” She smiled at him, her usual kind smile. “Go ahead. I’ll see you tomorrow.”“Well, OK,” Ryan said. He hesitated, then leaned in and gave ...er a kiss on the lips. “I’ll call you,” he finished lamely.“No, I’m fine. I’ll see you tomorrow in class.” She beamed at him, as if nothing had happened between them. “Thank you for helping me with Nanami.”“Uh, sure.” Ryan gave her a wave. “See you, then.”He left the school, where Aunt Janet was waiting in the parking lot for him. “What took you so long?”. " Yeah," I said. "I haven't seen a good historical citation for it, but there's a saying that Roman law required the engineer to sleep under his own bridge. Sometimes you have to argue with the client about that. Sometimes 'cheap' collides with 'maintainable'." Don't I know it!" Jason reinforced. Jason's life as a field technician was much more hands-on than mine as an engineer. Between the two of us we had horror stories. Of course, it did little good to get depressed about it. These things. I was going to finally lose my virginity. I just hoped it would be in a heterosexual fashion first."Lana, why don't you put Ricky--" Rick," I said."Rick, right, 'cause you're a man now, not a boy," he said. "Lana, darling, why don't you put Rick here at ease by showing him what I know he's been dying to see for a long time." I know it's long, I've already seen it," she said, and leaned over to give me a kiss on the lips. I tried to make it last longer but she pulled away and stood up.She was. There were plenty of plants, but nothing he could drink. Not even fruit trees, which had been the one thing he’d been sure would be in the Evergreen. He put the waterskin and purifier back with a sigh. The forest was not his home. The city was. Failing that, the ancient world of abandoned (or not-so-abandoned) underground passageways would do. As long as there was stone. He knew stone. His druidess friend had sworn he was part dwarf (though mostly to annoy him, since she’d known Snatch couldn’t.