The day after we all went to the Adventuredome, we mostly split up in couples and other tight groups. Tess had dragged me off to an open casting call for an episode of the Real World or some other reality show like that. (Yeah, like what any of us needed was for that girl to have cameras trained on her for several months, and producers looking for the juciest bits to play to a nationwide audience.) But it actually turned out to be pretty fun, and yeah, there's like a zero percent chance that we'll be picked for callbacks or anything, and if we blow those off they'll just go to the next names on the list.

So the casting call was from nine in the morning to around quarter to two, and we grabbed late lunch at a pizza place, went into a casino for some more gambling fun, and ran into who else but Max and Liz. I was afraid that things would get awkward, but actually we ended up having a lot of fun at a blackjack table and betting on other people throwing craps. Both Max and Liz finished eight or nine hundred dollars ahead, and I was wondering if Tess was trying to push the dice in favor of their bets without letting either realize.

Now the whole gang had met up for dinner at a Manhattan themed diner - in fact, it looked a lot like the cliche hangout from 'Seinfeld', although nobody was using that name or Monk's or anything. The roast beef on rye was pretty good, but I wasn't that hungry, since it hadn't been that long ago that I ate seven slices of a pepperoni, bacon, and red pepper pie.

"Hmm, well, I wanna do something a bit wild tonight," Isabel said. "We don't have too long left here in Vegas."

"All of tomorrow," Max remarked with a sandwich nearly up to his lips, "and then we leave the day after."

"Taking off at the break of dawn probably," Maria added. "So that we can see Roswell again maybe before nightfall." She sighed. "Well, regardless of how the question of time left bears, I'm definitely up for something wild."

"Okay, any ideas for something wild?" I asked, looking around Tess' eyes were sparkling slightly, but she waited before volunteering. Isabel and Maria both shook their heads.

"Well, I got handed this while waiting in line in the morning," Tess finally said. From her back jeans pocket she extracted a small bit of folded paper, colored in a neon-bright pink, and started to open it up. The complete flyer was headlined 'X-treme Rave Action.'

"Oh, come on," Liz muttered. "I don't really want to be a wet blanket just because it's expected of me, like a designated driver, but - well, the soap factory party didn't really work out well for any of us."

"Speak for yourself," I joked. Tess shot me a look. Whoops - probably shouldn't be bragging about any action I got off of Vicky Delaney in front of the new ball and chain. "Umm, well..."

"I wasn't even there," Tess pouted. "And it's not like you guys were even in jail for long."

"Let me have a look at that," Michael suggested, and Tess passed the sheet over. "Okay, let's see... there's an address, or something like an address."

"Maybe we have to figure some of it out, like the euphoria party on 90210," Alex suggested. "Or Enigma."

"Could be," I admitted. "What else, Michael?" I hadn't taken a close look at this thing myself.

"Umm... no admittance without this sheet - not sure if that means that the one can get us all in or if we need to each have a flyer. Subject to approval..."

"So that the bouncer has last say about who's hot enough to get in," Alex sighed.

"Dress code - UW or SS ." Michael's forehead wrinkled a bit. "What do those stand for?"

"Hmm... I'm not sure," Maria admitted, looking over him. "For all of the x-tremeness of it, I'm not sure that it'd really be illegal just to show up or anything. May be some drug stuff going on, but I think that we'll be able to stay away."

"Well, I guess I'm in for trying to get in, at least," I admitted. "Should we try to find any more of those flyers or just hope that this one will do everybody."

"We look around," Max said. "Worst comes to worst, one person getting in is really no good. If we have two, or four - then some people can use them while the others find something else to do."

"Okay I guess," Liz said, smiling slightly. I guess that she was starting to come around to the idea of letting her principles down and just having crazy fun for one night - maybe. "Well, since Tess got the first, she should should be able to use it - which means that Kyle gets the next one I suppose."

"Thanks," I said. "And the address seems to be something south side-ish, which was where the casting call was too. Figures that that makes sense as a place to go hunting."

"Alright," Isabel said. "We go and look, and maybe try to find somebody who knows what the dress code thing means. Then go back to the hotel to change, if we need to."

"Maybe we should get some of the cars on the way," Alex put in. "We've done pretty well mostly on foot so far, but hurrying back and forth might eat up a lot of time."

"Sure, sounds good," Tess agreed. "The three-star is closer to here than where we're heading to, anyway."

"I wish that you wouldn't call it that, Tess," Michael groused.

