He broke into a smile. It was obvious that this episode was one of the better memories from his youth.
‘I am certain there was an underlying need for self-vindication and revenge on my part, but also physical desire. I was an active young man with a strong libido. Young women soon excited me more than football matches. But then I got older and wiser, and my hormones settled. The atmosphere at business school was more mature and serious, and after I met Karen, I never touched anyone else. Until…’
The word hung in the air for a moment before he finished.
‘Until Sara stood there one day, glimmering on the stairs, and said that she had just moved in. I felt a surge of excitement and desire stronger than ever before.’
He leaned over the table towards me.
‘You are further from those days than I am, but you must at least once have stood slightly too close to one of those annoyingly beautiful temptresses between seventeen and twenty-three… who appears to have unwittingly tightened her belt too much, undone three buttons on her blouse and be standing a bit too close. With a provocative smile that seems to say that you can see this much whenever you like, but no more.’
I waved him on without answering. I indeed had stood too close to at least one young lady who fitted that description. And I noted that we were now on very familiar terms.
‘No girl provoked me or turned me on more when I was a lad. Sometimes I lied and made promises that I had no intention of keeping, even when I was sober. I believed that if a girl was giving out mixed messages, she had to accept that the opposite party might do the same. So I played the game, and gained more than I lost, I would say. Certainly, more than once they got a taste of their own medicine and were left crying in their own trap. Sara gave exactly that impression when she stood there in front of me. She was older, taller and more dignified in a way, in her long black dress with only two buttons open at the neck. But her smile had the same teasing, tempting effect, and the impact was all the greater because she otherwise appeared so respectable and intelligent. Her smile seemed to say that no one had been here before and being the first would not be easy. It felt like an open challenge as she stood there no more than an arm’s length from me, with her perfect curves under wraps. I have always been attracted to tall, dark women, and suddenly here I was facing my dream woman who was taller and darker than any I had met before. So I fell hopelessly in love, right there on the stairs, with her soft hand in mine. I found myself thinking, as I had in my youth, That smile is going to change and that dress is coming off!’