Chapter 10

Lucy still had Aaron, but she was down to a single bond. At any moment it might snap, and she would be on the road to getting the syndrome. She never wanted that to happen again. Never.

So it was time to get another bond-mate -- and avoid people like Eric. How should she go about it?

When she told Aaron, he told her what he knew.

“I grew up in West Brookfield, and every Friday night anyone who wanted a bond would meet, both men and women, and they’d try a bunch of different partners. When it got to be 30 women and 30 men on a typical night, most of them went home bonded.”

“But that doesn’t keep you from getting stuck with a guy like Eric.”

“That’s true, but word gets around in a small town. Anyone who gets someone like Eric is going to fuck like crazy until they get rid of him, and then no other woman is going to let the tip of his cock anywhere near her pussy.”

“It sounds better than here in North Brookfield. The best I could do was walk down a street with my red sweater on. Which happened to be your street. And by the way, did you just happen to be walking by and join a crowd of drooling guys wanting to fuck a girl?”

“No,” he said. “I looked out my window just as you went up with that guy, and I went out to try to give you a break.”

“Quite the compassionate soul, eh?”

“I like to think I’m compassionate,” said Aaron. “But that wasn’t everything. I liked you, even through the window, even when you were reluctantly going up to get screwed by a disgusting guy.”

“I had on a sparkling, charming expression that captivated your heart?”

“No, not at all. But fear and grief on a person’s face says a lot about them too -- maybe more. So I got to hug you, and watch you lie on my bed resting. It happened to work out in the long run too, but I just did it for the moment.”

“So ... You kind of had a crush on me? From the start? You, a middle-aged man?”

“Yeah, I did,” he said firmly, looking at her. “We may have to do no end of fucking, but I think there still ought to be room for crushes. Little sweet things.”

They smiled at each other and leaned forward very slowly. Their lips met in one delicate little kiss, held for a few seconds, and then they pulled back.

In a spell, Lucy said, “Do you think we might stay in touch, at least, when our bond breaks?”

“I would love that,” said Aaron, looking into her eyes dreamily. But then sat up, breaking out of the spell. Lucy came back to reality too. “But it’s hard to predict the future. If you have 20 bonds with people you really like, you can’t still be super-close with every one of them after the bond breaks.”

“True,” said Lucy.

“But back to you problem of getting a second bond ... You should go into Brookfield and look for your bond there.”

“That’s an hour away!”

“True, but how much driving would you have done to keep from bonding with Eric?”

“A lot. What’s in Brookfield?”

“They have a registry. You sign up and fill out a lot of info, and include your picture. And then there’s your reputation. Brookfield’s too big for word-of-mouth to protect anyone from folks like Eric. But there your card has your reputation. One complaint might just be a disgruntled bond-mate, but two is looking suspicious, and three means you can’t be trusted. But there are hundreds of men registered, and you get to be pretty picky.”

Before heading off to the registry, Aaron gave Lucy a list of six names. “I got these from Janice, Rebecca, and Beth. I could have guessed five, though the sixth was new to me. These are old bond-mates of theirs they don’t want in their life again, even if it’s just tangential. Really unlikely you’d run into any of them, but it’s good to be safe.”

“OK,” she said, taking in this new information. “If Janice found Eric for a second bond I would be quite upset.”

Aaron smiled.

The registry building was huge. The middle room alone was twice the size of a basketball court. In the center were rows and rows of 4-drawer filing cabinets. All around the edges were tiny cubicles with a single bed in them, and a curtain that could be drawn for privacy.

Long tables had stations, each with a chair and a single file drawer. Most of the chairs were occupied by men or women who were working their way through the hanging folders in their drawer. Twenty-odd people in blue uniforms were working with the folders in the central area, making new ones, or typing to update the pages of others, or carrying drawers around.

Lucy went to the “New Registrations” table where a blue-suited woman took a picture of her face, then had her take off her sweater for side and front pictures of her body. She made a folder with Lucy’s name on it, and then gave her a form to fill out.

It said “Female” at the top. The first field, in a larger typeface, said, “List here anything important that you think might deter the average person from having you as a bond-mate. Include any severe dissatisfactions that former mates have noted.”

That made sense -- If you know most people won’t consider you, put it up front to save them the trouble of reading details.

Fields to fill in were name, age, address, and whether you had an IUD in or not. Do you promise not to have the IUD removed without informing your bond-mate?

There was space to list the people in your household and their ages. Another space was for information about your other bond-mate, if you had one. Another was for children who lived elsewhere.

One question read: “Do you agree not to have intercourse with anyone else when you have two bond-mates, assuming they have presented themselves accurately in good faith?” That was a key one, Lucy figured. Who would want to consider a partner who said “no” to that?

If/when you have just one bond-mate, do you want to have intercourse with other people? Is it OK if your bond-mate does?

What is your minimum, maximum, and preferred value for how often you would like to have sex (intercourse or other) with the sort of person you expect to bond with?

Do you have a secret you want a bond-mate to keep? Is is a secret about illegal activity? Will you swear to keep a secret you learn from a bond-mate? Including if it is illegal activity?

List psychological illnesses, if any.

List major medical conditions, including any that are life-threatening.

Are you a strong political partisan? If yes, Liberal, Conservative, or other?

Are you willing to consider relocating?

What are your favorite sexual activities? Are there any you are unwilling to do, and any that your partner must be willing to do?

Are you interested in having a child within the next five years? Would you consider getting pregnant by your bond-mate?

Do you require that the test sex be in total darkness? Would you be willing to participate if someone required total darkness?

If you have no bonds, how many days since your last bond broke?

How many legitimate attempts did you make before forming your last bond? The one before? The one before that?

Compared with other people who have gone that many days, how would you compare your own suffering from the bondless syndrome (also known as “the yuckies”)?

Some people have difficulty finding a partner. Would you be willing to try for a bond with someone to help relieve their symptoms, despite their not being a good match for you?

Would you offer payment to someone who bonds with you successfully? If so, how much?

The questions went on.

Wow, said Lucy to herself. Just wow.

There were many drawers with currently available men, and when a woman was done with one she marked the number of the drawer she had just finished on a plastic sheet labeled “DONE” and put it on top of the drawer. That let the blue-suited helper find a drawer for her that she hadn’t already scanned. That was how the system worked.