"What? It's a three star hotel, Michael," she shot back. "That's pretty good, but..."

"Come on, less sniping and more finishing our dinners," Maria said.

"Yeah, that's good advice," Max added.

"I'm not going to be able to eat all of this beef," I decided unhappily, looking at the rye sandwich.

It wasn't too long before we were hurrying back towards the hotel. "I, umm... I think I know what the dress code thing means," Tess whispered, walking close in step next to me, so near that we were almost pressed against each other, but not quite, just our arms touching a bit.

"Umm, okay." I muttered. "Any reason you don't wanna share with the others?"

"Well - I do want everybody to come along." She giggled. "And that just might be more likely if they've invested more time and effort into the whole deal before finding out!"

"Hmm..." Considered that. "Well, don't let Liz realize that you were holding out on her - and what's the big secret?" I was wondering why Tess thought that anybody might bail out if they found out about this too soon, and if the 'investing time and effort' thing would really make that much difference if it was really bad.

"Underwear or swimsuits," she sort of breathed at me - or it might have been just a thought that she sent along, though I think that she at least mouthed the words. Ohh... I started to see the point. A little bit risque to say the least, sexy without going overboard - which was probably the point, from the point of view of the club. Thought about Liz having to take off some of her clothes and go nearly naked to go inside - and I nearly tripped over my own feet. Okay, don't think about that so hard. "Hmm... maybe it'd be a good thing if they found out before actually getting to the club, instead of having her find out there. Some of the girls could change and wear one-piece bathing suits under their clothes, if that makes them feel more comfortable."

"Hmm." Tess considered that. "But wouldn't that be less fun?" I looked over, not quite sure what to make of the smile on her face. I didn't think that she had a lecherous interest in any of the other ladies in the group - so was there some sort of humilation impulse going on? Could Tess be trying to maneuver Liz into having to get into a situation that she would be uncomfortable with? I wasn't sure how well that would work even if she had it in mind - Liz would back out of the deal rather than go through with something if she were really embarrassed with it, and Max at least would support her in that decision. And if Tess did like the idea of humiliating her sometime rival... what did I think about that? I was pretty sure that Tess had let go of whatever she felt for Max - but was there still any bitterness over her rivalry with Miss Parker?

I tried to put that part of it out of my mind. No sense worrying about it before I needed to, after all. "Hmm... and what might you be wearing to the rave?" I asked her, still keeping my voice low. We were hanging something like fifteen feet behind the others.

"You have to ask?" she teased. "Don't you remember what underwear I put on today? I saw you watching me."

"Ohh." Flashback hit me. Lacy pink bra and bikini panties, not really skimpy - which was to say, I was not quite willing to start a fight over the prospect of her going into a club dressed only that much and parading around in such a fashion in front of strangers. They'd definitely show off a lot of skin, though... creamy, soft smooth skin...

Well, I didn't manage to say much coherent for most of the walk to the hotel.

Driving around the south side of the strip area looking for pink flyers, (or any other color of flyers that the same club might have printed out for that event) was actually some kind of fun. I bought one off of a sixteen year old canadian boy for forty bucks, (not like the money was something I was worried about for the moment,) by pressing hard on the fact that the bouncer would probably confiscate it and not let him in anyway. Maria managed to retrieve one that had been folded up and tucked behind one of those metal bands around a street lamp. Just as she was showing it to the rest of us, Liz rushed up and told everybody what the UW & SS meant.

"Hmm." Isabel thought about that. "Well, I'll need to go change back at the hotel at least - I'm wearing a thong, and that might be a problem." Michael shot Alex a look - maybe I did too.

"So you're going through with it?" Maria asked Isabel and Alex, who nodded. "What about you guys?"

"Yeah, umm, I think so," I said.

"Of course, unless we get a fourth flyer, we might not be able to..."

"Oh, that's another thing," Liz mentioned. "The girl who told me about that - she also mentioned that if we charm the bouncer a little, we should be able to get two people in for each flyer. That's, umm, I guess that's three couples so far." She sighed, and turned to Max. "Maybe we should just leave it at that, and go and find something less wild and crazy together. Scalp tickets for one of the big theater shows or something."

Max smiled slightly. "If, if you don't wanna go that's okay with me. But - but if you're just feeling a bit nervous, and uncertain about whether we can find a fourth 'ticket', then - then I say that we should at least try for it." Liz smiled a bit too. "We've got maybe fifteen minutes before anybody needs to drive back to the hotel. That's enough time to see..."

