Quiet, Pleased

As if to punctuate this thought, Decy pulled a tiny jingling bell out of the coat pocket. Evidently, she could hang any number of these bells onto the ropes at her whim. Perhaps she had a set of trivia cards that her partner would have to answer if she didn't want her walking around to attract more attention than an ice cream truck.

But before they started, she had to introduce her partner, who had finally come up with her own screen name. She put the camera up to her partner, who introduced herself as...

Ex Libris.

---

Behind the front desk of the library, two of the workers huddled around a single phone screen unwisely held vertically, where they watched the nude pair cavort around the city, doing things that should rightly get them in enormous trouble... and yet somehow was their job.

"You're totally right." Said Miriam as she anxiously put her hand into her curly hair. "That's... that's Bibi."

"I had to show this to someone..." Said Casey, holding her phone close to her chest, finger hovering over the power button in case someone snuck up on them. "I had to confirm that I wasn't going crazy."

"This is live?"

"This is live."

"So... this is..." Miriam swallowed. "what she went on to do, then."

"I heard that she quit."

"I asked Jo what happened when she wasn't on the schedule anymore. She just said that Bibi no longer works there. Which is usually code for... she got fired."

"I... watched one of the earlier archived streams. It takes place here, in the library. The blue-haired one has a partner who doesn't show her face, but is a petite woman who looks sort of like Bibi. And her... attributes match Bibi on this stream."

"OK, that would lend credibility to the theory that she got fired."

"Yes, it would."

On the tiny screen, Bibi's member disappeared into her partner's mouth.

"I can't believe they're... doing that in public." Miriam asked.

"Decymal, the other one... she's done this for over a year." Casey noted. "Never seems to get in trouble."

How could that be? If Miriam saw someone walking around like that... well, she might not call the police. She might mind her own business. But she was a meek and shy person anyway. Surely there was some maladjusted person who would call the authorities at the sight of a pair of magnificent bodies and penises...

"We need to stop watching this." Miriam averted her gaze away from the action.

"Yeah, we should." She closed her phone and put it in her pocketbook. "I just forgot what I was doing for a second. Thanks for... not, y'know... telling anyone I showed you porn at work."

"Don't worry, I'm not going to dime you out on this one."

Casey snickered at Miriam's attempt at utilizing slang.

Miriam turned away from Casey, holding the edge of her skirt self-consciously.

"I'm... going to go to the lav." Miriam started to move away.

"Yeah, I'm going to do the book delivery."

Miriam stopped and turned back. "Didn't you do that yesterday?"

Casey swept a random pile of books into a paper shopping bag and picked it up. "Well, you know how old people read really fast."

She hustled off.

Miriam got to the lavatory before pulling out her phone.

"Hey, June, it's me. Are you free? I don't think I can wait until tonight to... y'know, give it another try. I'll see you soon."

Miriam put away her phone with some shame. Here she was, judging her ex-coworker for parading around in public, while she was waiting in the lavatory for her girlfriend to show up for a tryst.

Maybe she wasn't ready to be a mother.

But that would not stop her from trying... right now... maybe a few times... once her girlfriend showed up.