3 3

She is done with her swim when he returns to the house. She is waiting in the living room, hair wrapped in a towel, nothing else on.

"I was thinking of doing this now, to see if it works." She said. "If we do not like it, we do not have to do it again. If we do like it, we will be happy we did not wait long." The wraparound white leather couch complimented her still damp skin perfectly. She lay down on the seat, draped her left leg over the back-rest and her right leg on the floor. Looking at him sideways she asked: "Well? What do you think?"

He thought it was just fine. Every bit of her was shaved and pretty. She smelled like sun-drenched tangerines and when he entered her, it was heavenly.

Thirty minutes later, she allowed him to kiss her tenderly on the cheek. They showered together in the rain room and then he made them supper. Penne with chicken and broccoli in a light alfredo sauce. Applesauce cake for dessert. Then more lovemaking. This time however, she was not so casual. She led him by the hand into the master bedroom and they took their time. Whipped cream and strawberries. Plenty of kissing. Mouth, hands, legs, everywhere. It was sunset when they were done. She sighed and told him that she was glad she had responded to the ad.

He had run the ad in every craigslist in North America. She had responded from the Omaha, Nebraska site and they had begun their conversation. It had been nervous at first, but the more he told her about the place, the more she had fallen in love with it. "Newerwoman5" was the name she had given herself in the conversations. They had one VOIP face-to-face phone call and they had sealed the deal then. The only thing left was to fly her out.

He got up from the bed, thought about showering again, but, as it was late, he showed her how to lock down the house.

"But what do we have any fear from?" She had asked him.

"The cats." was all he had said, as he showed her each door.

The asteroid had been approaching Earth for a great long while now. Or was it that the Earth was approaching the asteroid. Either way. "Slug" they had called it. "Vesta" was its actual name. The second largest asteroid in the solar system. It had been showering the Earth with meteorites since written history and it was going to make its curtain call in a few days. Earth and it were on a collision course, almost going the same direction. Technically, the Earth would strike Vesta, but it was all going to be one big mess by the time things were over. When the dust settled, Earth would be void of all life, except perhaps waterbears… Nothing really killed them.

"Here and here." He clicked the locks down with the electronic keypad. The interface was like a small computer, located in the hallway just before the living room. The living room ceiling and adjoining doors clicked and buzzed with an audible clack that was very reassuring. You could get to the kitchen around the living room by the adjoining hallway, but he always locked everything anyway. It just felt safer.

"The cats… They only hunt at night?" She asked.

"Well yes." He said. "And they only hunt the birds."

"That's relieving." She said. "So, why lock the doors at all?" She asked, hand on his arm.

"Just a precaution." He said. Inside he wondered if it was more than that.