"Hey, you looking for another of these?" Somewhat disbelieving, most of us turned around to see a kid around our own age, late teens anyway, (though his ID probably said he was over 21 just like all of ours,) with frizzy bright red hair waving a pink sheet in our direction. "I scored an extra."

Liz stared him down for a moment. "Umm, yeah maybe, why?" she asked. "You offering it for free or selling?"

"Hmm... don't need money," he admitted, looking at Liz, "but I wouldn't mind a thank you. Say, maybe, one french kiss?"

"Oh, brother," Maria said. "Come on, let the creep take two of himself into the club if he wants to. We'll find another."

"They'll be going fast," carrot-top taunted us. "Eight of you, and I think I see three tickets. Some are going to have to stay behind..."

"That's it," Liz said. "I don't even want to..."

All of a sudden Max was in motion, crossing the distance to the red-headed boy in a few steps. "Here's how it works. You're not getting any kind of kiss." Calmly he plucked the spare flyer out of the other guy's hand. I could tell that he had been trying to grip it harder, to pull his arm behind his back, to run away, to punch Max in the face, but none of that was working. Max was using alien powers on the boy somehow, to freeze him in the spot. Afterwards, he would think that he'd just choked out of surprise. "Thank you, *very much," Max drawled sarcastically, stepping slowly back with his prize. "Now get going."

Red-head staggered slightly, when Max's control of his legs let up, and seemed to be weighing his chances of rushing Max and getting the flyer back, or at least making him regret taking it. But Michael was stepping up next to his best friend, doing his best to look strong and dangerous, which didn't really take much, and I decided to do my bit at the intimidation thing too. Even Isabel was shooting him a dangerous, 'mess with my brother and I'll make you regret it' look. He walked down the sidewalk away from us, grumbling under his breath.

"You, you didn't need to," Liz muttered. "I mean, I'm still not sure if I even want to..."

"Just go back to the hotel and pick out an outfit," Max suggested, smiling. "If you don't want to go through with it after that, then that's fine. We can try to catch Spamalot at the Alladin, or something."

So we trooped back to the cars and headed up to our rooms at the hotel. Tess was insistent about not changing from the pink underthings that she had on, but she slipped into the bathroom for a quick shower anyway and put on a simple white sheath dress, presumably thinking that it'd be easy to take off, leave in the car, and put back on again when we came out. I went over all of my options and settled on a fairly baggy and thick pair of boxers, underneath a t-shirt and baggy army pants. Wondered if a guy would be able to make a case that a wife-beater was 'an undershirt' and thus allowable, but didn't bother putting one on myself, since I didn't feel any particular uncertainty about going bare-chested. Pretty sure that Tess likes my pecs, after all, and anyone else can just kiss off if they don't - or if they like them too much for my wife to approve.

It was pretty weird gathering back up again, and wondering what everybody else had on underneath their clothes. Figured that we'd find out soon enough.

The club was, well, I wasn't quite sure what to make of the ugly squat building on first glance. There was loud rap-rock coming from inside it, and spinning colored lights set up outside the door, presumably meant to be eye-catching, and an odd incense-ey smell coming from inside. The bouncer wasn't as muscular and wide as I usually expect them to be, though he was certainly tall, maybe six foot seven, with mid-dark skin and an exotic quality to his face. "Greetings. Your invitations, please?"

Tess stood up, holding my hand, and passed over her original invite. (I'd passed the one I bought over to Alex, after Liz said that each one would be good for two.) The bouncer considered both of us, and then the group as a whole. "None of you are dressed appropriately."

"We are too," Tess shot back. "Just wearing a few extra things to look more street legal." Bouncer raised an eyebrow at her.

"It's underwear or swimming things, right?" I blurted out. Might as well get the facts from an authorized source, even though the reference on the flyers seemed pretty clear and had been confirmed by a total stranger. Bouncer-man nodded.

"Come on, let's not waste time," Isabel muttered, pulling her sweater off. At various rates, the rest of us followed her lead, and I took a look at the other six without being obvious about it. Michael was wearing swimming trunks, Max had gone for boxers as well as a very unmistakable undershirt, (not really a wifebeater,) and Alex was dressed up in what sortof looked like a pair of oddly short-legged and sleeveless grandpa pajamas. (Whatever.)

