He was starving for breakfast or he wouldn’t have agreed to go to the diner with her. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew this was a bad idea and that he would regret it, but the thought of showing up somewhere in public in T-shirt and jeans with a hot babe in a red dress and black high heels on his arm … well, an opportunity like this only comes up, er, like, never! He felt like he had to seize the day. Besides, he knew that the idea that he was ‘taken’ by this gorgeous creature would make him insanely attractive to any woman with eyes.

The cab ride was murder for him knowing that she didn’t have any panties on under the dress, but thankfully it was short. As he expected, the place she took him to was jam-packed, though he hadn’t expected that everyone there from the waitresses, cooks, and cashier to the patrons already knew her. “Lydia” was the name they called out in heavily accented English, but he still only thought of her as “Pirate”.  Was that a Greek accent they had? He was just guessing from the name of the place, “Cosmo’s”, and the ionic columns painted blue on the walls.

A past middle-aged but otherwise efficient-looking waitress with “Dina” on her nametag found them a booth right away, making some comment under her breath about “Lydia and her man-friend.” While Dina poured coffee for them, they ordered eggs and hash browns, an uncomplicated diner breakfast. John caught the know-it-all wink Dina shot at Lydia and joked to the waitress. “Tell her I’m better than he was.”

“Well!” Dina said, assuming (as he knew she would) that John knew all about Lydia’s/Anna’s/the Pirate’s most recent boyfriend. “Better-looking, yes,” she admitted matter-of-factly. “But better in bed? Well, I don’t know about that. I’ll ask Lydia when you’re gone.” And then Dina was off to another booth leaving a very becoming red blush flooding the Pirate’s face. 

John looked at his companion and feigned innocence. “Am I really better than he was?”

She made a face at him. “What do you think?”

“Oh, I already know,” he answered without hesitation. “I just want to hear you say it.” He winked at her.

“Hmmm.” She contemplated him with her head tilted to one side. “Don’t let it get to your head,” she warned.

“Oh, I will,” he promised, making it sound like a dirty innuendo, and he noticed that he was not the only one in that diner attracted to the sound of her laughter. “You really shouldn’t be wearing that dress here – and red? With black heels?” he shook his head. “I feel like I’m going to have to defend your honor …” 

“You’ve seen ‘Zorba the Greek’ too many times,” she said with amusement, pulling her fork out of its napkin so she could start drawing lines across the paper with the tines.

As if on cue, Dina brought their plates piled high on one arm. “OJ, right? No ice?” she asked, not even looking up to see the Pirate nodding. “What about you?” she said to John, “Just coffee? We got juice, milk …” 

“Coffee’s fine, Miss Dina,” he said.

Dina smirked at Lydia. “See, the boy has manners!” she patted Lydia’s shoulder before leaving them alone.

John waited until he saw the Pirate bring her glass of water to her lips. “So when do we get to fuck again?” Lydia sputtered and almost spat her sip out. She looked at him indignantly, but he hoped that the image of her almost snarfing her water went a long way to killing