It was Pub’s turn to act all embarrassed. “I was actually working up the courage to ask you that…I’d love to show you around, Mark.” He was so sweet, and when he spun Mark around by the shoulder and gave him a kiss on the lips, the panther couldn’t help but smile at all the different wonderful ways this night could end. Pub insisted on driving, and since he was dead sober and the lightweight panther was decidedly not, Mark didn’t argue. “The power locks don’t work,” Pub explained as he opened the driver’s side door of the Oldsmobile before reaching over and unlocking the passenger-side door.
“Thanks for the ride, I d-dunno if I could make it all the way home r-right now,” Mark’s stuttering more a function of his drunkenness than his nerves at this point. “Oh, do I get to meet James tonight?” Mark asked playfully, and the tiger responded with a hearty chuckle.
Fearful Symmetry 