With the girls, it was harder to force myself not to stare. Hey, they're all very attractive ladies, aren't they? Isabel was wearing a black spandex top that seemed like a cross between a snug sports bra and half of a swimsuit, along with blue bottoms that reminded me of wonder woman's outfit oddly. (No, they didn't have little white or yellow stars on them.) Liz had a red bustier bra, and matching boy-cut underwear or something like that, and Maria had gone with a light blue silk slip or something like that, possibly with yet another layer under it. Bouncer-man looked over the group, and then decided to return his attention to Tess and I. "Ten dollar cover, per head."

"You're crazy - at least tell me something like that while I'm still wearing something with damn pockets!" Tess shot at him. Bouncer just shrugged slightly, and I wondered for just an odd moment about his ancestry. Oriental wth a bit of african mixed in, or something unusual like that? Tess leveled her most intense stare at him, and I realized that she wasn't just using human charm at this point. Occasionally, when things have been dire, she's been able to sort of Jedi-mind-trick someone, from what I can tell - persuade them to decide something that she wants decided, though it doesn't work on anything that the target minds would resist very strongly. "No cover. For any of us."

There was a long, silent, moment, and Max covered a gasp, probably because he couldn't believe that Tess was using a mind control power when it wasn't a life or death situation. Then bouncer shook his head, just like my Dad sometimes does when he knows that he's letting me talk him into something that he shouldn't go along with. "Okay, no cover, but only because you and your girlfriends look so damn hot. Good for business."

"Why, you're such a big sweetie," Tess flirted back, and when the bouncer stepped away slightly she led me into the club. There was a sort of a small vestibule or welcoming hall just inside, including a clothes check-in desk - not like a usual coat check, because instead of hangers they had shelves and shelves full of big wire baskets. Sort of like the deal in the big county rec center pool changing rooms, which sort of made sense in that the objective is essentially the same. Tess had taken my clothes and handed them, and hers, over to Maria, so I wasn't sure if somebody would take them back to the cars, or if they'd be brought inside.

There were a few vending machines here too, and doors with the men's and ladies' icons, and some chairs and benches. That was about it - further inside the club we could see a big dance floor, though it wasn't terribly easy to make out what was going on there between the incense fumes, the flashing lights, and something else that seemed to be obscuring the air. There would have to be a bar, or more than one, but I couldn't spot it immediately. Tess was pulling me towards the action, and had just realized that I was hanging back. "What the hell?"

"We wait here," I said to her, in a whispering tone that was loud enough to be heard - which meant it was probably about the same volume as a regular speaking voice outside. "The rest of our friends haven't gotten past the bouncer yet. It's just common decency to hold up."

"Hmm." Tess turned to look at me, and there was a slightly eerie flash reflecting in the side of her eyes from the dance floor. "Now, would you really do that if it weren't for me, or are you just bending over backward to have me be 'nice' to Liz and Maria and Alex?"

"Umm... I'm not sure," I admitted. Trying to place a situation where I'd be coming in here *without* Tess took a bit of mental reorganization time, and before I'd finished and gotten my answer ready someone else came up behind us.

"Hey guys, what are you doing just waiting around here?" Maria asked. I cringed and avoided meeting Tess' eyes. "Oooh - clothes check. I'll go and stash our stuff." Well, that answered one question. I turned to look at Maria waiting behind some other guy to get her bundle put away, and realized that my eyes were being drawn to her rear end underneath the slip. Oooh boy, this was going to be tough.

"My other half here, insisted on waiting for everybody," Tess was saying to Michael on my other side.

"Hmm... doesn't suck as a plan," Michael admitted. Tess groaned. "And here comes more of everybody." It was Max and Liz this time.

"Come on!" Tess tugged at me again. She'd have been tugging at my sleeve, except that I didn't have any sleeves at this point. "He's not going to keep Isabel out - not looking like she does."

"He might be trying to talk Isabel to coming in without Alex, much as I hate to say it," Maria admitted. She had stepped back from the check desk, clipping some kind of a numbered clip to the neckline of her slip - presumably that was the claim receipt for our clothes, so I definitely supported her not losing it. Max and Liz hadn't carried their stuff in - would Isabel and Alex bring theirs? Or had *they* gone back to the car?

"Umm. okay, okay, I'm coming," I grunted, finally reaching the end of my rope with my lovely wife's impatience. Nobody else seemed to mind us heading off to dance, so I would probably have been making too much out of nothing if I'd insisted on staying around. This way, I wouldn't get to see Isabel make her entrance, though.

