Laurie O'Donnell stepped off the bus and underneath the bus stop shelter long enough to pull her umbrella out of her backpack. She ran up the block to her apartment complex, but it was because of the rain, not any urgency to be home. Her boyfriend Rick was going to be late at the law school library again; between his classes and his new clerkship at the state courthouse, she only ever saw him for a few minutes in the morning. She was finding herself getting used to evenings of leftovers, a little homework, and then falling asleep in front of the TV.
On top of all that, she had found herself feeling uncharacteristically horny all day. It wasn't her period, and Laurie usually had no problem saving those kinds of thoughts for Rick, but she had found herself looking at random guys in class and hoping one of them would rip her clothes off and bend her over. She had even caught herself fantasizing about her biology professor, and he was pushing sixty. Maybe I'll just take a long bath and then pull out my vibrator, Laurie thought as she hurried down the sidewalk. I think it's at the back of my sock drawer.
She arrived at the apartment building and passed by Katie Lang stepping into her place carrying a handful of mail. She had moved into the apartment down the way at the beginning of fall term, and the two of them had chatted a little while doing laundry or crossing paths in the complex; Laurie had even had her and her husband over to dinner on one of the rare nights that Rick was home. She couldn't say she knew Katie well, but Laurie still admired her. Not only was she outspoken and funny, but she was gorgeous: red hair with alabaster skin and perfectly shaped legs that she regularly showed off with her short skirts. None of their conversations had ever grown more personal than classes or their favorite movies, but there were a few times when Laurie looked into Katie's aqualine green eyes and thought she had seen a yearning, an inquisitiveness, a passion that had so far remained entirely unspoken.
Maybe we ought to invite her back over to dinner one of these times, Laurie thought as she unlocked her dead bolt. She had barely had time to close the door and slip out of her coat when the doorbell rang.
She opened the door. *Study group's not tonight, is it?* she wondered.
Katie was standing there, huddled underneath the awning. She was wearing a plain white t-shirt and a pleated Catholic girls' skirt without nylons. Her arms were folded tight and she was trying to keep warm.
"You're late," Katie said. "Where have you been?"
Laurie was confused. "Well, I missed my bus. Were we supposed to do something?"
"Hel-lo. Tonight's the night when we..." She gestures with her hand "Remember?"
"That was tonight? I thought it was next week."
"No, it's tonight. When you're feeling horny and your boyfriend's gone?"
"I'm sorry. My boyfriend's gone every night. It must have slipped my mind. Come in, come in."
Katie had barely closed the door behind when Laurie reached for her waist and pulled her close.
"Woah, woah, woah," Katie said, pushing her back. "You are new at this, aren't you? We're supposed to talk a little first. Bluth will never this story published if we start going at it on the first page."
"Published?" Laurie asked. "I thought that these kinds of things only wound up on erotica web pages."
"Well, he's not sure what he'll do with it, but even erotica has a basic structure. Let's sit down." Katie crossed over to the couch as Laurie walked back into the kitchen.
"Are we supposed to drink wine or something like that? I think there's some red in here."
"Naw," Katie replied. "Actually, I'd kill for a beer right now. Got anything?"
Laurie reached into the fridge for one of Rick's cans of PBR. "So the guy writing this is named Bluth?"
"Yeah, Bluth. Rhymes with 'Ruth'."
"Does he write this sort of thing?"
"Actually, he mainly does poetry. He's had some things published in little magazines, plus some record reviews here and there. Nothing big."
"So he's never done this sort of thing before?"
"No, but I think it'll turn out okay. You can tell from our dialogue that he knows how to form a coherent sentence. We could have wound up with a lot worse."
Laurie walked back into the living room and handed Katie the can before sitting down next to her on the couch. Katie pulled back the tab and took a long swig.
"So," Laurie asked. "Should I put some some music on? There's some jazz and some Ani DiFranco"