The Kid Stays In The Game

My good friend viviane recently used the phrase "pick up guy", and I harkened back to that moniker last night. I was never a pick up guy, never the one with the smooth line and the calculated come ons. I could always make small talk and still can, but I never had the rap and patter down pat.
She and I went out to the Blue Note to see Ivan Lins and the NY Voices. He's a wonderful Brazilian singer/composer, and they are such capable and innovative singers that they left me wondering how they find their notes and lines, and I've been listening to jazz singing groups since Lambert, Henricks and Ross.
The tables at the Blue Note cost $45 per person/cover and are reservable...and the seats at the bar are only $25 but alas not reservable, and so I went ahead, way early, arriving at 6:15 for an 8PM show, only to find that some seats were already gone, and so I sat way at the end of the curved bar, and was quick to notice two women sitting just past the curve. And we made eye contact right away, the prettier woman's gaze direct and unabashed. I ordered a Jameson and soda from the bartender, remarking to him that it was a shame that She was coming later, the two women were soooo attractive and obviously on the prowl. I was quick to notice that they conversed in French, Parisian French at that, and seemed to understand little English, as I had to translate several remarks from the bartender to them.
There were several back and forths with the prettier one, much eye contact, serious non-verbal flirting, and the doorman even floats by, saying to me what a shame it is that She's coming, because I'm already sitting there involved with a very pretty lady. Finally, they ask me when the show starts, and I reply "A huit heures, plus ou moin", meaning eight o'clock. It becomes obvious that they had no idea they'd be holding down the bar for another hour, and so after a brief conversation, they get up to leave, the prettier one throwing one last smile at me.
Nothing happened, but it's always nice to know that someone might be interested in picking me up.