What Felicity told me certainly was reassuring, but I had to take it with a grain of salt.  Even though she told me that I probably hadn’t done anything, she wasn’t friggin’ there.  I still didn’t know what happened.  And I know I said that I thought she had seemed eager, but frankly, don’t rapists say the same thing?  Whatever had happened, one thing Felicity said was undoubtedly true: if I really wanted to know, I needed to ask Tish.
     Which was the first thought on my mind when Tish walked into the shop one morning, only about half an hour after I opened up for the day.  Well, it was actually the second thought.  The first thought was that she was just wearing a basic t-shirt and Capri pants, but she looked even more beautiful than when she was dressed in a skin-tight cowgirl costume.  The third thought was that if I wanted to explore the second thought, I needed to keep my mind off the first thought.  
     Wait, that was a little wordy.  So basically, if I wanted to find out what had happened and attempt to patch things up, I needed to keep my mind on her feelings and emotions and, to paraphrase the Bond movie, off her perfectly formed ass.  
     “Good morning.  Welcome to the Cyber Shop.  How can I help you?”
     “Good morning, Brian,” she said.  She seemed fairly friendly, but then, so did I, and I was wedging my legs under the desk to keep them from shaking.  “I saw the work you did for Felicity, and I was wondering if you could do something like that for me.”
     I thought of the last “work” I did for Tish, and then I tried not to.  “Sure.  What did you have in mind?”
     “Oh, not nearly as much as Felicity.  She’s always been more…exhibitionist than me.  I don’t know if I could do anything that drastic and permanent.  I’d rather have something I can keep hidden in public and enjoy in close company, like James and Christina’s wings.”
     “Sure, that makes sense.  I’m in that group myself.”
     “Oh, yeah?  What work did you…Oh, right.  I remember you keep that sword in your leg, don’t you?”
     She remembered that?  Oh, man.  What else did she remember?  I tried and failed to smoothly change the subject.  “So, what sort of work did you have in mind for yourself?”
     “Well, I’ve thought about getting a tattoo for a while, but like I said, I really didn’t like the permanence of it.  So I was wondering if you could give me some sort of skin prosthesis that looks like skin art, but I can change it when I want to.”
     “Well, have you seen Minerva’s hair?”
     “Yeah, why?”
     “It’s actually a prosthetic.  The hairs are plastic, and they contain things called OLEDs, or Organic Light-Emitting Diodes.”
     “Okay, I’ve heard of LEDs, but what would an organic one be?”
     “Basically, it’s a compound that emits light when you pass electricity through it.  The hairs contain a mixture of red, green, and blue OLEDs, and they’re controlled the same way as the prosthetic itself to create whatever color you want in whatever patterns you want.”
     “So, it’d be like a little flat screen TV in my skin?”
     “Yeah, exactly.”
     “Cool.  That sounds perfect for what I had in mind.  Is this the part when you scan me into the computer in your back room?”
     “Well, actually, I think I can accomplish what you have in mind without having to manufacture a custom prosthetic like I did with Felicity.  You’re not talking about any kind of structural elements.  All we really need for you is a lot of these tiny components, and they’d be small enough that it would be unnecessary to get your measurements.  Basically, this is a prosthetic that could come in a bottle.”  Well, that was half of the reason I didn’t scan her in.  I also didn’t want a 3-D model of Tish’s body in my computer, taunting me.  “Actually, what I have planned for you is a cream that contains OLEDs that I would rub into your skin.  How large of an area of skin do you want covered?”
     “Ideally, I would like to have my whole body covered.  More options that way, you know?”
     Crap.  I had a hard enough time smearing the bonding cream all over Felicity.  “I suppose that would be possible.  Let’s see, it would probably take me about three days to make the OLEDs, so what do you say to an appointment three days from now?”
     “That shouldn’t be a problem.  I’ve got a lot of time.”
     “Well, I’ll see you then, Tish.”
