I left the redhead’s apartment around 8am. To say it had been a good night would have been an understatement. She had been incredible… and was able to go all night. I walked the short distance from her place to The Planet. Marina was behind the bar, said hello and only made a brief comment on my wearing the same thing as I had been the night before. I ordered a double espresso and reached for my wallet to pay. Empty. All my money spent the night before on beers a the club. I had Bette’s $20 but didn’t want to spend it. I reached into a pocket looking for change. Marina held out a hand.

“It’s on the house, my dear. From the look of you, I’d say you have earned that coffee. And if I remember correctly, you have to start a job today, so we can’t have you falling asleep on your feet.”

“No Marina. I can’t.”

Marina shook her head, “Nonsense. Hit an ATM later and pay me next time. Besides, you’ve started becoming a regular already, and if you keep hanging out with us, you will be here everyday. We can start a tab, I do it with the other girls. Really.”

I thanked her for the coffee and took it to a table

I had a long while to kill before I had to be at the salon that afternoon, and I didn’t want to crawl back into Bette’s too early in case she and Tina were still finishing their night. I grabbed a newspaper from one of the surrounding tables and started flipping through it, not really looking at any of the articles. I heard someone sit down next to me and found Alice and Dana sipping their coffees. Alice wiggled her eyebrows at me.

“Looks like someone had a good night. I take it by the clothing that you only just finished your outing?”

I grinned, picked up my coffee and sipped it, saying nothing. Dana had this look on her face, somewhere between amazed and confused.