i love pretty women.

“Mike Snyder was the problem. He was two years older than Naomi and started hitting on her when she was about fifteen. Mike was something of a mythical figure around town. He had a reputation so thoroughly unearned that it defied reason, but there is almost no limit to what a person can achieve early in life when he has the total and unwavering support of a large and uncritical family. It's later that all turns back on you. But in his early years and in the Snyder view, Mike was an artist and interpretive dancer and brilliant musician. He was an immensely gifted child of God who must be given space and respect and freedom and money. Plus blow jobs. in Mike's opinion. Naomi held off for a while, but he was so earnest, so tortured and pleading and clearly screwed up beyond his family's ability to see, that she took pity on him. She knew it wasn't right, it wasn't how things were supposed to be, and looking back, she can't believe she was ever so passive. Why did she feel this weird obligation to him that she didn't feel to herself? But she did. They'd go through periods where things would heat up and cool down; there were times she thought she loved him, times she was pretty sure she hated hate, but most times she just felt vaguely bad for him. The kid was an imposter even if he couldn't come out and say it, and she wanted to make him calm down and leave her alone.”

“She shined the light down into the hole again, playing it around the edges this time instead of straight into the black. Some distance below, there was the dim outline of an indentation in the side of the shaft, too far away to see clearly, but there was at least something there, some kind of goal. "Okay, look. Let’s go to that thing—" "What thing?" "Over here." She gestured for him to come around to her side and he did, moving up against her on the floor. His leg touched hers, just barely, but he was keenly aware of it. She traced the light beam around the edges of the indentation. "There. What is that, thirty feet maybe? We’ll climb down to that, see what it is." "And then what?" "Then we’ll talk. If it’s cool, we keep going. If it isn’t—" He waved off the rest of her sentence. "I get it." He took the light from her, swung his legs around, and started to climb down into the hole. "You don’t have to go first." "I’m a gentleman. I’ll go first and shine the light up, so you can see." "You have to admit,” she said. "So far this is cool." "So far, I have to admit this is cool." "You really think so?" "No, I’m just repeating what you told me I had to say. See you in thirty feet." She laughed, and he started down into the shaft.”

... Hm! // ... Mm!

Bonus: