Chapter 15: Debauchery

Carrolton Complex Tower A
New Pittsburgh, Mars
Tuesday, June 29, 2151

“I am glad you are home tonight,” said Tasty Brown.

Walker Stevens, her lover and apartment mate, smiled at her. He had just come in after what he called, ‘a long day slaving away over a computer, sharing wisdom and knowledge with the masses.’ “Just how glad are you?” he asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Maybe you’ll get lucky later and find out,” she teased. “Drink?”

“Please!”

Tasty went to their liquor cabinet and pulled out a bottle of rum. Walker nodded and she pulled out a second bottle, a spiced rum from EastHem, and poured a couple of shots. The regular rum would be for mixed drinks later. She carried the shots to where Walker was settling into an armchair and handed them to him. After he sat down, Tasty sat down on his lap sideways and took back one of the shot glasses. “Welcome home,” she said, kissing him.

Walker smiled and said, “I love being welcomed home this way. Is there a special occasion I have managed to forget and will be punished for later?”

She laughed. “Probably, but no. For some reason, I missed you and wanted to have a drink with you before we got all domestic.” She leaned in and kissed him lightly.

“I missed you, too.” He sipped his Indonesian rum and then tickled an ear lobe with his tongue. Tasty shivered in his arms and he could see her nipples perking up under her t-shirt.

Tasty moaned and then said, “Stop! I have something to ask you.”

“I don’t think you really want me to stop.”

“No, but we can do that later. I wanted to ask you something first.”

Walker rolled his eyes and nodded. “Go for it.”

“Well, I’ve been thinking. It’s been almost four years since we met, and three years since we moved in together. I’ve been wondering if it is time for the next step,” she said.

Walker blinked. “Are you asking me to marry you?”

“If you love me, which I think you do, and I know I love you, then yes. Will you marry me?” Tasty replied.

“Huh. Yes, but we’re doing it all wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

Walker asked, “Is this how you ask on Mars? The woman asks the guy?”

Tasty shrugged. “Sometimes. Why? How do they do it on Earth? And are you saying yes?”

“Yes, I am saying yes. It’s just that on Earth, at least in EastHem, it’s the guy’s job to ask. Women never ask.”

“Really? That sounds kind of odd. What if the guy doesn’t ask?” Tasty asked.

Walker smiled. “Ah! While I’ve never been in that situation, my understanding is that if the guy doesn’t ask in a timely fashion, the girl pushes all her female friends to bug him and tell him to step up. Most of the time that works; sometimes not so much.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and asked, “How is it done here on Mars?”

Tasty smiled and sipped her rum. “There’s two parts to that. First are the people who had jobs. I guess we’d call them middle class. They were sort of like how they did it in EastHem. People meet, date, move in together, get married, maybe have a baby in a few years.”

“Sounds about right.”

Tasty smiled at him. “Then there were the vermin. We had a whole different outlook on life. Marriage was more like a contract than anything else. It was all about money.”

Walker gave her an odd look. “What do you mean?”

“Yeah, you weren’t here in those days. This was all about living in the ghetto under WestHem rules. Once you turned eighteen, you were allowed to get a one-bedroom apartment and move out of your parents’ apartment. You were an adult and could get welfare money, sort of like the basic stipend. Then, as soon as possible, get married and knock her up and have a baby. That qualified you for a two-bedroom apartment and a boost in the welfare money. The apartments were the sort of places you were rehabbing back when you first came to Mars. Remember them? Real shitholes, but that was all we knew.”

“So, it paid for you to marry somebody, anybody, and pump out a kid, whether you loved them or not,” he commented.

“Basically. Forget about love. You had all these teenagers getting married simply so they could move out of their parents’ apartments. That was about half the population! Since the Revolution, the average age of marriage has risen steadily. Instead of getting married at eighteen, it’s up in the low twenties now.”

Walked shook his head. “How did you avoid getting married?”

“Who said I did? If we get married, you’ll be my second husband,” she replied. “I turned eighteen and married a friend and we got an apartment, and I had my fertility block removed about two months before the Revolution. Then Laura Whiting changed everything! I divorced Billy and had my block restored and decided I could make something of myself.”

“Huh! I had no idea.”

“Walker, it’s not like I was a virgin when we met. You know that. Neither were you. I was just part of the system, a system that sucked us in and enslaved us.”

“You’re twenty-three, right?” Walker asked.

She nodded. “Yes. You?”

Walker sighed. “Old enough to be your father. Older. Forty-four.”

Tasty laughed. “Oh, my God! You’re ancient! You’re dying even as we sit here! What will we ever do?”

“You want a spanking?”

Tasty finished her spiced rum and said, “You sure you’re up for that? Sounds too energetic to me. You probably won’t have the energy and you’ll have a heart attack.” That earned her a smack on the bottom.

Tasty climbed off his lap and brought back the bottle of spiced rum. She refilled their shot glasses, but before she could sit down, Walker said, “Get undressed.”

“Sounds like we’re having fun tonight.” She stripped naked and crawled back onto his lap.

“God, you are just so beautiful!” Walker marveled at the woman in his arms. She had huge tits, a narrow waist, and wide hips; she was a voluptuarian’s dream. “So, what’s next? Do Martians wear wedding rings?”

“So, you really want to marry me?”

“Absolutely! Let’s leave our blocks in place for a bit, though. We already have the two-bedroom apartment.”

“You are going to get so lucky tonight!” She kissed him thoroughly. “Dinner can wait!”

“Rings?”

