“Let’s see, what do I usually do after I exercise?” she asked.
“I go to the pool and exercise some more,” Deerie answered herself.
Soon they were swimming. Her location was hardly unknown; it seemed that every woman in the Commons had heard about her episode with Handy the moment it happened. “Good going, girl!” one woman called as she swam by. “They think all they have to do is get it up, and any woman near will leap on!” And, surprisingly, even a few men were chuckling. They liked a good joke as well as the women did, so long as it was on someone else.
Thus it was that the time passed, and Deerie escaped her seduction. Agape had won the first fall! But now it was the second period, and the onus was on her. The Game Computer confirmed that Handy was the one she had to seek. Her actress had to seduce Tan’s actor, or lose the fall. This was the part she hated most. But she had to do it. She nerved herself, then began working on Deerie, who was sunning herself on the tanning beach. ‘ ‘I guess I wasn’t too nice to him. Maybe I should give him his settlement after all.”
Deerie, as it turned out, was amenable. She had been turned off the liaison because of the developing embarrassment, not because she disliked the notion. She got ‘up and went in search of Handy.
He was glumly having a drink. Intoxicants were forbidden to serfs, but the convention remained: a person was allowed to decrease inhibitions after imbibing. She sat down beside him. “Handy, I’m sorry,” she said.
“I shouldn’t have made it awkward for you this morning.” He looked at her. Agape could guess his thoughts. Citizen Tan wanted to curse her, but he was aware that because he had lost the first fall, he would need to win both remaining falls. If he won the second by driving her forever away, he would have no chance to seduce her in the third period. So he had to do it carefully, in such a way as to set up for his next turn. Meanwhile the actor. Handy, unaware of this back ground, should be quite ready to accommodate her. “These things happen,” he said. “I still think you’re a great-looking woman.”
Deerie was pleased. She of course did not know what lay behind this day’s contact. “Well, you did lose the bet, and I didn’t make you run. So if you want to work out your penalty the way you suggested—“ Now it seemed that Tan and Handy had a conflict. Citizen Tan had no intention of having sex, but serf Handy was obviously interested. He was starting another erection. He set aside his finished drink and went quickly to a couch, where he could sit without his condition showing as clearly. Agape wondered how this kind of game proceeded when the sex occurred in the first period. Didn’t that put the female at a disadvantage for the second period, because the male was spent? But she realized that this would be the least of problems; the Game Computer would simply arrange for a sexual restorative to be given, and the man’s interest would be at its normal level. It would also be possible to adapt a new set of actors.
“No, I don’t care to be embarrassed again,” Handy was saying. “You got me all excited before, and then you left me standing in a crowd with my tower on display! Everyone knew I’d been stood up and not laid down. I’m afraid you are only setting me up to do it again.”
“Oh, no. Handy, no!” Deerie protested, following him to the couch. “That was an accident! Once the other people came in, I had to go, because I didn’t like it that public. But we can go to a privacy booth right now and do it. I promise I’ll make it up to you!”
She was doing very well! Handy’s erection was growing; he really did want her. But Citizen Tan needed to break this up. “I’ll tell you what: let it go for now, and if you’re still interested in three hours, then I’ll know you mean it. Then I’ll do it.”
Nice ploy! In three hours it would be Tan’s onus again. “I don’t think I can wait,” Agape said. “He’s got me all excited.”
Indeed he had. Deerie was now fully committed to the encounter, and hardly needed Agape’s encouraging thoughts. “I can’t wait!” she said. She was standing beside the couch; she straightened her back and inhaled.
Handy’s face was a study, as he warred with the opposing voice in his mind. His body definitely wanted consummation, but the voice was telling him he wasn’t interested. Now was the time to strike. “I know he wants me,” Agape said. “But he is fearful of another scene like that of this morning. So I won’t wait; I will just climb up on him and do it!” Would this work?
It did. Deerie obeyed the thought without question. She practically threw herself on Handy, bearing him back lengthwise on the couch and coming down on top of him. Her mouth sought his for a hungry kiss as her groin rubbed against his.
But her lips found only mush in his. His erection was softening. He had been abruptly turned off! What had happened? “What’s the matter, honey?” Deerie asked, as upset as Agape, though perhaps for different reason. “Here we are all set to do it, and you’re leaving!”
“I remembered something,” he mumbled.
“My age!” she said, chargrined.
“No, not that! You’re a great woman! But I heard some where that your employer, he—”
“Citizen Tosme? All I do is massage his feet!”
“And more, when he asks.”
“Well, of course. But that’s universal; serfs are at the disposal of their Citizens. It doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“But what I heard—you may not know this—is that be cause of this. Citizen Tosme has reserved you for himself. Anyone else who uses you will be gelded.”
“What?” Deerie was appalled. “That can’t be true! I’ve had numerous—”
“Within the last month?”
“Well, no, actually, I’ve been busy with my exercise schedule. But—”
“And no one has approached you,” he concluded. “Now we know why. I was foolish to—I mean, I just got carried away, and—“ Deerie was completely flustered, and Agape could not get through to her at all. The charge was surely a lie, that Handy would conveniently discover in three hours, but meanwhile he had the planet’s best excuse to avoid contact. Deerie her self was all too much afraid it was true; Citizens did that sort of thing when they chose. They did not like to share their sex objects with serfs. Tan had come up with a masterpiece of dissemblance that gave him the complete advantage for the moment.
Agape knew that she had lost her opportunity to win this fall; it would take more than three hours to get her actress settled down. She let Deerie disengage and seek solitude; there was nothing else to be done.
Except to prepare for the final session. Tan’s actor would come calling, and this time he would not be limited to words. He would be allowed to coerce or even rape her, and certainly Tan would encourage that. Tan’s vengeance was in the mak ing; Agape could have avoided it only by winning this second fall. She had failed, and now the score was even, and there would be hell to pay.
She decided that her best chance was to hide so that he couldn’t find her. Since she couldn’t leave the Commons without defaulting, she would have to hide by concealing her identity. It would also be better if she were in a crowd; he would be less likely to try rape among people. For one thing, she could scream, and other men would surely come to her rescue. Sex was all right, and could even become a deliberate show, but rape was considered a form of violence by most women and some men. In addition, she could fight. She could put a defensive strategy into Deerie’s mind, so that Deerie would understand what to do when the time came. By the time of the third period. Agape was well prepared. She had caused Deerie to take some dirt from a flower pot and go to a toilet stall, where she rubbed the dirt into her hair and face and torso. Thus she became darker and wilder, looking quite different in the mirror. Her hairstyle was changed too, now being plaited and plastered. It had taken some urging to get the woman to do this, but the persistent thought that Handy had turned angry and intended to humiliate her did the job.