I always 
had a burger.  By the time I got this far I was always so tired from 
the lines at airport security and the hassle of traffic and dropping 
off my rental car that I didn't much care what I ate. 

The restaurant was packed but there was one open stool on the far side
of the bar, the one right next to the station where the waitresses 
picked up drinks.  Watching the waitresses and bartenders was one of 
the pluses about the place, and come to think of it about the rock 
music/burger place too, where the girls dressed exactly the same way.  
All in black, with tight jeans or slacks and a sleeveless knit top that 
usually left a little bit of tummy showing. 

After I squeezed into the spot and flagged down a waitress to order a
beer and ask for a menu, the guy next to me turned and stuck out his 
hand. 

"Hi.  I'm John and this is Sean," he said, nodding at the guy to his
right.  Both of them looked ten years younger than I was, in their 
twenties.  Both were grinning and looked like they had a sizeable head 
start on me in alcohol consumption. John announced that he was from 
Ohio and that Sean was from England, and that both of them had missed 
connections hours earlier. 

"I'm Paul," I said, shaking John's hand and nodding at Sean.   Both were
wearing jeans and tee shirts and were smoking, like just about everyone 
else in the bar except me. 

I don't usually like it when strangers talk to me, especially that
aggressively, but John was hard to resent.  He had that open, 
big-lovable-puppy quality and knew it - able to be intrusive without 
offending.  A born salesman.  He was a big guy, maybe 6'3", and it 
turned out he played high school football and a couple of years of 
small college ball, before he realized that he "wasn't good enough".  
He was on a first-name basis with all three of the girl bartenders and 
most of the customers within earshot.  There was a forty-something 
businesswoman named Mary on the other side of Sean, and a chain-smoking 
grandmother next to her.  I think her name was Betty. 

Sean was quieter and closer my size, a little over six feet.  He was
clearly coat-tailing on John's charm and enjoying it, especially the 
extra attention we were getting from the bartenders.   I recognized 
Brenda, a brunette in her late twenties, from earlier visits. She was 
tall and slim, and definitely spent serious time in a gym.  Her jeans 
were skintight and really low-cut and she had a big-handled metal 
bottle opener sticking out of the waistband in the back, nestled 
between amazing butt cheeks she could have used to crack walnuts. 

Marilee was about the same age, blonde and very pretty in a hard-edged,
tough way.  Her hair was fairly short and spiked on top, and she had a 
huge tattoo on the small of her back. 

Our waitress was Josie.  She looked five years younger than the other
two, and...different.  The bar was packed and all three were busy, but 
where Brenda and Marilee oozed experienced efficiency and detachment, 
Josie looked frantic and flustered, eyes a little glazed.  She was 
pretty, in her own way maybe prettier than Marilee.  Nice eyes, light 
brown hair pulled back from her face on the sides and loose on her 
shoulders in the back.  Kind of like a grown up Shirley Temple, with 
features more cute than beautiful.  Josie had hips that were maybe a 
touch too wide, but not heavy - just feminine.  Small waist for her 
frame, and though her bare arms and shoulders weren't defined like 
Marilee and Brenda's, they were firm and smooth.  And she had a great 
rack that bounced just a little when she ran around behind the bar. 

I had an hour and a half to kill before my flight, so I decided to relax
and enjoy the show, which mainly consisted of John flirting with the 
bartenders and with Mary, who worked for an investment banking firm in 
New York.  Sean worked in construction and was on his way to visit 


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