“It’ll be my dance again out front in a minute. Hope you’ll come watch.” I nodded. I took a drink. I walked outside. Mahogany was writhing on ... table surrounded by young men. Mickey headed to the bar, and on the way by she exchanged glances with a tall mustachioed man in a leather jacket. Her lover perhaps? I reached for my car keys and headed for the door. It was dark outside, full dark and I spotted flashing lights in the distance. I took inventory of myself and realized I was in no condition. After all was said and done, we were what each other needed at the time. As awful as it might be to admit, if we were out and it was unlikely that we would be fucking anytime that night, I got little to nothing out of her company. It turned out that we at least had that in common. There was no great scene or period of mourning for either of us. We moved on, richer for the time we had with each other. Kerri was remarried within a year after we broke it off, and I continue to hope that that is. “Am I that transparent?” Cali smiled, took his hand in hers, pulled it to her lips and kissed his fingers before replying. “No James, only to me. Only to me.” James’s heart sang as it had not sung in years. Here was someone that knew him, that understood him, and that cared for him. And for the first time since Lila had died, he wondered if he could love again; if he would let himself love again. James briefly closed his eyes, then opening them said: “You know, you’re the one that’s supposed to. ?I can still recall that first moment I laid eyes on her. Shy as is was, I didn’t dare to approach her, so I asked Lawrence who she was?. ?My Owner, he replied.? This might have been a shock to most people, but I knew exactly what this meant, since my dad had been in a somewhat similar situation, but not with such an age difference. I asked Lawrence how this had started, and he told me that it had been a process, with ups and downs, but the happiness that both his Owner and he received from the.