Bonding Time
An Illustrated Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

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"Who am I going to believe?" he said. "My lying eyes or the gorgeous babe who wants to move in with me?"

I almost fell down the stairs because Mary was going so fast while holding my hand very strongly. When all four of us made it downstairs we checked everywhere to see what happened. Shortly after all the lights were turned on, we discovered the reason for the rude wake up call.

Sara looks at all the boxes and containers that have been delivered to her and Billy’s place. All their stuff from South America has finally arrived. She goes about unpacking one room at a time. Her wife, Billy was helping her father at his forensics lab.

While she was being trained by Mr. Bounty, her wife was recovering from being shot and learning to become a computer forensics analyst. Billy was just as smart as she was, if not smarter.

“Alexa, turn volume up by twenty-five percent.” Sara was listening to her favorite playlist, as she works.

Solicitation
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I don’t like prostitution. I have sisters, and even a daughter, although I have not seen her in a while. I think that prostitution demeans women. I worship women. I think that the female form is the most beautiful thing in the world. I think that the soul of woman – the giver of life – is too special to be sold and degraded.

CHAPTER 79
It felt unreal, as if so many years of my life had simply boiled away in hatred. This was my place, my first ever escape from the life I had been handed and the boy I had never been. This was where I had stared in through shop windows, where I had dreamt of a real life. Full circle.

"Riley, are you okay?" Mom asked me.

"Yes, why?" I replied, feeling a bit annoyed.  I wasn't annoyed at my mom. More at the situation.

"Who do you mean by Show yourself ?" my dad wanted to know.

"I don't know. I suddenly felt strongly that someone was watching me." 

"What if she is right?" Mary added, seeming a bit nervous and concerned.

"Then we will deal with it. Maybe we should go home now. It's late and cold." my mom suggested.

CHAPTER 78
I spent the next hour catching up on so many things with Benny, together with his husband and Roger, who drew me out of myself with his absolutely shameless camping. I actually found myself smiling, then laughing out loud, as he told stories of his life with his late husband. I caught a hint of tears from Peter every so often, but when Roger described their wedding, we were all roaring with laughter.

“So there we are, outside our delightful little Danish lattie, and I pick up darling Simon, and I nearly put my back out, and of course he has to do the same, across the threshold, and we have a toast, of course, with decent bubbly”

I woke up a little after 8 on December 20. Christmas was almost here. I was excited about today because my girlfriend Sammy, my big sister Mary, our friend Alyssa and I were planning on going to the German style Christmas market in town. The market had a cozy atmosphere and beautiful Christmas lights. 

We agreed to meet Angela there after her and I exchanged several texts. All my girls were super excited to finally meet the mysterious Italian dream girl. 

CHAPTER 76
A fortnight later, and I was sitting awake in my bed at two in the morning, shaking, my laptop screen glowing beside me on the bed. Paula had been as good as her word, and the first chapter had landed in my inbox ten days after that evening meal with the new girl, and the woman had clearly been listening carefully to me. The first part followed the scheme I had suggested, but as Paula came back out of her opiate haze, the bright and potentially high-flying mind was lighting up.

CHAPTER 75
I didn’t see much of Di after that night, largely because she was off doing married woman stuff, wifing with her husband. That didn’t mean it was all quiet at the House.

My first warm moment was when Charlie and Tiff, after sharing experiences with some of the other girls, asked if it would be possible to go to what I thought of as a Tech college. Neither of them was exactly stupid, but they would never be high-fliers like my first two students. They resumed their GCSEs, interrupted by their wonderful domestic experiences and a certain wonky-eyed shit, and the courses they chose were hairdressing for Tiff, which didn’t exactly surprise me, and social studies, or whatever it was called, for Charlie. That one had puzzled me, until Charlie explained.

It seemed like just seconds ago Avery had snuggled in a warm bed in a dark room. He awoke to a room that was bathed in sunlight. He headed toward the kitchen, stopping for a bathroom break. He found his mom at the kitchen table, reading some papers.

“Hello, Sweetie. Oh, we don’t go around the house in just a nightie. Go slip something on over it.”

CHAPTER 74
Life seemed settled at last, especially for Charlie and Tiff. They were still rationing their trips outside, but at least Charlie had started wearing something other than night clothes, and when we made our Summer expedition, they came with us, as did Gemma and Kim.

This time, Lim was driven up by Phil, and there were happy grins and congratulations from Cathy and my original Nell. As for Alicia, she rode up with her father, and when Owen the barman commented on how nice it was to have his guitarist back, and Alun made a comment about looking after his daughter, Alicia beamed for days. The weather blessed us for several days, and there was one shining moment that lifted my heart even more than Alicia’s wide smile at her father.