     “It’s a date, Brian.”  She walked out the door, and my mind went back to that perfectly-formed ass again before I could stop it.
     Damn it, why’d she have to use the word “date?”  I’d never been on a real date in my life.  Now I was gonna be paranoid about my breath the whole time.  
Well, I was so uptight over the next three days that I almost forgot to make the cream for Tish.  When she showed up for her appointment, I had gotten about fifteen hours of sleep over the previous three nights, but I was still trying to look trustworthy.  
     “Morning, Brian.  You ready for me?”
     I wasn’t even close to ready, but it might have given her the wrong impression to say that.  Well, the right one, actually, but wrong for the moment.  “Yep.  I’ve got all the OLED cream I need, so if you’ll follow me into the back room, we can get started.”  She followed me back to the workroom, where I already had the chair fully reclined, and she proceeded to strip totally nude and lay out on the chair.  
     “Um, Tish?”
     “I told you I wanted the cream all over my whole body, so I thought it’d be easier to do it all at once instead of piecemeal.  So go ahead, Brian, start wherever.”
     Boy, she wasn’t about to make this easy for me.  “All right, Tish, I’ll start with a small patch on your abdomen as sort of a test.”  I rubbed some of the cream into her stomach.  “All right, now think about a color other than your skin tone.”  She closed her eyes, and the patch on her stomach turned blue.  “Very good, Tish.  Now, I’d like you to maintain that thought at some level so I can see if I’m missing any spots.”
     “Sure thing, Brian.”  She kept her eyes closed and just relaxed, as if she were tanning.  Well, she was certainly getting some color, and it was a good thing she kept her eyes closed, because I could feel my face getting a little color of its own.
What the hell was happening to me?  Here I was, rubbing cream into the skin of a gorgeous woman about whom I could not stop thinking and who was totally nude in front of me.  And I was trying like mad not to think anything inappropriate because the first thing I ever did to her might have been out of line.  What was it about me that prevented me from just talking to this woman and laying my cards out on the table?  All this was running through my mind as I rubbed the cream into her limbs.  I held each limb in my hands and rubbed the cream in, almost like a caress, and I could see on her face that she appeared to be enjoying the experience.  I started to put a little more into the rubbing, and then I caught myself.  I had told myself I wasn’t going to do anything like this.  I didn’t want to give her the impression that the appointment was turning into a repeat performance of the Halloween party.  I resumed my prior clinical attitude as I continued to rub the cream into her face and chest.  When I applied the cream to her breasts, I tried to imagine I was, I don’t know, frosting a cake or polishing something.  Applying the cream to her shaven pubic area was a little more complicated, since I sadly lack the extensive medical training that OB-GYNs go through to be able to view the female genitalia clinically.  I tried to think of anything but the obvious, but I couldn’t ignore the sounds of happiness that Tish was making.  When I was done with her front side, I asked her to turn over.  She didn’t so much turn over as sort of flow over.  Just watching her move was pleasing.  
     As I rubbed the cream into her back and buttocks, I couldn’t stay quiet any longer.  “Tish?”
     “Yes, Brian?”
     “I’ve got kind of a personal question for you.”
     “I can’t imagine it’s more personal than this.”
     “It’s a little awkward, so if you don’t want to answer, it’s okay.”
     “Well, I won’t know until you ask, will I?”
     “Okay.”  I took a deep breath.  Then, I took another one.  “What exactly took place between us at the Halloween party?”
     The blue color of most of her skin vanished immediately.  She turned back over and looked me right in the eyes.  “What do you mean, Brian?”
     “I think you know what I mean.  At least, I hope you know.  I was kind of drunk that night, so I don’t remember most of it.  Felicity told me that you told her what happened and that it wasn’t up to her to tell me your side of it.  She told me I should ask you.  So, I’m asking you.  What the hell happened that night?”
