Part 20 (2/2)
They kept chatting and Prime had a good time. These were good people. A little weird, but who wasn't? He was happy with who he was, but he wasn't normal by any means. At one point he asked about Sage.
”My friend tried to talk to you last night,” he said. ”The guy in the white suit. Remember him?”
”Oh yes,” said Elena, a subliminal ”tsk, tsk” in her voice. ”Poor boy.”
Poor boy? Sage? The man had picked up twins at the Playboy Mansion and had a threesome in the grotto. That was no poor boy.
”Yes,” said Anastasia. ”He is sad, isn't he?”
Sad?
”He smelled of rabbit food,” said Yuri, authoritatively. ”I hope your friend does better in the future. Maybe you can help him. I trust you are good to your friends.”
Okay, some people were weirder than others.
”You're being ridiculous,” Sage said. He turned away from Prime dismissively and bent to turn on the gas fireplace.
Prime steamed. ”No. I feel like I'm finally waking up. You're not jealous, are you? Maybe I shouldn't have told you they thought you smelled weak.”
”Look,” said Sage, standing back up, ”I've got Sally coming over soon, so I don't have time for this nonsense. Isn't tonight your night with Brenda?”
”I cancelled,” said Prime.
Sage rolled his eyes. Oneitis, said that look.
”Don't you want me to be happy?” he asked his friend.
”G.o.d, yes!” roared Sage. ”And that is why you need to get back on track.”
”Are you happy with this lifestyle?”
”Of course. What more could I want? I sleep with beautiful women, live in a mansion in San Francisco, wear the finest clothes and eat the finest foods.”
Prime smiled, remembering it had been called ”rabbit food.” Still, he couldn't help but feel that he had had a peek into a simpler, more natural, and more honest life. A life with Anastasia. And he was going to take up the invitation he'd been offered.
”Well, let's just wait until after tonight, okay?”
”More hanging out with the Mon.o.brows? Jeez, man, it's like a bad Sat.u.r.day Night Live skit, and you're living it.”
”I'm living life,” Prime replied, simply. ”Respect that.”
Sage sighed audibly. ”Fine. I do respect you, you know that. I just don't like to see you regressing into some kind of AFC. You'll end up broken.”
”Or changed.”
Sage nodded.
Prime met up with Anastasia and her family out at Yosemite.
They already had a more than respectable fire blazing at their campsite and were working on a small keg. Camping, fire, beer . . . not a bad start. As Prime looked at his woman, he knew what a perfect night like this also needed: s.e.x. And it was there.
Out came a boom box. Out loud came cla.s.sic rock, Creedence Clearwater Revival's ”Bad Moon Rising.”
Okay, everything wasn't pure and natural, but music was good to have. Primal.
Anastasia danced with joy, tilting her head up toward the night above, the firelight dancing across her features.
Prime finished his beer and rose to join her in the stepless dance of life.
Together, they moved.
The night faded. Her family faded. Together they were only two, under the stars and the rising full moon.
His arms over her shoulders, her green eyes locked onto his.
A voice. Yuri's.
”You want to chase real tail? You want the real thing?”
Dancing. Intoxicating smell of woman.
Yuri's voice, still calling, but more . . . howling than calling.
”You want to live life? Howl at the moon, man!”
At least that's how it seemed, as he spun with Anastasia.
”You want it?” she asked. ”You want a natural life? A simple, honest life? A free life?”
He didn't think too hard about that? Why should he? The answer had been hidden in his heart for years.
”For a real man, this life is the best,” she said, grabbing his head, pulling his hair. ”For you, my mate.”
Who was picking up who?
Did it matter?
They danced and Prime opened his senses while turning down his a.n.a.lysis.
At some point the physical urges became too much and he had to have her. d.a.m.n the lack of privacy. d.a.m.n the family. d.a.m.n the world.
They ripped their clothing. Their own. Each others. It was all the same.
Words became sounds.
Smells.
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