Page 9 of Stags

Rora, that was right.

“Stockton and his friend,” said the breathy-voiced doe, “were just leaving.”

Yes,Stockton thought,let’s go, before Rora says something else.

“Athos,” said Athos. “Athos Rockne. I’m an attorney.”

“How nice for you,” said the doe. She turned to her companions. “Or, we can go.”

“Where?” said Rora, all innocence.

“Somewhere away from them,” said the doe, moving forward with her glass of wine. Rora fell into step behind her and the third doe gave them a little wave as she brought up the rear.

“Well, I’m in love,” said Athos.

Stockton snorted.

“You don’t think she likes me too?” said Athos, cracking up. “I mean, what would ever have given youthatidea?”

Stockton snorted again.

“Hey, I’ll buy you another drink,” said Athos.

“Thanks, but I need to get to an orientation,” said Stockton, checking his phone for the time. “I think there’s one starting at 5:30.”

CHAPTER THREE

EIREN HAD SPENTthe afternoon filling out forms on her phone to get her STD-tests released to the Center. It had been a bit of a rush job, Friday afternoon, getting things all squared away, but it was going to work out, and she was going to be cleared to participate in the rite.

It was a little bit funny, because this was exactly the kind of thing that Eiren would typically claim was way too much work to do, which was why she wouldn’t do it. Then, strangely, if she found herself in a situation where she needed to do all the work, she could get it done inhours.

It was about proper motivation, maybe?

“You thought he was hot,” Eiren said to Tawny. They were sitting together at a table in a restaurant just down the street from the Center.

“I did not,” said Tawny. She wavered. “He was fine to look at, I guess, but he was a cocky son of a bitch.”

“Yeah, but I think you like them that way,” said Eiren, daring Tawny to contradict her. She was in impulsive mode, and when she was, she was fearless. There was a time when she’d wondered if she had some kind of bipolar disorder, and maybe that was it. Maybe that was the truth of the matter. Thing was, she never did anything actually destructive during these little fearless interludes of hers. She didn’t spend money she couldn’t afford to spend or do intravenous drugs or jump off buildings or something.

And the thing was, as she understood it, the way they treated bipolar was to basically destroy the manic situations, and if life didn’t contain these little impulsive interludes, she wasn’t sure there would be any point in it.

However, whatever the case, the proper motivation that was getting her into this rite might not be being manic and might entirely just be hormones.

After all, every doe on earth got hornier during the season, when everyone was fertile.

“I do not!” said Tawny, but she was laughing.

“Well, I’m not saying you want to move in with him,” said Eiren. “Any man who’s willing to say something like, ‘Maybe we are incompetent,’ is never going to pick up his wet towels from the floor.”

“Damned straight,” said Tawny, leaning forward to sip at her drink. Despite the warning at orientation that they weren’t encouraged to drink, they were all on their second drink of the evening. “But you’re saying it might be fun to ride that dick?”

Eiren shrugged. “I read a book about the psychology of attraction, and it said that we want things in other people that allow us to express aspects of our own personality we worry are abrasive. Women who are powerful women often want a man who is powerful, because we feel a man like that could handle us.”

Tawny considered. “Huh, I can see that.”

“On the other hand, we don’t want to be controlled in a relationship, so we might choose a certain sort of man for flings and another for relationships, but it’s unlikely we find a man who could satisfy us in both ways. The book was actually depressing like that the whole way through. Apparently, everyone does it, has a type of person they find arousing an a type of person they can love.”

“And they’re never the same person?” said Tawny.

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