RAN RANSVESTIA

After Katrina's exist, there was a kind of stunned silence in the audience before the applause broke out. No one, I think, had been aware, least of all I, in how involved we'd been in her dance, not until the lights went on the illusion was broken. Roy hugged me pretty close after that and wanted to stay on and dance. But I was pretty well shook up after seeing Valerie that way. I hadn't realized until then just how far out of my circle she normally moved. Roy sensed that I didn't want to stay and he was pretty gracious about leaving. He did go on quite a bit about Katrina, however, and he was really aroused later when we got back to the apartment. In fact, he didn't want to leave, and surprisingly, I didn't want him to either. Naturally, Valerie wasn't home when we got there, so Roy stayed. He eventually left about six. I hadn't heard Valerie come in, but I saw her grey, leather coat hung up beside Roy's raincoat as I ushered Roy out.

The next day was a Sunday, and for the first time since we'd teamed up, Valerie didn't go out. She stayed in her room most of the day with her radio. When I popped my head into her room she was sorting out a bunch of body shirts, stitching away and being thoroughly domestic again. Without eye shadow and just a touch of lipstick, she looked incredibly young. When Roy came around later, that was how she was, in a striped shirt and black skirt, her blonde hair parted in the middle and brushed down to just touch the nape of her neck.

"I didn't know your roomate was so young," he said to me. As I hesitated, he went on, "She's just the kind of girl my boss dotes on." Roy had been going on about his boss, a guy named Earl, almost since I'd known him. Earl wasn't yet out of his twenties, but already was the Vice-President in charge of sales in Roy's company, and he was riding his salesmen hard, accompanying them on their rounds and then setting what Roy felt were impossible sales quotes. For some reason, he got along well with Roy, perhaps appreciation of Roy's sense of humor, but Roy was just waiting for the pressure to be put on him. "Would she mind if I arranged a double date for her with us and Earl?"

Valerie came back into our main living room at just that moment. "Would she mind what?" she asked, giving Roy a demure smile as she curled her feet up under her on the sofa and began to sip her coffee.

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