“Oh, yeah. We do diamond rings and wedding rings, but a lot of people wear them on a necklace. You can’t wear rings and jewelry with medical gloves or biosuits or things like that. Big difference from Earth is where we get the diamonds from. We make them here on Mars. You can have the gems custom made on Triad in zero gravity by ion deposition.” She dipped a finger into her shot glass and rubbed some spiced rum over her erect nipples. “Would you like to see a big diamond between my tits?”

Walker growled and threw his fiancé down on the couch. Dinner would be late that night.

Club Debauchery, Coromander District
New Pittsburgh, Mars
Friday, July 2, 2151

“So, tonight is a celebration?” asked Paul Winston.

“Of course, it is, silly! Our friends just got engaged!” replied Mary Winston. “Remember when we got engaged and we had a big party? Same thing!”

Paul grinned and wrapped his arms around his wife. “What I really remember is when you dragged me into a closet and pulled your skirt up and used me for your deviant sexual needs.”

“What? That was you, not me! It was you who dragged me into the closet and pulled my skirt up and it was you who used me! You bastard!” she protested. Paul just gave her a smile and an innocent shrug. “Well, we had fun either way, and it beat having to put up with your drunken buddies,” she said.

Paul laughed and left the bedroom. Tasty had commed them the day before to make sure they could make the dinner and given them the dress code. On Mars that was minimal and consisted of instructions to wear shorts and a matching shirt, something suitable for a nice restaurant. Paul was wearing khaki-colored shorts and t-shirt in a conservative cut. Women’s clothing on Mars had just as much variation as it did on Earth. Mary was wearing a dark rose-colored outfit, with tight shorts and a low-cut top, and was skipping her regular sports bra. Just like back on Earth, she had dozens of pairs of canvas shoes in different colors to match her outfits; Paul had three pair total.

More importantly, as far as Mary was concerned, was her overall physical condition. Mary was just short of five months pregnant. This was her third pregnancy and she still considered it very unfair that modern medical science hadn’t figured out a method to speed things up. Whenever she complained to Paul, he always asked just how that would work. Would nine women each be pregnant for a month and then the doctors could sew the pieces together? Or something even more bizarre. That usually ended with her complaining some more and Paul ending the conversation by pulling her shorts off and distracting her.

Mary left the bedroom and went to the kitchen. “You look gorgeous!” said Jill Hawker, their neighbor and babysitter. She was pulling hamburgers out of the refrigerator for the boys.

“Don’t tell me I’m glowing.”

“But you are, and the way your tits have grown is amazing! They really move nicely under your tops. Paul must love it.”

Mary rolled her eyes. “Wait a few years and find out for yourself. Speaking of which, are you any closer to settling on one of your boyfriends?”

“Why limit myself? They don’t seem to mind sharing, so why should I? Where’s Chili tonight? She have a date or something?” Jill asked.

Mary nodded. “She’s going to spend the weekend with somebody in class. She’ll be back on Monday after classes.”

“How’s the house bitch thing working out?” asked Jill.

“Good. She’s very helpful with our schedules. I never know when I might need to work late or go out to a clinic, and Paul works long hours for the Department of Finance. Still, it’s not a permanent position. Why? Are you thinking about it yourself?” Mary asked. Jill was just seventeen and wasn’t in college yet.

“No, just curious. The guys and I are thinking about sharing an apartment and splitting the costs three ways. We’re all planning to attend New Pittsburgh Cobbley Campus.”

“Well, the thing about house bitch is that it’s a temporary type of position. Chili is halfway through her program and will be getting a different job. We’ll need to find somebody else in a couple of years.”

Jill nodded and said, “Ahhh. So, tonight, something special?”

Mary said, “Paul and Tasty just got engaged. We’re going out to dinner with them.”

“And afterwards? You said you would probably be late. Partying with them?”

Mary shrugged. “I’m not sure. Tasty told me to make sure to clean up, you know, everywhere, so she’s obviously planning something. She didn’t tell me what, though.”

“Well, have fun. Somebody looks like he is ready to go.” Jill nodded towards the living room, where Paul was looking in their direction.

Mary snorted and yelled out, “WE’RE LEAVING NOW!”

Paul Junior yelled back, “BYE!”

His father said, “Get out here and give your mother a hug or I’ll come back there and kick you out here!”

His sons came out of their bedroom laughing. His eldest said, “Mom’s not going to be chasing us anywhere...” Paul Junior held his hands out in front of his stomach, like he was holding a giant ball. “ ... and you’ll only be able to catch one of us to kick. I don’t need to be faster than you, Dad. I only need to be faster than Randy.”

Moving faster than his son thought he could, Paul grabbed his namesake by the back of the neck and dragged him over to Mary. “You want to kick his ass or leave it up to me.”

“Why choose? We can both have some fun!”

“Mom!”

“Just remember that when we are discussing the heir-and-a-spare theory, nobody ever said you were the heir. You can become the spare very quickly, and nobody will be looking for the body,” she finished. She leaned into him and kissed him on the cheek. “Now, behave. We’ll be late.”

“Yes, Mom.”

She beckoned Randy over and kissed him as well. Then she grabbed her bag and took her husband’s hand as he pulled her towards the door. Behind him they heard their youngest say, “You only need to outrun me? Blow me!”

Paul smiled and kept pulling Mary along before she got the idea to go back and scold the boys. They went down to the lobby and began walking towards the tramway two blocks away. “I don’t really look like this, do I?” Mary held her hands out in front of her.

“How long have we been married? And how long have you thought I was dumb enough to answer that question?”

She jabbed him in the side with an elbow and they walked to the tram. According to the GPS program in her computer, they had ten tram stops to go to the stop nearest the restaurant Walker and Tasty had selected. “Why all the way over in Coromander for dinner?”