I was happy, a little excited even, to provide a night of lodging to Rod,
the fellow from the home office, upstate. We had been working together on
the new facility design for months.
He was gorgeous and I enjoyed the few opportunities I had to be with him
outside of the office — lunches and on one occasion a late night cocktail at
my apartment.
Not wanting to put him off or give him the wrong idea, I offered to sleep
on my couch. Rod laughed looking at the loveseat that I called a couch. Not
necessary, he said.
I didn’t dare assume anything from his casual observation that my king
size bed looked like it could easily accomodate more than just the two of us.
I crashed early, freeing the bathroom for my guest and creating what
privacy I could by my sleep. (more…)

I had always liked Jenny, though I didn’t know her well personally. We
worked together on the night shift. Us night-timers have a slightly different
perspective on the world that most other people on ‘normal’ shifts. We’re often
driving on streets devoid of life at 3AM, and spend a lot of time at home
because nothing’s open. And then we sleep through the morning, when everybody
else is alive and awake. It’s a very lonely life most of the time.
Jenny suffered from this as much as I. She had come to town almost a year
ago, and because of her hours, she hadn’t had so much as one date in all that
time. Often she would grumble about the lack of a social/sex life. There were
plenty of guys on the night shift, but for some reason she didn’t seem
interested. More than a few of them were interested, though. (more…)

The Bandit rubbed his eyes and put down the book, tucking his pen in
it for a bookmark. He sighed gustily and looked at the closed door to the
living room. Muffled sounds of conversation were coming from outside,
interspersed with shouts of raucous laughter: Conan, having some fun at the
expense of one of the Wiz’s folks, no doubt. There was no sign of Zero; it was
becoming obvious that he’d be spending tonight in Diva’s room. Bummer.
On impulse, the Bandit walked swiftly to his cassette rack and
withdrew an album that he almost never played any more. He popped it into the
deck, pulled on his headphones, and began to disrobe.

“Oh very young, what will you leave us this time?
You’re only dancing on this Earth for a short while,
And though your dreams may toss and turn you now….”

“Come to bed, liebchen,” Diva smiled, stretching out languidly on the
narrow mattress. Her body wasn’t a pin-up artist’s wet dream by any means: a
bit heavy in the hips and thighs, just a hint of a double chin. But her heavy
breasts and sinuous torso had an appeal all their own, as did the tawny patch
of hair just above her swollen labia. (more…)

“I don’t want to start like that. And again…two, three, four….”
“Hold it, HOLD IT!” The Bandit held up a hand and waved frantically,
making disgusted faces. Zero raised an eyebrow at the spastic diplay, but
willingly shut off the tape recorder.
“Something the matter?”
“YES, God damn your oversized beak!” The Bandit glared furiously at
Zero, fists on hips.
Zero selfconsciously rubbed the bridge of his nose, which was quite
frankly a tremendously outsized appendage for the face upon which it rested, a
bit of Cherokee ancestry that wouldn’t have been out of place on a nickel.
“What is it? And calm down, you look like you’re about to explode.”
“You promised me NO cliches and NO stuff stolen from other people!”
“Well, of course not,” Zero replied, looking hurt. “But we haven’t
even started playing yet….”
“You know damn well what I mean!” The Bandit rewound the tape, still
glaring at Zero. “That ‘I don’t wanna start like that’ line is straight off of
a Robert Fripp song! Now, NO FRIPP!”
“It is? Oh, so it is.” Zero scratched his head and smiled sheepishly.
“It’s from the prologue of his first album, isn’t it? The one that leads
into–” (more…)