But I *would* be able to find out for sure what was weird about the dance floor, though. That strange visual cue was getting stronger as we approached, and I was thinking that soon it would be clear what was causing it. I got a surprise as we stepped through the threshold, though, and some of what was causing landed on us.

"What the heck?" I asked. "They've got sprinklers on, on top of everything else? Isn't that pushing things a bit too far?"

"I, I dunno," Tess admitted, shaking her hips back and forth just a little. My eyes darted over, drawn by a momentary change, and I realized that a drop had landed on her bra, right where her nipple must be, though it wasn't clearly visible even with that moisture. "There's something exotic about it, and something oddly natural. Like dancing in the rain." She pulled me next to her, and our bodies orbited in close pathways. "What's bugging you?"

"Umm... I'm not sure," I admitted. There were the lights, which were even more distracting from here, and the smell - not just incense, but the smell of hundreds of sweaty and somewhat excited young people - and Tess' aroma was strong enough to be definitely noticeable even among the hundreds. "The floor is kinduv a puzzler, for one thing."

"The floor?" She pouted cutely, trying to sort that out. "What's so weird about that?"

"It seems perfectly dry." I'd put my shoes on after taking off my pants, and Tess had never even taken hers off, but as far as I could tell, the dancing surface was easy to get a footing on, and didn't seem to have any moisture at all on it. Of course, that didn't really add up with the fact that there was so much moisture coming down from above, but... "How do they manage that?"

"Hmm..." Tess considered. "One of us could examine it in more detail."

"Well-" Thought about that, and which one of us should bend over in underwear. "Maybe I don't care that much." I swung her around.

Tess giggled, but closed her eyes and seemed to be only moving very unimaginatively, as if something else was on her mind than dancing, for several seconds. Then she leaned close to whisper to me. "There are a few drops on the floor, but they seem to evaporate very quickly, and there's something slightly sticky about the coating that cancels out the slick effect from a little moisture I think."

"How - how do you know th..." I cut myself off. Maybe she'd been able to use her powers to probe the floor without actually inspecting it visually. "I, I said that I didn't care."

Tess blinked. "Oh, sorry - I guess I just assumed that you didn't want me to..."

"I care about this," I said, and bent down slightly to kiss her. Everything else in this club had been stimulating me, and the passion I felt for my young bride was much too much to contain any more. Tess made an approving noise deep in her chest, and her slippery self seemed to melt into my arms.

When we finally managed to stumble off of the dance floor, Tess' hair was delightfully mussed, and - well, my shorts were wet with more than just sprinkles of water, and I didn't care. Somebody called us over to a table well away from the bar - it turned out to be Isabel and Alex.

"Hey," Tess declared. "Haven't you two tried dancing yet?"

"Nah, I wanted to, but there doesn't seem to be much room out there," Isabel pointed out. Hmm... neither of us had especially noticed the crowding, but maybe we don't need as much space as taller people like Isabel and Alex.

"What're you drinking?" I asked.

"Nothing too special," Alex admitted. "Root beer and pink grapefruit juice. Care to join us? There's plenty of space."

I shared a look with Tess. It seemed a bit weird to be spending time with the rest of the gang under this dress code. Was better with just Tess and I.

"Well, we'll wait in line for drinks of our own, and then see," she said diplomatically.

"Alright, cya."

#

By the time we got back to the room, I could hardly restrain myself. (This despite the fact that we'd been fooling around at the club, and in the backseat on the ride home - or maybe because of it, I'm never really sure.) Tess led the way in first, and I followed her, closed the door, and pretty much ripped her dress open again. She looked down at the by-now-familiar underthings that were revealed, and then her eyes flashed as she looked back up at me. Blue eyes, blue underwear... somehow that just made everything hotter. And I rushed towards her, finally pulling the bra off, which I'd been tempted to do pretty much ever since she stripped down to it in front of the bouncer, but had been restraining myself mostly because I didn't want anybody else to see her breasts - especially, in an odd way, Max.

Hmm... I guess I'm not the only one with some leftover rivalry issues. As far back as I realized how attracted I was to Tess, I could also tell that there was some weird connection between them, and that Tess wanted him. But now I have her, if only for a little while maybe, and I don't really want Evans to get too good a look at what he's missing out on.

