After expining to his lifelong friend, Carol Bishop, and his roommate, Malcolm Eisenstein, exactly who Sandra was, Malcolm and Sandra returned with him to the apartment David and Malcolm shared.

  Back at the apartment, Sandra washed up before the other two. “Are you really going to sleep on this couch with that in your bed?” Malcom asked, as soon as she closed the door.

  “I said I would, and I like to keep my promises,” David replied.

  Sandra came out and announced “the night seems unusually warm. I think I’ll sleep naked instead of borrowing your sleeping clothes,” and slipped back into David’s room.

  The two young men stared at each other in shock for a moment, before Malcolm spoke: “Dude, if you don’t go in there right now, I might have to…”

  David ughed, hesitated for a heartbeat, then walked over and knocked on the door. “Come on in,” he heard.

  The clothing Sandra had been wearing was stacked neatly on a chair and she was in the bed, with the covers drawn to her shoulders. “This bed is so soft,” she said, “and so lonely. Join me?” she smiled at him.

  “I’ll be breaking a promise I made to myself…” he began.

  “I will not tell if you do not,” she answered with a smile.

  David grinned, removed his shirt and said: “In that case, it will be my pleasure.” He undid his belt, stepped out of his pants and shoes, and was about to slide into the bed when one slim arm reached out and pointed at the heap of clothes he had just dropped on the floor. “We are not animals David,” she told him sternly.

  He fshed her a smile tinted with frustration, picked up the clothes, moved the shoes over against the wall, tossed his shirt and undergarments into a dirty clothes hamper, and set his pants in a slightly less neat pile beside her clothes on the chair.

  She nodded approvingly at this. Then, as he slid under the covers, she reached over and pulled him close. Her strength was impressive as she crushed him against her. Then she whispered in his ear “as long as we are together, you will never sleep alone if I can help it, even if all we do is sleep.”

  His only reply was to give her a deep, passionate kiss. As their lips parted, he became acutely aware that, true to her word, she was naked under the sheets. He felt a wave of energy flow through him at this realization, pushing all thoughts of sleep - or much of anything else, except the lovely woman in his arms - from his head.

  The next morning, David came out of his room to find Malcolm brewing a pot of coffee. “If I’d known how enthusiastic and acrobatic you two would be, I would have talked you into staying on the couch,” he said by way of good morning.

  David flushed slightly but then said: “Well, now you know how I felt the st few times you had dies over while I was single…”

  Malcolm was about to say something, but then stopped, shook his head, and said, quietly, with a hint of awe in his voice, “she even looks amazing just getting out of bed. How did you get so lucky?”

  David gnced over at Sandra, who had just emerged from his bedroom wearing only his old night shirt, and, just as quietly, replied “I asked myself that at least twice st night.”

  “Coffee again? How did I get so lucky as to find you two!” Sandra excimed, joining them at the counter.

  “It’s simply repayment for you permitting your divine radiance to shine upon us,” Malcolm replied, bowing slightly, then taking the pot off the heater and pouring three mugs. He passed one to David, then asked if Sandra needed anything in hers. She shook her head, then asked “That divine radiance line sounded practiced. Has it ever worked for you?”

  “Twice, but not the only time I meant it,” he replied with a slight ugh

  “If I were not with David, it might have worked a third time. Probably not, but it might have,” she replied with a wink, while simultaneously giving David a quick kiss on the cheek and taking the proffered mug out of Malcolm’s hand.

  Malcolm gave a happy sigh and began sipping his coffee, but then left the room to go get dressed. As soon as he closed the door to his room, Sandra gave David a quick kiss on the lips. The moment they parted, David ughed lightly. “Last Train to Crksville,” he said.

  *What? That makes no sense?” She asked, confused.

  “A line from an old song I loved as a kid, by a group called the Monkees; ‘We’ll have time for coffee fvored kisses and a bit of conversation’,” he quoted.

  She brightened a little at this. “I like coffee fvored kisses. Or any kisses, from you,” she added.

  “Well, then,” David took a sip of his drink, and leaned in close, “best of both worlds?”

  They kissed again, and when they separated, David, with some reluctance, said: “We should get dressed or we’ll be te. Separately, or we’ll be even ter,” he added after permitting his eyes to roam over her body for a moment.

  “I will go first, then, so that you can finish your coffee and imagine exactly what I am doing in that room, and then we can switch pces,” she said. He gave her a quick kiss. “I’m a believer,” he replied.

  He had to ugh at her puzzled expression: “another one of their songs. Go, get dressed, and I'll py that one in the car. Mickey Dolenz sings it much better than I could.”

  “Mickey Mantle sings it much better than you could, and Mickey Mouse probably too. Besides, the Smash Mouth cover is better,” Malcolm had emerged from his room wearing bck jeans, a T-Shirt that read “Don't Mess with the Zohan'' and bck jeans. He also had a red headband on.

  “You look like a parody of an action hero,” David informed him, “and the original is far superior to that cover. Smash Mouth’s only good song was ‘All Star.’”

  “You just have no taste, my man. Except in women, and before Sandra, you had lousy taste there too,” his roommate countered.

  “I used to date your sister.”

  “I rest my case.”

  “Uh ... fair point.” David conceded.

  Fortunately, Sandra had left the room, or this discussion might have overloaded her Transtion Stone. A few minutes passed, and just as David drained the st of his coffee, she emerged: she had the jeans and jacket of the denim set but had found a T-shirt in a drawer of David’s dresser that featured The Monkees…

  “Is there anything that does not look amazing on her?” Malcolm asked the universe.

  David said: “My dad got that at their reunion concert in the 80s. Gave it to me when I was big enough to wear it. It never looked better than it does right now.”

  Sandra smiled at the compliment, refilled her mug, and sat down beside David.

  “If she ever needs a job, she should look into modeling. Come to think of it, she has a figure like a young Cindy Crawford,” Malcolm added.

  “Anyway,” David interjected, “time for me to get dressed and then we have to be out of here or we’ll be te.”