He looked at me quizzically now, and said, “What do you mean by all that?”

I said, “C’mere a minute – put your head down next to the heater vent by my bed, about where my head would be on the pillow. Tell me what you hear.”

He knelt next to my bed and put his ear close to the vent – his eyes nearly popped out of his head when he got an earful of what I heard every night! I leaned over him, my abs almost touching his ridged spine, and I whispered, “I know a lot about both of you – a lot more than you might expect.”

He turned suddenly, and stood up, and I stood up too, and he was staring at me wild-eyed. “You know about Ron and me – you know what he does to me when he doesn’t have a woman?”

I said, “Chill out – half the house knows. Neither of you are particularly quiet, and these vents carry sound really well. I know that he usually brings you a little friend when he has a chick, and that’s why I didn’t put the moves on you before tonight, much as I wanted to. I wasn’t sure how you’d respond. But I also know what he does to you, and why you probably can’t have sex tonight – at least, not anal. He’s kept you pretty busy since you got back.”

Jon’s eyes now reflected not only the gloom that was usually there, but anger as well. He said, “So, you know all this, and you see Ron’s little whore thrown out on the street, and you figured you’d take him home and have your way with him! Am I right?”

We were both standing close enough to fight, so I tried to defuse things by sitting down on the bed – less confrontational stance. He turned towards me, still standing over me, and I took his hand and said softly, “Not like that. You needed to come in from the cold regardless, and when I saw you undressed, I just wanted to try out what I’d wanted to do for a long time. I didn’t know how you’d respond, and I just took a chance. I’m sorry – I’ll leave you alone. Just try to get some sleep, ok?”

He slumped a bit, the fight gone out of him, and instead of going back to the couch, he sat down on the bed next to me. He said, “I’m sorry – you’ve always been nice to me, especially tonight – I’ve had a rough day, and I didn’t know what to make of it all. Forgive me?” And he looked at me with that whipped-puppy expression again.

I smiled and said, “The only way I’ll forgive you is if you smile at me the way you did a few minutes ago.”