Tess squealed softly with pleased anticipation and pulled me down on top of her, so that her body was trapped between mine and the bed. I brought my lips down to her chin and dragged them across the smooth skin of her throat, as she employed her own talents to strip off my pants without using her hands. I continued straight on down, leaving a trail of kisses all the way through her cleavage, down her flat waist past Tess' belly button, and started to pull her panties away from her pussy and down her legs. I threw them away, managing to hook the little blue fabric on the bathroom doorknob, and just then she pulled my recharged rocket out of my bozers and moistened her lips with a pretty pink tongue. That combination of actions just paralyzed me instantly, and Tess maneuvered my body around as if I were a Ken doll, sitting me on the edge of the bed and kneeling at my feet. Oh, isn't that an oddly hot image - blowjob Barbie, heheh. And Tess giggled in what was actually a slightly ditsy sounding way as she bent her head down and licked at the head of my pecker, twirling around a bit in a spiraly pattern.

Once again, I'm invoking spousal privilege to keep from going into all the details of what happened in our hotel room that night, but you have to understand that an awful lot of different sex acts were at least tried out over the next two hours, and most of them were fulfilled to at least one of our satisfaction, if not both. Drowsily, the two of us lying next to each other, mostly under a single sheet with the blankets piled up at the foot of the giant bed, Tess muttered, "It - umm, it seems weird now that we're married. Not that - well, that I've done most of things before getting married, but - well, you did more than I did..."

"I guess," I admitted, running a hand through Tess' curls. (The ones on her head, not anything else you might have guessed. Actually, she - no, never mind.) "Haven't done all of that before. And - well, I guess it's hard for me to say if it's different because we're married. Having sex with you - it's different because it's you, and because I love you. I..." I might have thought that I loved the girls that I was with at the time, before this, or maybe not. Definitely it wasn't really possible to compare now to how I felt with anyone else before this, unless it was how I felt about Tess a year ago. But I wasn't quite sure how to explain any of that.

"I know," she said, and I wasn't quite sure if she was talking about the thoughts that were running through my head, or the last thing I'd said out loud. Then she got one of those cute and mischievous looks on her face. "Well, there's some stuff that we did before we got married, and then after. Was there any difference there?"

"Hmm." I thought about that. "Not really - I mean, well, any two blowjobs are going to be different, in different circumstances and slightly different technique choices or whatever. But I wouldn't say that there was enough of a difference to be commented on."

"Hmmph." Tess sounded disappointed with that. "Well, I - umm, I want to try nearly everything with you, now." She sighed. "Some things just seem too weird, maybe they're just not my preference or what-have-you." She sighed. "In a weird way, even though I decided not to have sex before this - well, there are some sex acts that almost sound like they're too wild for married people to try."

"Ehh, I dunno about that," I said, reaching up to nuzzle her ear. "Married people just aren't supposed to admit that they still go wild in the bedroom." I was struggling with a self-destructive urge to say something about how she wanted to try 'nearly everything' with me, and if we'd have time before having to leave Vegas in less than thirty-six hours. Divorce had become an unspoken concept by mutual agreement, and I really didn't want to do anything to break my side of it. The more Tess wanted to talk and act as if we had all the time in the world - maybe she'd get used to going the distance that way, or start to realize what we'd be missing out on by signing the papers.

"I was thinking about college earlier today," Tess said, wrapping one arm around me. "Is there any way you could go back to the University of New Mexico and see if they can find any scholarship money for you? I mean - you told them no, true, but I'm sure that they want a good running back still, and..."

"It's - it's a good idea," I said, "and it might work. But - well, there are two possible problems with it. One, there's only a limited amount of scholarship money in the budget of any university, and most of it has probably been either promised out or is being reserved for courting specific star athletes who are still, in effect, keeping multiple schools on the line." Tess made a half-nod. "Also, they've probably made certain decisions about the makeup of their freshman team positions..."

"Yeah, umm, I get it," Tess said, a trace of sourness creeping into her voice. "They might have gone ahead, since you weren't available, and offered scholarship money to some other runner back, who's not quite as great as you... or maybe even one who's a little bit better *on the field..." I chuckled at the way that she'd put that. "And so they don't need you quite so much anymore."

"Yeah." I sighed. "Well, we'll see what we can do about that." If you don't* serve me with divorce papers. Unsaid.

#

"Okay, we've got to do something really cool on our last full day," Tess said the next morning after breakfast. Everybody was splitting up again, which suited me fine. But I wasn't quite sure how to fit her criteria of 'really cool.'

