Chapter 2

He hastily closes the door as if the rest of the building is colder than their own apartment. Well, it isn't.

"I'll warm up a pizza, sounds good?" Philip asks, lighting up the place as he goes straight to the kitchen.

"Yeah, sure," Ilene replies, reaching for her smokes.

Some 20 minutes later, Philip enters the living room, and the table is already set. Ilene is in the couch, smoking and staring at some vapid TV soap opera that he has never seen in his life.

The dinner goes by without much talk, because there is actually no matter or news that they haven't talked about already during the day. The three beers Philip and Ilene drink bring about a welcoming numbness that distracts them from the coldness and not-so-splendid looks of their apartment.

After the meal, Philip cleans the stuff up, as usual. He quit trying to get Ilene to care about the apartment being tidy and clean, so he just gets on with it himself. In a few minutes, he finishes the clean-up, gets a beer and sits next to Ilene for a few more moments, both indulging themselves in cheap alcohol.

The soap opera on TV bores Philip, and his attention turns to Ilene, who's drinking one beer ahead of him, while smoking at the same time. His eyes find a patch of skin in her flat belly that isn't covered by her warm clothes, and instantly he feels his dick shiver.

That bit of skin, coupled with a brief glimpse of her panties, and a lot of alcohol through his throat, begins to turn his penis hard, bulging against his rough jeans.

"Wanna go to the bed and fuck, Ilene?" he asks. Shit, he thinks, he could've been more subtle.

Ilene looks at him, her eyes showing off her typical emptiness, with alcohol most certainly fucking up even more the melancholy that fills her head all the time. "OK ... Let me finish my smoke..."

After three despairingly long minutes, Ilene gets up and heads to their cold room. Philip follows and turns off the lights everywhere.

Ilene sits down in the bed, while Philip opens the window so they can have some light on. Not that there was much outside in the bleak night, with the miserable weather assuring only a dim cold moonlight inside their small bedroom.

"Can I keep my coat on? I'm really cold..." she asks.

"Sure ... Take your pants off..."

With her usual awkwardness before sex, accentuated by her alcohol numbness, Ilene strips her jeans and underwear to the floor and lies back on the bed, with her sight focusing on either Philip or the wintery window.