We helped him pack up and he was off. Several bottles of champagne later, it was time for the cake that we had our boat boy had gotten for us. We san... to Kathy and drank yet another toast to her birthday. She asked Who arranged for the cake? When I told her that I did she came around the table and gave me a kiss. I was a little surprised when she started to stick her tongue in my mouth. She had never done that before. She replied Its so nice that you thought about getting me a cake. She. I woke to a door being slammed, screeching of tires, and keys being thrown on a counter.“Brandy?” I asked, getting up and walking into the kitchen.I found her standing against the counter, face in hands, quietly sobbing. "Hey..hey..what’s wrong?” I embraced her in my arms. And she clutched tightly to my chest and let her tears soak into my shirt.“We…had..a fight,” she said through stuttered breaths.“Come and tell me what happened.” I led her back to the living room and I sat on the couch and. " That got a lot of nods from the others in the group.Tom thought Conrad had made a good point. There weren't a lot of unselected gay male concubines in the Moon; being heterosexual was well up the list of criteria to get there. These days, with Cube Ships to fill and moonbases to hold any temporary overflow, the AIs were often more flexible about picking up extra bodies. With a quarter of a million people on a Cube Ship there was room for a few extras. If they were going to have to make some. I hoped that I could quickly get rid of whoever it was at the door so they wouldn’t encounter Mel if she actually turned up.When I opened the door, my panic turned to relief. Mel was early. She appeared to be wearing the same clothes as the day before, topped off by a pink jacket that looked a couple of sizes too small. Standing on my doorstep, she looked so small and vulnerable that I had a moment of uncharacteristic weakness and took pity on her.“Welcome favourite niece,” I said. “Are you.