It would have made more sense if Todd and Stella had made love in the same place, at the same time. But they were a busy couple with time only for love-on-the-fly. And he was in Croydon while she was on a small planetoid somewhere near Vulpecula.
Todd left the restaurant without paying and rushed back to his hotel room. His Quarkberry's silky voice was still delivering the countdown to foreplay as he stumbled through the bedroom door. After tearing off his clothes he slipped into the warm viscous bath of the Eroticon5 in-room entertainment system. The blue frosted plexi-lid closed with a hiss. Air tubes poked up Todd's nose and the total-immersion gel sucked him down below its surface.
Bio-feedback virtual-sex has been a boon to lovers on the move in a bullish interstellar economy, or so the adverts said. "You will make her groan in awe of your interstellar rod. Cum at the speed of light. Keep her gasping for more with our multiphase infinite loop mode with pneumatic enhancement. (Patents pending)"
Okay, so the visuals he'd ordered weren't actually of Stella but those of a TV presenter he fancied. And admittedly he'd twiddled with the body contour settings, changing them from "petite" to "voluptuous" and of course he'd applied voice profiling to mellow her somewhat petulant and sometimes commanding tone to a voice of an altogether lower timbre with smoky overtones of silky richness.
The Vulpeculian quadrant possesses some of the most advanced cybernetic products to be found anywhere. Stella, who had a headache, switched her Eroticon8 in-room entertainment system to auto-respond while she enjoyed a long soothing sauna instead. She glugged several glasses of chilled Murgon, a local wine with a delicate rose petal bouquet, returning just in time to catch the last groans and gasps and the final ecstatic thrustings. Wishing to feel closer to Todd at this tender moment she decided to replay the whole incident by viewing the encounter from his perspective.
The manufacturers of the Eroticon8 were not displeased to be cited in the divorce proceedings. Nor were they ungenerous at the outcome, presenting Todd with a portable and heavily customized Eroticon9 unit, the ultimate companion for single men on the move.
Copyright 2009
Author's Bio: Bill West lives in Shropshire, UK. He is a member of a number on-line writing communities and is Group Host for the WriteWords Flash Fiction One Group. His work has appeared at MicroHorror, Kaleidotrope, Static Movement, Twisted Tongue, Zygote in My Coffee, FlashQuake, Heavy Glow, 52 Stitches and other places. www.writewords.org.uk/bill_west
