The apartment wasn't messy by Al's terms, but things were tossed about in an uncaring manner. She led him to the kitchen and asked him to sit. The table was cluttered with sheets of writing; an overflowing ashtray; a couple of packs of Marlboro reds.
             "So, what brings you by?" she asked.
             'I was just wondering if you wanted to go out?' was the response that entered Al's mind, but didn't dare get out verbally. The sight of her only enhanced his lustful hunger.
             "No reason," was his alternate response.
             She began to clean up around the table. The blonde streak across her bangs caught Al's eye as it did the first time he had seen her. Her hair wasn't all too appealing. A somewhat messy nest. The see-through, knit top flashed her skin teasingly as she moved about cleaning and wiping down her table. Her skin was fair and smooth. Young. To have her flesh pressed against his would be pleasure.
             "I was just going through my notes and the stuff I've written so far," she began. "This whole job is really cool. It's taking me some time, but I really like what I'm doing with this project."
             She was a writer; he remembered her telling him on their previous encounter. She explained her interviewing "cops" about their experiences. She was writing a detective story. "Pigs" is what Al called them, as cliche as the term was. He didn't really care to hear about them. The "cops."
             She allowed him one and took one herself. Al lit hers and then his own. She sat across from him with one foot up on the chair as she rested her arm on her knee. She took deep drags off her cigarette as she stared at Al. She smiled and glanced out the window, her attention caught by the racket across the way. The couple having a routine dispute.
             Al was snapped out of his fantasy as Nina Simone began to croon on the radio. Nina Simone. Her voice only triggered the desire to feel the warm and glistening flesh of his hostess. The night was warm and muggy. Should I j...