"Welcome to Chamber's Inn, ma'am," the waitress's voice said. 'My breasts are both large and firm, ' her face said, 'not droopy like yours.' "The last table was just taken, it will be a few minutes wait for the next one," her voice said. 'My face is this smooth when I wash it; even your creams and powders can't hide your wrinkles, ' her smile said. "Would you like to wait in the bar?" her voice asked. 'I'm sexy, and pretty, and young, ' her eyes said. 'You're old.'

"I don't think so. Maybe this gentleman would allow me to share a table."

"I would be honored," he said. He rose to hold her chair.

"Ma'am, I don't think..." the girl said.

"That's sad, dear, but not my business. Could I have a menu?"

"Really, ma'am," the girl said, "this isn't..."

"You're holding some menus," he said. "Would you be so kind as to give one of them to the lady?"

The girl looked baffled, and then gave her a menu. "Why thank you, sir. I'm Gretchen."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Gretchen. I'm Walter." He helped her off with her coat before he sat back down. She didn't remove her gloves, though, until they were ordering. The sight of her wedding ring seemed to bother the waitress.

The fake-pastoral ambience of the decor didn't extend to the cuisine. She ordered boef bourguignon; he ordered a steak and a bottle of burgundy. "With two glasses," he added.

Their conversation centered on the weather. "I don't like driving in this snow," he said. "I've lived my entire life in this area, and I don't think that I've ever seen snow this deep."

"It's been a while since I learned to drive," she said, "but I learned in Pennsylvania. We got snow every year, and the hills were steeper. You don't forget those lessons. What I don't understand is why people still believe in global warming after this cold snap."

"It doesn't work that way. The sun delivers a certain amount of radiation to earth. What isn't reflected has to be reradiated, or we warm up. Some of the heat is shipped all over earth before it is reradiated. Our weather pattern does the shipping. With a warmer ground necessary for reradiation, one would expect that the weather pattern would shift; we just don't know how it will shift. We do know that it will result in higher average temperatures."

"I think that this explanation could explain anything," she said. "A wise man once told me that an explanation that could explain anything was valueless for explaining a particular thing."

"He was a very wise man," he said. "You should follow all of his advice. But this explanation only predicts two things: higher average temperatures, and a change in the weather pattern. You can hardly fault it because there was a change in the weather pattern. Oh well, are you enjoying your food?"

"Very much. This is a delightful meal in delightful company."

"And I'm having a lovely meal," he said, "in lovely company."

When they had both refused dessert, the waitress brought them two checks on two little trays. He put both checks and his credit card on one of the trays. "Will there be anything else?" the waitress asked when she brought back his card.

"Just some information," she answered. "You call this an inn; is there some way that a couple could take a room here?"

"The registration desk is out that way, ma'am," the girl seemed to be having some trouble answering. "Go past the door where you came in. I don't know if they'll take you without a reservation."

"Why don't I check on that while you finish the wine?" Walter offered. He went in that direction. She finished the wine while the girl cleared around her. She left a ten under her saucer.

He was waiting for her with a key card, and they rode up together in silence. Indeed, everything that needed to be said seemed to have been said already.

He hung up their coats in the closet before they embraced, but then the hug was a hungry one. His hands roved over her back while she held his face in her hands. Their tongues dueled, and then his explored her mouth.

He helped her off with her clothes, no longer bothering with the closet, but just draping them over a chair. He punctuated this with kisses to each newly-bared area. When her brassiere had been tossed on the pile, he spent a long time on her breasts, kissing them all over before he came to her nipples. He alternated on these until her arousal was apparent.

"This is fun," she said, "but you need to deal with your clothes, too." They separated. She was in bed by the time he had his shoes off.

When he joined her, lying to her right, he started over with a deep kiss. While his tongue explored her mouth, his hand passed over her breast and belly and thigh. She put both hands on his face to hold him in the kiss, then her tongue played with his. It followed his back into his mouth and he sucked it. When that stopped, she licked all around the inside of his lips.

He responded by stroking the inside of her thighs. When she sucked his tongue, he stroked upward until he reached her vulva.

She spread her legs. Ignoring the invitation, he played with her outer lips until her hips moved of their own accord. He broke the kiss to look at her more closely. She knew that he could see her desire in her face and her hard nipples. Yet it was the underside of her left breast that he chose to kiss. He kissed up that slope to its aching peak before finally parting her labia. Almost immediately, though, he slipped a finger deep into her tunnel. He moved this in a circular motion, pressing against each wall in turn, while his lips and tongue played with her nipple.