"Holy shit, Maria! Wh-where did you learn to do that!" I panted."Did you like it?" she asked."Like it? Fuck Maria you damned near killed me! You gotta...remember I haven't had anyone since... well for a long fucking time!" I gasped, still trying to calm my breathing down to something more human than a scared rabbit."Sorry, I guess I got a little carried away. It's just that, well I haven't had much attention for a while either. And I love sex. I mean I really love it. So when you said sex was. ~Such a beautiful evening. I wish she was here.~"Who?" Tamara asked."Oh? I didn't realize I was thinking out loud. My fianc?e." Your fianc??" She died two years ago. Cancer. I guess technically it's ex-fianc?e." I'm so sorry to hear that, Isabelle." Tamara gently laid her hand ontop of his. "I'd like to hear more, but you don't have to tell me ifyou're uncomfortable."Maybe it was the wine, or maybe it was the anonymity from the Exchange,but he didn't feel the usual need for secrecy. It was true. ”“Yeeze, Meeze pretzy smarz, buz Daiz XOz saiz heze wanz noz takez ze orderz form Meeze. Meeze in ze kitzens wiz ze chefz.”“I don’t have much time right now, but out of curiosity. I didn’t know the Galley has a bridge station.”“Iz haz it nowz.”Still grinning, somehow I could not get mad at that feisty worm thing. He seemed full of himself, but he was utterly confident. Seemed to fear little and I knew there was much more to Meeze than what meets the eye.I tugged at my Uniform tunic and missed. She gave him his tea and took the phone into the bedroom. She was wracking her brains for what she was going to say and was getting as nervous as he'd been. Then she picked up the phone, dialled the number and a man answered. She didn't really want to talk to a man about it so she asked if she could speak to his wife.A woman came on the line and she asked if she was Ken's mom and she said she was. Janice introduced herself and said she'd just met Ken that evening and he was back at her place..