"Great," Bliss scoffed as she stared out into pitch darkness. "The power would go out in this building if someone as much as farts in the wrong direction. "Oh well, at least I had the forethought to save my work once the wind picked up, so I guess it isn't a total loss."

Her cell phone had been nearby, making it easy for Bliss to call to report the outage to the power company. She wrinkled her nose at the recording that it could take the rest of the night for service to be restored. It appeared until she went to bed, the supply of candles and battery-operated "click lights" would be working overtime.

Using this makeshift lighting, Bliss slowly prepared herself for the night ahead. Stepping into the shower, she began to relax and let the hot water from the shower head run down her body. She took the sponge from the side of the shower and lathering it up good she slowly massaged her entire body.

As she maneuvered the shower head spray off its mount, she slowly washed away all the silky white suds. Liking the constant pressure of the spray on herself, Bliss finally began to relax, not minding the power outage so much after all.

Wrapping a big fluff towel around her body when she stepped out of the shower, Bliss made her way toward the click-lighted bedroom, where she managed to slip on a night shirt before blowing out candles and climbing into bed. With the power out, there wasn't much else to do.

She then clicked on a battery-operated radio that didn't get many stations; at this time of night Slow Jams was usually in the line-up for four hours.

Bliss must have fallen asleep at some point, because a noise had awakened her during the night. She wasn't sure what time it was, so she had to squint to look at her watch by a click light. Two thirty.

The noise came again and she froze. Bliss then took the iron skillet out from under the bed that she usually kept there for times like this, but everything had gotten quiet again.

It was then she saw the shadow at the foot of her bed and was about to scream before she recognized who it was.

"Brian! You about scared the shit out of me! What are you doing here and how did you get in?"

"I had a key, remember?" he explained. "I heard there was power lost up here and came to check to see if you were okay."

"You're lucky I recognized you soon enough or you'd had an iron skillet across your skull."

"Oh, nice. Is that any way to treat a friend checking on you?"

Bliss managed to smile. "I suppose not. It's estimated the power probably won't be back on until morning. I could use company in this case."

Brian hit a couple of click lights. "Good, I brought some good jokes with me." He plopped beside her.

Bliss let out a groan teasingly. "Oh God, not a night of your corny jokes. Besides, I thought someone in your business would be a man about town. What are you doing here in practical darkness with me?"

He shrugged noncommittally. "People only invite me along for the entertainment of making fun of me or talking about sex. In those cases, I'd rather stay home."

"And here I thought you were someone in great demand."

"You have me confused with someone else, lady. To this DAY, I get so much shit, but I block it out nowadays. Even my own best friend talks a bunch of shit about me. Face it, Bliss, I'm short, funny looking, nerdy and geeky, and spend all my time reading when I'm not on the road. I have never read that in a woman's standards list."

"Well, to be honest, I'd rather have someone like you around that's true and honest to themselves than some jerk that tries to be something they're not. Besides," she smiled in the semi-darkness, "I always thought blond men were kind of cute."

He brightened. "Really?"

"Of course. You said it yourself once; they're usually smarter, more goofy, and have a lot more fun. Think about that."

"Yeah, but even I have my ditsy moments, like thinking Kansas was near an ocean at first."

Both of them broke out laughing at that comment, Brian gazing at her for a few moments after that.

"What?" Bliss asked.

"Bliss," he said softly, his eyes connecting with hers.

Without another word, he cupped her face and kissed her hungrily; Bliss groaned when his hands slid down her body, one slipping under her nightshirt.

"Brian," she gasped when his mouth began to move down her neck.

"Been awhile for you too, huh?" he replied, nuzzling, nipping and sucking on her neck.

"Yes…but should we really do this?" she asked

.

"Depends," he replied giving her a devilish grin as he pushed her back on the bed, landing down on top of her with a giggle.

There were no awkward feelings afterwards, or the next morning when the power finally came back on, that one might fear after two friends cross the next line. They would just kept hanging out, but their times together now would be even closer and a little more intimate. It was as if two lost souls had finally found each other, and it had been in front of them the whole time.