As John sat on the couch watching the news, Penny came in with the mail and sat next to him, leaning back against the arm rest, and settling her legs on John's thighs. John used her legs as a drink holder, setting his beer bottle between her knees, and she dutifully shifted her legs a bit closer together to hold it. As she did so, John reached over and rubbed her feet.
"Mmmm," said Penny, smiling. She blew John a kiss, sending a touch of magic with it. John actually felt the touch her lips on his, and he smiled back.
Penny sifted through the mail, and started shifting through it. Mostly junk and a couple bills. Penny stopped at an envelope she didn't recognize, however. It appeared to be a vacation offer. Shrugging, she tore open the envelope and glanced over the contents, a pamphlet showing an ocean liner.
John took a drink of his beer as the TV show cut to commercial, and he glanced at the pamphlet. "Ha. I remember when we used to do stuff for vacation."
"I don't," said Penny. The two chuckled. The first vacation together they'd taken had been a cruise ship. Unfortunately, they caught a horrible flu the first day, and spent half the time confined to quarters. When they finally got better, a tropical storm kicked up and the ship had been forced to cut its route short. Still, they'd managed to buy enough souvenirs to impress their friends when they got back.
"Why don't we ever go places anymore?" said Penny. "You know, besides the lake."
"You don't like the lake?"
"I love the lake. But the past five years, that's the only place we've been. It would be nice to go, I dunno, hiking at Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, or go to the Bahamas, or to Ireland like we always said we would. Hell, even just do a roadtrip down the coast, y'know?"
"Yeah, I hear ya." John pat her leg. "Well. I mean, we could. Not too much really stopping us." He paused. "Except, you know, America getting chopped up into a bunch of little kingdoms and travel between them now being a tremendous pain the ass."
"Queendoms," said Penny. "They're called Queendoms now."
"Ah, right. Still. The Cult Wars were three years ago. You'd think they could ease up a little. Travel would sure help the economy."
"Yeah," said Penny. "Just be grateful we don't live on the East Coast. My sister says they keep men on leashes and all fours over there."
John grimaced. "That's really bad for the knees."
Penny smirked. "I'm sure it's not really like that. She likes to exaggerate."
"So, how's her husband doing?"
Penny's smile faltered a bit. "She tells me he's... adjusting... if slowly." She hesitated a bit, but then said. "She also has a new boyfriend, too, which I'm sure complicates things."
John grimaced again, but he patted Penny's leg again. He took her hand and kissed it, giving her a warm smile. "Good thing I ended up with the nice sister."
Penny grinned slightly, and winked. John jumped as he felt a gentle slap on his balls, more startling than actually painful. "You sure about that?"
The two chuckled, and John turned back to the TV while Penny sighed and looked at the pamphlet again. She had really only looked at the pictures so far, a generic looking luxury liner, set against the backdrop of the Alaskan coastline. Then she took a second glance at the pictures inside. She blinked. She'd noticed the men in the pictures being topless, strapping hunks no doubt intended to entice a female, or gay male, customer base. Then she looked a little closer and noticed they weren't just topless. They were naked! All of them! The pictures had simply been staged to cover the men's general groin area. Despite a decade or so of Sex Magic, full nudity was still taboo to show in some countries, even though women could easily see men naked at a whim.