Wednesday, July 23rd, 2076
And it was indeed a lot to digest, with revelation round two a decidedly different flavor. He'd just about hit a delivery scooter at one particular disclosure, but had been careful to show no reaction - everyone had a past, everyone, and he'd not betray her trust by scorning hers.
Her pronouncements about her current lifestyle had not initially bothered him. He could easily picture her in such a setting - in fact, there was a certain innocent brand of dignified mischief about her that intrinsically defied the associated taboos, so that picturing her at that sort of gathering lost the sense of scandal it might carry for anyone else.
But this now about her past struck him as tragic - and knowing the past he couldn't help but assume that ugliness was a precursor to her supposed pleasures of the present. But she was a big girl, and didn't need him psychoanalyzing her or second-guessing the way she chose to live.
So once again, as always, she had his mind going in three or four different directions about her.
She'd been pretty straight with him - maybe straighter than he'd ever be with her - and when he parked the car he was direct. "I'm damned sorry ta hear 'bout yer past. Maybe sorry's not the word you'd use, but it's how I feel. An' while I'll be glad ta know all I can about ya, never think ya owe me any explication 'bout anything happened afore us."
He tilted his seat back a bit, slouched down, and bent his knees to put his boots up on the dash to either side of the steering wheel. Lit a cigarette, handed it to her, and then lit another for himself. "On t'other hand, as opposed ta' sad-Alyce-past, ya done got me keenly innerested in naughty-Alyce-present. Got 'bout a million-an'-one questions aswirl in my noggin', an' long as we's tryin' out this courtship thing, then yeah, reckon ya do owe me answers. Jist so's I don't feel like a sucker, ya unnerstand."
He blew smoke out through the sunroof, and said, "Like, when was the last one o' these little misadventures ya had? I mean, if it was since our little reunion. An' when exactly were ya thinkin' on attendin' the next?"