Ivy Bound

Douglas and Shanequa walked with Shalonda along the old brick buildings, bundled up.

"Fuck, how you make it through this cold?" Shanequa said, burying her hands into the pocket of the coat.

"Well, I just moved here in August," Shalonda noted. But her dark black nipples were perked up. "I hope it don't get worse than this."

"You know it will," Douglas said, chuckling. "Why on earth you came up here ..."

"Best place for my master's," Shalonda replied flatly. "If I gotta put up with the cold, I will."

"My beautiful daughter, always so driven," Shanequa said. "Makes me proud. Maybe you'll find a good boyfriend here." It was Shanequa's sole bone of contention. Something deep in her wanted grandkids, even with a house full of kids. To see her genes two generations hence. And she knew Douglas would be driven by the opposite instinct -- to see nothing of himself in his own grandkids, the primordial cuckold angst.

"Probably a fuckin' cracker up in these parts," Shalonda said, causing Shanequa to snort loudly.