"Umm - go see the white tigers?" I hazarded once the pause had gotten sufficiently long.

Tess mulled that over judiciously. "Actually yeah, that has potential." She considered. "We'll walk there, wherever it is, so that in case something better comes along, we'll be free to go for it."

"Alright," I admitted. "Hope that's not the way you approach everything in life. 'In case something else better comes along...'"

She sighed and shook her head. "Not - not when it comes to important stuff like who I love. I... I thought that you'd be able to tell things like that."

"Yeah, I guess I do," I admitted. "It was a stupid thing to say."

"Yeah, well - I guess I know you well enough that you do that occasionally," she teased, smiling as we headed out of the hotel lobby. "Alright, guess that's the cue for more sharing time." I laughed at how she put it. "Do you ever talk much to those guys from the jock squad that you were such good friends with before the alien abyss took over your life?"

"Hmmm." I considered that. "Not sure that we were ever the kind of friends who ever talked much - about important stuff, at least, or anything that I'd consider important now. Every few weeks I spend a night out or a weekend afternoon with some of those guys, and things are pretty much the same as they ever were. They're okay people to have some fun with - most of the time with. Occasionally the jock group mentality adds up to something that doesn't exactly equal fun - like beating Max up. I think that you heard about that one a bit."

"Hmm, yeah," Tess agreed. "Just out of curiosity - were you completely against the idea of giving Max a beat-down, or just upset that they'd gone behind your back to do it?"

"Oh boy," I laughed. "Umm... let's see... yeah, if the circumstances had been a bit different, I might have suggested something of the sort. But - well, I hadn't mostly because I guess I knew on some level that it'd get back to Liz if we did that, and she'd probably feel sympathetic for Max and not be very impressed with me starting something - especially if I used the guys for backup. So, when they did it on their own, and I caught the heat... that was mostly what I was upset about, yeah." I sighed. "Do you think of anybody who isn't 'in the know' as a friend?"

"Hmm... well, Missus DeLuca, definitely," Tess said after a moment. I smiled - she might not be out of the loop for much longer, but that was another story. "As far as people my own age - I dunno... maybe Wanda Lively."

"Wanda?" I repeated, trying to match the name to a face. "The girl with really short dark hair who you were studying for English lit with last week?"

"Yeah, that's her." Tess sighed. "She's not someone I'm really close with, but I'm comfortable spending some time with her, and occasionally we talk about random stuff." She sighed. "Friendships have to start somewhere, huh?"

"I guess so." Pause. "What kind of random stuff?"

"Oh, families, though I have to keep my mouth pretty closed on that one. Classes, hopes for the future." Pause. "Guys."

"Hmm... does she have a boyfriend?"

"Yeah, she's pretty tight with Ralph Worley."

"Ralph?"

"He's kinduv short, light brown hair, really deep brown eyes. On the math club and newspaper." I made a little 'ahh' sound. "Yeah, maybe he fits the 'nerd' stereotype a little. but she really likes him a lot."

"Cool for them both I suppose. So - did you tell Wanda about any guys in particular that you liked?"

"Oh, boy." Tess shoved me playfully. "Yeah, most of what I've been talking about when we got on the subject was that I liked you and wasn't sure what to do about it, since you dumped me the first time we tried dating." She whistled. "Wow, I wonder what she'll think when she hears - you know."

"A bunch of people might be surprised," I admitted. "When it comes to that breakup - umm, do you still feel any, umm, leftover..."

"I'm not holding a grudge about it, no," Tess volunteered, and I let out a relieved breath. "Maybe... you got the idea that my heart wasn't completely with you by that point, that I was still holding on to the things that I felt for Max, and didn't want to have to share me with him?"

"Yeah, I - uhh, I guess that describes it really well." Tess nodded knowingly. "Okay, umm - I guess it's your question again if there's something that you want to ask."

"Hmm... were we keeping count?"

"Something like, I was," I said. "One big 'getting to know more about you', along with a few follow ups per turn."

"Cool I guess." Tess took a few more steps. "Except that I'm not sure I can think of one."

"That's okay."

"Okay... What would you like to do when you grow up, if anything involving professional sports isn't possible?"

"Hmm." Now that one I kind of had to mull over. Mostly I'd just been worrying about getting out of high school and into college, assuming that things would sort themselves out that way. Maybe, just possibly, taking a sports scholarship and playing college football wasn't the best way of going about that. I tried to think of the things that I liked doing that might possibly lead to a career. "Hmm... well, I definitely don't want to follow dad into law enforcement or anything like that. Maybe - umm, I could probably make a try out of business management or sales, that sort of thing."