     “Brian, what happened was that we met at a party and we hit it off.  The chemistry started happening, and things just went from there.  I certainly enjoyed the evening.  I had hoped you enjoyed yourself, but now I’m not so sure.”
     “My enjoyment isn’t the issue here.  The problem is that I had too much to drink and I allowed a situation to go way too far.  Damn it, why the hell did I even drink at that party?”
     She sat up on the reclined chair.  “Brian, do you know why I went to that party?”
     “Well, you’ve probably known Felicity and the Ms longer than I have, so…”
     “I hadn’t planned on going to the party.  I had wanted to go see a dance performance by a company I was interested in auditioning for.  The reason I changed my mind was that Felicity told me about this guy she knew.  Her brother was planning on inviting him to the party, and she thought he’d be great for me.”
     My God.  Was the whole damn party a setup?  No wonder everyone left the two of us alone.
     “Tish, are you telling me that the party was nothing but an attempt to hook the two of us up?  Is that why they were giving me all that alcohol?”
     “Look, Brian.  I need to tell you something about me.  I have a long, sordid history of rotten relationships.  Every boyfriend I have ever had has been straight from the bottom of the barrel.  The last one turned out to have such a violent streak that he’s not permitted within fifty feet of me, and I’ve done my best to keep him from finding out where I live now.  Every time I had to leave a bad relationship, Felicity has been there to help me recover, so this time, I decided to let her do the hunting.”
     “Well, what makes you so sure that I’m this prime catch?”
     “I don’t know.  What makes you so sure you aren’t?”  She took my hand.
     I couldn’t take my eyes off her.  She was offering me everything that had been missing in my life, and for some reason, I couldn’t just take it.  “Tish, I’ve never been in a relationship in my life.  I’ve gone through life by myself ever since college.  I wouldn’t even know how to starting dealing with the presence of another person in my life.”
     “Then why don’t you let me help you?  I’ve never really been in a healthy relationship before, so we can go at this together.  You know what they say.  It’s a lot easier for people to work together when neither of them knows what they’re doing.”
     “But why me?  What the hell is it about me that makes you want to do this?”
     “Brian, it’s everything.  Your smile, your intellect, your sense of humor.  You can do something that people fantasize about, and you’re horrified at the idea of using it for your own gain.  I’m surprised you even charge people.”
     “Well, I didn’t want people to just go nuts with changing themselves around.”
     “You see?  You care about people, so why can’t you care about a person?”
     “I do care about you.  That’s my point.  I don’t want to see you make another bad decision and get into a one-sided relationship.”
     “Brian, why are you doing this?  What is so terrible about you that you don’t think you deserve a chance to be happy?”
     “Well, I don’t know, but there has to be something!  Why else wouldn’t something like this have happened to me sooner, like in college when it happens to everyone else?  I’ve been alone for too long for it to be totally meaningless.”
     “Brian, you’re not alone.  You have Marcus, Minerva, James, Christina, and Felicity.  You have a group of friends who don’t like to see you torturing yourself with imaginary guilt and want you to be able to share your life and your gifts with another person.  I know, because I have the same thing.”  She put her arms around my shoulders and pulled me closer to her until our faces were almost touching.
     “Now, listen to me, Brian.  You are a good person, and you deserve to be happy.  You shouldn’t have to be alone, and you’ve got no business thinking that you deserve to be alone.  I need someone to prove to me that I can form a successful, loving, caring relationship, and you need someone to prove to you that you are allowed to care about your own needs from time to time.  You need to stop worrying about what I might think of you, because I will always think that you are the sweetest, most caring and decent person I have ever known, and now that I know you, I never want to stop knowing you.”
     I looked deep into her eyes.  I had been expecting some kind of physical attempt at gratification, but I could never have anticipated the gift she had just given me.  
     “Thank you, Letitia.”
     “Any time, Brian.”  She turned her back to me.  “I think you still have some cream left to put on.”
