his beer.
Thea kept talking. She was easy to listen to. The stiffness
leaked from his shoulders and spine. He stopped compulsively running his hands
up and down the handle of his mug. Thea filled the dreaded long pauses when he
couldn’t think of a thing to say. Yet she listened when he did manage to stutter
out a phrase. She laughed at his jokes.
Gradually the conversation became real, more than small
talk. Neil managed to get past his tendency at earlier parties to keep it
light. Dr. Rosen said that trait was a defense mechanism, a habit leftover from
his twilight decades when any friend he made died. Old widowers risked much to
try to forge deep relationships. Neil didn’t care about the analysis. He just
did what felt right. Heart pounding, he got the words out: “Can I see you
again?”
Thea played with one of her tightly kinked curls, like a cat
next to a mouse it has trapped, letting the poor thing wonder if it will again
set down its paw. “Yes. I would like that,” she said.
o0o
For their first date, they took the Slingshot up to low
earth orbit, on a ten-hour tourist package Thea had signed up for on a whim
years back. She’d never cancelled the reservations for two, figuring that when
the time finally arrived, she’d find someone who wanted to accompany her.
Neil and Thea spent the bulk of the visit strolling along
the view decks of the Earthrise Mall, goggling at the starscape. Their favorite
moments, though, took place in what Thea labelled “the trampoline chamber,” a
sphere eighteen meters in diameter, attached to the space station just so
Grounders could fly back and forth to their hearts’ content. They giggled like
children, hysterical at the peculiar effect of weightlessness on their faces
and figures. By the time they took their berths in the descent vehicle, they
were so pleasantly exhausted that they napped for the last half of the glide to
sea level.
As they strolled out of the station into a blustery night,
Thea threw back her head and hooted enthusiastically, “Oh, I love doing new things, don’t you?”
Her arm drifted into the crook of his elbow. Neil’s wits
seemed to vanish into the breeze, knocked out of his brain by the unexpected
chill of natural planetary atmosphere. He recognized the cue. The decision,
said her body with a theatrical shiver, was his.
She looked so perfect, black flesh framed against a black
sky. The warmth of her radiated all the way from his cradled elbow up his arm
and down his torso to his crotch. Yes, he told himself, trying to reestablish
his ability to breathe. If she were ready, so was he.
o0o
She took Neil into her with velvet-glove softness. She
squirmed on top of him, rolling like an otter on the slick, firm surface of his
torso. Her breasts tickled the hairs of his chest, pasting them down with her
own sweat. Casting off his anxiety, he concentrated on pleasing her.
She was riding him again, much, much later, when his climax
arrived. The ejaculation seemed to originate from the tips of his toes and the
surface of his scalp, rushing to his penis and into her with flash-flood
suddenness and force. As his hips collapsed to the mattress, he thought he
would faint.
“Well!” she said, arching back and purring, still straddled
across him. “What’ll we do tomorrow?”
He opened his eyes, peering under heavy lids at her beaming,
gratified smile. His body still basked in post-orgasmic tremors, but his mind
was working again. He replayed her comment from earlier in the evening. “I love doing new things, don’t you?”
The night lost the transcendence that came from banishing
thirty-five years of abstinence. In its place rose the shame of having read the
signs wrong. Neil choked down his disappointment. He began to count the days
until Thea would no longer consider him to be “the new thing.”
o0o
Felice pranced across the tennis court, playing
aggressively, forcing Neil to call upon old tricks to hold his own. Though
small and
Thea kept talking. She was easy to listen to. The stiffness
leaked from his shoulders and spine. He stopped compulsively running his hands
up and down the handle of his mug. Thea filled the dreaded long pauses when he
couldn’t think of a thing to say. Yet she listened when he did manage to stutter
out a phrase. She laughed at his jokes.
Gradually the conversation became real, more than small
talk. Neil managed to get past his tendency at earlier parties to keep it
light. Dr. Rosen said that trait was a defense mechanism, a habit leftover from
his twilight decades when any friend he made died. Old widowers risked much to
try to forge deep relationships. Neil didn’t care about the analysis. He just
did what felt right. Heart pounding, he got the words out: “Can I see you
again?”
Thea played with one of her tightly kinked curls, like a cat
next to a mouse it has trapped, letting the poor thing wonder if it will again
set down its paw. “Yes. I would like that,” she said.
o0o
For their first date, they took the Slingshot up to low
earth orbit, on a ten-hour tourist package Thea had signed up for on a whim
years back. She’d never cancelled the reservations for two, figuring that when
the time finally arrived, she’d find someone who wanted to accompany her.
Neil and Thea spent the bulk of the visit strolling along
the view decks of the Earthrise Mall, goggling at the starscape. Their favorite
moments, though, took place in what Thea labelled “the trampoline chamber,” a
sphere eighteen meters in diameter, attached to the space station just so
Grounders could fly back and forth to their hearts’ content. They giggled like
children, hysterical at the peculiar effect of weightlessness on their faces
and figures. By the time they took their berths in the descent vehicle, they
were so pleasantly exhausted that they napped for the last half of the glide to
sea level.
As they strolled out of the station into a blustery night,
Thea threw back her head and hooted enthusiastically, “Oh, I love doing new things, don’t you?”
Her arm drifted into the crook of his elbow. Neil’s wits
seemed to vanish into the breeze, knocked out of his brain by the unexpected
chill of natural planetary atmosphere. He recognized the cue. The decision,
said her body with a theatrical shiver, was his.
She looked so perfect, black flesh framed against a black
sky. The warmth of her radiated all the way from his cradled elbow up his arm
and down his torso to his crotch. Yes, he told himself, trying to reestablish
his ability to breathe. If she were ready, so was he.
o0o
She took Neil into her with velvet-glove softness. She
squirmed on top of him, rolling like an otter on the slick, firm surface of his
torso. Her breasts tickled the hairs of his chest, pasting them down with her
own sweat. Casting off his anxiety, he concentrated on pleasing her.
She was riding him again, much, much later, when his climax
arrived. The ejaculation seemed to originate from the tips of his toes and the
surface of his scalp, rushing to his penis and into her with flash-flood
suddenness and force. As his hips collapsed to the mattress, he thought he
would faint.
“Well!” she said, arching back and purring, still straddled
across him. “What’ll we do tomorrow?”
He opened his eyes, peering under heavy lids at her beaming,
gratified smile. His body still basked in post-orgasmic tremors, but his mind
was working again. He replayed her comment from earlier in the evening. “I love doing new things, don’t you?”
The night lost the transcendence that came from banishing
thirty-five years of abstinence. In its place rose the shame of having read the
signs wrong. Neil choked down his disappointment. He began to count the days
until Thea would no longer consider him to be “the new thing.”
o0o
Felice pranced across the tennis court, playing
aggressively, forcing Neil to call upon old tricks to hold his own. Though
small and
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