Running-waiting, actually - in Key West, I thought of a story I'd read in high school: Hemingway's "The Killers." The appearance of the diner did nothing to change my feelings.
All of the seats at the counter were occupied, except for one on either side of the woman near the middle. I moved to the one at her right.
"This seat taken?" I asked her.
"No," she said, so I sat down.
She wore a beige raincoat, a red and blue scarf completely covering her hair, and large, smoked glasses. It was a cloudy day.
"What's the soup?" I asked her.
"Conch."
I ordered some and a club sandwich.
She had several cups of coffee. She glanced at her watch. She turned toward me.
"Vacationing?" she asked.
"Sort of," I said.
"Staying near here?"
"Not too far."
She smiled.
"I'll give you a ride."
"All right."
We paid our checks. She was short. About five-two or -three. I couldn't really see much of her, except for her legs, and they were good.
We went out and turned left. She headed toward a small white car. I could smell the sea again.
We got in and she began to drive. She didn't ask me where I was staying. She looked at her watch again.
"I'm horny," she said then. "You interested?"
It had been quite a while, running the way I had been. I nodded as she glanced my way.
"Yeah," I said. "You look good to me."
She drove for a time, then turned down a road toward the beach. It was an isolated stretch. The waves were dark and high and white capped.
She stopped the car.
"Here?" I said.
She unbuttoned her coat, undid a blue wraparound skirt. She wore nothing beneath it. She left it behind and straddled me.
"The rest is up to you," she said.
I smiled and reached for her glasses. She slapped my hand away.
"Below the neck," she said. "Keep it below the neck."
"All right. Sorry," I said, reaching up beneath her blouse and around behind for hooks. "You really are something."
I was out and up and in before too long. She did most of the work, with very little change of expression, except near the end when she began to smile and threw her head back. A peculiar icy feeling crept along my spine then, and I looked away from her face and down at the rest of her, riding and flapping.
When I was empty and she was full, she got off and rebuttoned her coat, not bothering with the skirt.
"Good," she said, squeezing my left biceps. "I was getting tense."
"I was kind of tight myself," I said, zipping and buckling, as she started the engine. "You've got a very good body."
"I know."
She got onto the road and headed back.
"Where you staying?"
"Southernmost Motel."
"Okay."
As we drove, I wondered why a girl like that didn't have a steady man. I thought she might be new in town. I thought maybe she didn't want a steady man. I thought it would be nice to see her again. Too bad I was leaving that night.
As we went down my street, I saw a blue car with a man I knew sitting in it, parked in front of my motel. I drew myself down in the seat.
"Go past," I said. "Don't stop!"
"What's the matter?"
"They've found me," I said. "Keep driving."
"The only person I see is a man in a blue Fury. He the one?"
"Yes. He wasn't looking this way. I don't think he saw me."
"He's looking at the motel."
"Good."
She swung around the corner.