"Well, you can be very persuasive when you want to." Tess thought a moment. "Dammit, now I remember what I wanted to ask this time around."

"You do?" I laughed. "Well, you can - I won't mind. What is it?"

"How exactly did you arrive at Buddhism? Was it a silent thing, looking through a number of different alternatives out of books, or some other kid talking to you about it?"

I laughed. "Yeah, there was another boy who 'got me into it', though he wasn't witnessing or anything - in fact, Jaspin always seemed really embarrassed when I asked him questions. I guess - well, he mentioned something out of a koan once when we were talking about drills, and the other guys wouldn't let up until he said where it was from..."

#

To set the scene - this bit coming up was late afternoon-ish, maybe twenty after four or so. We were in the middle of another casino - which one I had lost track of.

"You're just like your father sometimes! Never willing to bend an inch!" Tess flared at me, turning around and shoving me slightly.

"Yeah, well, maybe you should be grateful for that about him - and me," I shot back. "If my dad hadn't agreed to look after you guys and stood by that, you could be in a lot of trouble. And I've stuck by what I've decided, to support you and your friends, as well. When there were people pushing me to walk away and not look back. Don't you have any appreciation for that? Or only when it doesn't inconvenience you?"

"Okay, yes, I'm grateful for the loyalty that you and your family have shown me," Tess muttered grudgingly. "That goes without saying, though I'll keep reminding you of it if that's important. But that's not what I'm talking about. There's a difference between being a stand-up guy and refusing to bend an inch, if you'll excuse the analogy."

"I don't see that it's that big a distinction," I insisted. "There are things that I've been more than willing to compromise on, to sacrifice, and I've made that very clear to you. To make this marriage work. But some things are just black and white, and I don't get why you're acting personally offended about the idea that..."

"Yeah," Tess insisted. "You just don't get it!"

"Oh, come on, you don't get to act annoyed with me about this..." Part of the problem was that what we were really arguing about was something that we just couldn't say out loud in this venue - the cheating part. Tess had used her alien bippity-boppety-boo at a poker table. Somehow that crossed a line to me that Tess didn't see. I had no really great issues with attempting to defraud the casino - it was a big faceless corporation, that was trying to get money from the tourist rubes any way that it could, and playing by its own rules however it needed to... like the 'no counting cards' thing at blackjack that I've never really understood, partly since the definition of just what makes up card counting is never really clear until the casino pit boss rules that you've been doing it...

Sorry, if I get on a roll about that we'll be there all day. Cheating some other guy sitting at the table seems like an entirely different thing, though. If he would have won the money fairly by the deal of the cards, and the skill of his play, then who are we to take the pot just because Tess can shuffle molecules? Maybe whoever it was really needed the cash, to save his house, or give a kid a better life by sending him or her to a good college.

"And why the hell not?" Tess screamed. "I... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have... have said that - I guess it's just hard for me to talk to you when things get like this." She spun on her heel.

"Please - please don't turn away from me right now," I said, in a harder tone than I meant to. Tess hesitated, and then stepped away further instead of facing me again. I groaned out loud, and she stepped up to one of those nickel slots, fumbling a coin out of her purse and feeding it in. I was curious about why she'd do something like that, until she pulled the lever down, which she did with a sharp, vigorous motion, and then it made sense - she'd have slammed a door on me if there was one around, but there weren't any doors, and somehow that yank was the closest worthwhile alternative that she'd hit on immediately.

But unlike slamming a door, this didn't keep me from running up to her. "Come on... I - I'm sorry if I was being too harsh. We - we can talk things through, right?" I ran a hand along her forearm. "Sitting here and playing the slots doesn't change anything..."

And then I was cut off by the way the slot machine was flashing and blaring some sort of music. Huh, had she actually won something? But no coins were coming out of the payoff slot. Tess was staring at it, shock on her face. On the face of the thing, three gold bar icons were showing. Okay, yeah, looked like that was a win. "Okay, how much is that worth?"

"Umm... I think nearly a hundred and twenty thousand," Tess breathed. "If it's the jackpot that I think it is." And suddenly, she turned to me with a look of panic on her face. "Kyle, I didn't... didn't mean to do that!"

"Oh, boy," I muttered. "Hope our fake IDs are good enough for this."