Chapter 1

I didn't expect her to answer the door.

"Oh, hey Louis."

"Hi Zoe. I'm..."

"Yeah, yeah. Come on in. It's getting chilly out here." She dragged me through the door. Okay, so I didn't resist an awful lot. "That's better."

"Yeah. Uh, Zoe?"

"Uh huh."

"No wonder you're cold. Where are your pants?"

Zoe was the cute one. I was dating the smart one. I think. Just now though, I was a little distracted. Zoe was wearing a bright red tee-shirt with a fire engine on it. It would have looked really cute on a five year old. Zoe was a grown woman, but hell, it still looked great on her.

She was always dressed in something funky and weird, and everyone was used to that. It was the rest of the outfit, what little there was of it, that surprised me. The shirt barely reached her hips. Below that was ... tights. Black tights. I could see a pair of pale briefs through them. That was it. Her small black-coated feet padded confidently as she twirled her firm legs in full knowledge of what I was staring at.

"Pants?"

"Yeah. You know. Pants. Because those," and I pointed at her thighs, "are not."

"I wasn't going to wear any."

"Aren't you going out?"

"Yup. Hot date."

"With no pants."

"That's it. Why, you think it gives the wrong message?"

"Damn, Zoe, what sort of message were you working on?"

"I want him to think I'm sophisticated, but accessible."

"Well, I think you covered the second part."

"I'm not much covered at all."

"True enough. You're really going out like that?"

"Yeah."

"Fuck."

"Possibly."

"Zoe, I can see your ass."

"Oh, you can not."

"Of course I can."

"You can't. Anyway..." She leaned away from me, if anything emphasising my point. " ... I was planning on adding this." She held up a small skirt. It was a delicate looking thing, and would have looked ludicrous on anyone else.

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh."

"You, Louis, have a dirty mind."

"Yeah, I probably do."

"There's not much doubt." She climbed into the skirt, turned away from me, and wiggled her ass. "How's that?"

"It's obscene, but not in a bad way."

"Exactly the attitude I was aiming for." She turned to me, pulled my face down a little, and kissed me lightly on the nose. "Thanks for the fashion assistance. I gotta go out and wait for my date. Claire's in her room."

"Okay, thanks. You have fun."

"Oh, I plan to. You have no idea."

I walked towards the hallway, and Claire's bedroom. Just as I got near her door, I heard Zoe's voice behind me, and turned to look. Zoe was turned away from me, and she lifted her skirt and wiggled her butt at me.

"This, Louis, is not my ass."

She tucked her thumbs in the waistband of her black tights, pulled them down off her butt, and wiggled her white panties.

"Neither is this."