The Danger of Cats

in

Afterward, we lay in bed looking at each other's bodies. She traced a finger down a thin scar on my forearm. "What's this from?"

"Cat," I said, and we laughed. We'd both professed a feline affinity during our intense flirtation in the hotel pool. "He really didn't want to be picked up just then."

"This one?" She stroked a two-inch line on the back of my hand, along the meaty part between the finger and thumb.

"Also a cat." We laughed, but she stopped sooner. "I can't even remember which one."

"What about this?" She sounded uncertain as she touched a long scar just above my hip.

"Cat." This time she didn't laugh, and neither did I. The feeling in the bed had changed.

"This?" She touched my shoulder.

"Cat."

"This?"

"Cat."

"I... noticed your scars in the pool—"

"I noticed yours, too."

"—and I thought we'd have more in common."

"More than cats, you mean?"

"More like..." She bit her lip and turned away.

"Hey, it's okay. Here, what's this one from?" I pointed at a round, puckered scar under her breast, the sort movies told me came from bullets.

She looked at me with hope and doubt. "Cat?"

Metacoital

in

Gina was flying. She always did, after sleeping with Jefferson. She told him she wanted to take advantage of it while she could, just like he spent the time after sex speedreading his textbooks one page a second. Accepting her excuse made her suspicious, but mostly relieved.

Life was peaceful up here. Floating above the city, she felt removed from everything, safe from worries about her part-time job and her full-time job, and her on-the-job training, and her hypochondriac mother, and her sister who thought she deserved a better boyfriend. Up here, none of that mattered.

It almost felt like gravity didn't exist up here, but it did. She'd learned that the first time she'd brought her camera up here. She'd drop Jefferson just as fast if sex with someone else would let her fly. Once Jefferson was through with school, speedreading wouldn't keep him with her, either. He'd move on, find new powers with a new partner. She had to enjoy the flying while it lasted.

Gina drifted downward, gravity starting to remember she existed. She flew home. Maybe she could get another rise out of Jefferson before he fell asleep. She wanted to spend more time up here.