Free Impulse by Lass Small

all that interests you.”
    “Well.” She considered him carefully. “You do have marvelous eyelashes.”
    “How nice.”
    Concerned, she pressed. “Chas, I haven’t hurt your feelings, have I?”
    “I’ll live.” He turned away in a slumped posture. Still gorgeously nude. But he was a perfect model for the Defeated Warrior.
    Amy frowned after him. Then she hurried into her clothes and tidied the bath as he brought his clothes in to have them ready for his shower.
    By the counter bar in the kitchen-living room, her place was set at the table. There was cranberry juice. There was a covered dish with eggs and bacon. And toast was in a covered hot bowl. He had done an excellent job of it.
    She ate with good appetite, but she squinted her eyes out over the complex.
    Chas had opened the drapes and the sliding door onto a perfect day. Did he really know she had just picked him up to use him for sex?
    While that was true, it would be a shame for him to feel as if he’d been a...sex object. She couldn’t allow that.
    Affairs might be more trouble than they were worth. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings. But she was so grateful she’d found him.
    She went over all the men who had seemed attractive to her in these last months, and she wondered if any one of them could have been as marvelous as Chas. Not one.
    He was the epitome of all males. She couldn’t imagine doing such an intimate thing with any other man she’d ever met. She’d been lucky he had come along at just the right time.
    But... But... But how would she ever find a man to match him? Ahh, there was the rub. Was she allowed this taste of paradise because she would never have another?
    Surely that wouldn’t be so. Surely she would find others? If she never did, she was glad she had had him. It was worth it. He was worth all this effort. What a special man he was.
    Dressed, he came to the table. His hair was still wet. He sat down across from her and smiled at her. “I like having breakfast with you.”
    “You know that I travel? I am very seldom at home. So seldom that I live with my parents on those rare off times.”
    “Where is that?”
    “No exchange of information, remember?”
    “I, too, travel. I thought our paths might cross on occasion.”
    “No, Chas. I could get used to you.”
    “Would that be so bad?”
    “I’m not ready.”
    “I’ll give you my card. If ever you change your mind, you would give me a call?”
    She asked very seriously, “Would you want me, eleven men later?”
    “An entire football team?” He expressed great shock.
    But she nudged it. “You do understand me.”
    “I would have to see you, Amy. I think we should explore this magic between us. It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Is it us? The weather? A spell? Would it last? We hardly know each other’s names, and look at this miracle. I want to keep in touch.”
    “It’s only an interlude,” she warned him. “Push, and we’ll have to split now.”
    “You’re a hard-nosed woman.”
    “See?” She smiled gently. “I’m not perfect.”
    “Close enough.” He grinned at her. “Eat your breakfast. I have a car. I’ll take you down the coast a way. I’ll find you a memento so as you’ll remember me.”
    “What?” she asked. Her eyes were gently on him. Memorizing him.
    He replied casually, “I’ll know when I see it.” And he looked at Amy.

Five
    D uring Friday, the rest of the Cougar clan began to arrive for the wedding. First came the young marrieds, then the couples with families and finally the rest of the senior members.
    The influx was filtered with laughter and greetings and family talk with exclamations that bordered on rude. “So you’re still wearing that?” “My God, Freddie, you’re skinny as a rail!” “When’s the funeral?” “Ah, Chas, are your parents here? No? Still in China? When did they go there?”
    Amy heard that. It was a relief to her to know Chas’s parents would not be there. She didn’t know how