“English? Mind if we join?” The women were smiling. The taller one was dark, her hair worn high on her head, elaborately pinned. Her friend was blonde, with smile lines around her eyes.

“Other seats are available,” said Jo. “And neither of us is English.”

“But we could sit here, with you. And you could tell us about yourselves. And that would be nice.” The tall woman. She said it so disarmingly that I began to move out of the way. An open face, intelligent and kind. No edge. She pushed in beside me, and I was aware of the shortness of her skirt, could feel the strength in her exposed thighs. Her friend slid in beside Jo, an expectant look on her face. I pushed up along the booth so as not to sit too close to those thighs.

“It’s just . . .” I said. I caught Jo’s amused smile. “We’re both spoken for.”

“And what?” said the blonde woman. “Married men can’t talk to us?” Pretty, I thought. Interested in Jo.

“To be clear . . .” said Jo, “neither of us fucks.”

The women exchanged a look.

“My friend Jo prefers the company of men,” I said. “Sorry.”

Jo sighed. “My friend Cal is prone to making irrational choices. A fuck with a woman he just met in a bar will not make him more rational. You ladies will find better pickings at one of the tables over there.”

“Okay, Jo,” said the blonde woman, making a point of shaking his hand. “Nice to meet you. Thank you for being clear. I’m Solveig. I do not wish to fuck you. Either of you. And this is Nina. I think also Nina does not wish to fuck you.”

They got up to leave.

“Sorry for the interruption,” said Nina.

“I’m sorry too,” I said, and meant it.

We watched them go. They stood at the corner of the bar, ruffled.

Jo said, “And now your foreigner’s mind is thinking I had no right to speak to those women like that.”

“Yes,” I said. “Something like that.”

“And maybe you want to flirt with a girl in a bar, buy her a few drinks, and go home to Elsa. In which case, my bad. And I will walk over there and tell Nina that, and maybe she will come back and you can buy her some drinks. But Cal, man, you have needs an actual fuck cut into the lines in your face.”

“What are you saying?”

“Oh come on,” he said. “I saw the way you leapt away from her when her leg brushed yours. You yelped.”

“I did not yelp.”

“You yelped. What’s that, if not a guilty conscience?”

“Tell Elsa, from me, that I don’t fuck other women.”

He laughed, shook his head.

“What’s funny?”

“Just . . . Elsa’s pretty much erased me from her life.”

“I didn’t know that. I’m sorry.”