She is embarrassed by the attention

Sophie blushes by the attention she had thought she was imagining suddenly becoming quite real. She is lost for words as she looks at the young man, that still grips her wrist, and is acutely award that her cheeks have flushed red. Her dog growls protectively.

“I,, err....”, she falters, as she looks in his eyes, questioning. Closer up she can see how young he is, probably no older than her eldest daughter, and this adds to her embarrassment, although he is quite handsome, in a rugged way and her body betrays her as she feels a strange spasm between her legs that she hasn’t felt in a while.

“Fun?”, she asks, her mouth quite dry, her confusion reigning.

Before he can answer, another voice joins in. Older, and assured, confident even.

“Excuse me, but is everything ok here?”

Sophie turns to the source and realises that a man is standing next to her. Older than her maybe, but not by much. Tall, casually dressed in jeans and a fleece. Kind eyes beneath an untidy mop of hair sprinkled with grey..

The stranger looks from her to the boy, seeking a response, now addrsssing the boy.

“I’m sorry to intrude but this young woman seemed uncertain and alone. You can’t be too careful nowadays. I just wanted to make sure..”

The boy released his grip on her hand, smiling and offering reassurance.

“Yes. It’s cool. We were just talking”, he responds, his eyes assessing the man that had interrupted them.

Sophie realises she hasn’t said a word and is just looking from one man to another. This isn’t like her. Not like her at all. To be the little girl lost.

“Yes, he was just being...... kind”, she offers, but she doesn’t know why. The boy smiles, appreciating her help, but doesn’t turn to go, instead appraising the stranger himself. Gauging him.

She senses other movement and realises that the kind stranger has a dog too, and it is sniffing her dog, excitedly, as dogs do, wagging its tail. Much bigger than her dog but friendly.

Welcoming the distraction from the awkwardness of the conversation she turns from the two men who seem to be, working each other out, to fuss the stranger’s dog, ruffling its fur,

“He’s lovely, isn’t he?”, she starts,”is it a boy or a girl?”, but is stopped short as, as if to answer her question, the stranger’s dog tries to mount hers. She blushes again, for what seems like the tenth time today, as she pulls her hand away.

Her dog doesn’t welcome thie attention and there is some growling as the stranger ties to pull his dog away, although it is being quite persistent, his hips pumping away as it succeeds in getting onto the back of her dog.

“I’m so sorry”, he offers.

“It’s ok”, Sophie laughs, the ice now broken, “its quite natural for doggy style”, then catches herself (why did she say ‘doggy’? Why did she say ‘style’?)

“I mean, dogs”, she stumbles for words again, maybe it was those hips, ”it’s a dominance thing”. And she feels herself flush red as the stranger smiles at her faltering embarrassment yet again,

“Dominance isn’t a bad thing”, her explanation going from bad to worse, “I mean for dogs, doggy style, I mean..”.

Sophie’s heart is thumping fast in her chest now and she realises she doesn’t know what she means. She looks from the man to the boy, who both smile at her now, seemingly enjoying her discomfort, and feels lost

“I’m sure we both know what you mean”, the stranger helps her out, with a nod to the boy, and takes her arm.