     “Sure.”  I picked up the jar of cream and resumed applying it to her back.  She stayed sitting up as I worked.  Now that I knew where I stood as far as propriety was concerned, I was a little less bashful and anxious about laying hands on Tish.  
As I massaged the cream into her back, she turned her head and gave me a tiny peck on the cheek.  After that, she gave me a little larger one, and as she did, I gave her a tiny peck in return.  She brought her hand to my cheek and turned my head towards hers as she kissed me square on the mouth.  I stopped rubbing the cream and paused briefly to appreciate this new development, both in the relationship and in my entire life.  I was learning a lot about the world in a very short time.  It was then that I took her trust firmly by the collar, held her waist in my hands, and kissed her with all the feeling I could muster.  She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me back.  I didn’t care anymore that she was naked.  All I cared about was that here was a beautiful woman whom, I now realized, I had loved from the moment I first shook her hand.  She was in my arms, and our souls were becoming united.  This, I realized, was what life was supposed to feel like.  
     I finished applying the cream to her back while I was busy enjoying her front.  It added a whole new level to my first romantic encounter.  When I had finished, Tish broke our clench and stepped down from the chair, breathing heavily.
     “Brian, I realize we went about this a little wrong the first time around.”  The color of her skin changed to resemble the black and red pleather she had been wearing at the party.  “What do you say to a do-over?”
     I didn’t say anything.  I just wrapped my arms around her body, lifted her onto the chair, pulled her chest clear of her hips, and took her upper half on a tour of the floor.
     When we had both run out of energy, we lay staring up at the ceiling, panting heavily, with her two halves laying on either side of me.  
     “Hey, Brian?” she asked.
     “Yeah, Tish?”
     “When Felicity was here, did she tell you about her move?”
     “No.  What move?”
     “Our landlord hiked the rent on us, so she’s planning on moving in here.  It’d give her a shorter trip to work, but it means that I’ve got to find a place to live now, since the market’s been a little slim for dancing gigs and I can’t afford to keep our current place.  The only problem is, people usually don’t like to rent to a person without a regular job.”
     “Well, that’s no problem.  There’s plenty of rooms available here.”
     “Do you think the owner could cut me a break on rent for a while until I get a job?”
     “Did Felicity not tell you?”
     “Tell me what?”
     “I am the owner.”
     “You own the whole building?  Then why do you need to run the shop?”
     “Because I like it.”
     “Well, could you help me out with the rent, then?”
     I suddenly had a brilliant moment.  “Actually, I can do you one better.  I know a guy in the building who’s looking for a roommate, and he’d be willing to cover all of the rent himself, so it wouldn’t cost you a penny.  And if you still want to get a job, I hear he’s looking for someone to help him with his clients and stuff.”
     “Wow, that’s great!  What does he do?”
     “Oh, he builds these crazy prosthetics for people, like wings, extra arms, this weird body paint…”
     She laid her upper half on top of me and looked me in the eye.  She seemed kind of concerned all of a sudden.  “Brian, are you asking me to move in with you and work in your shop with you?”
     Damn it, did I push it too far already?  “Ye – yeah.”
     She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me again.  “I’d love to!  Oh, the others were right about you!”  We kissed for a few more minutes, and I had myself a roommate.  
     Just then, I remembered something.  “Oh!  Wait a minute, I’ve got to make a call.”  I set her upper half on the chair and picked up the phone.  “Do you have about twenty minutes, Tish?”
     “Sure.  I’m unemployed, remember?  I’ve got all day.”
     “Good, then get yourself together and get dressed.  We need to run an errand.”  I dialed Vincent and Leah’s number.  Leah picked up the phone.
     “Hello?”
     “Leah?  It’s Brian.”
     “Oh, hi!”
     “I need to meet with your SORM guy right away.  Can you set that up?”
     “Yeah, I think so.  What happened?”
     I looked over at Tish as though I had known her all my life.  She looked right back at me.  “Your magician friend has just found himself a gorgeous assistant.”  Tish beamed.