Tears of laughter.

You and Mona sit together in the clinic waiting room. It's quiet, toward the end of the day, so it's the two of you, the receptionist, and an enormously pregnant lady who looks twice Mona's age, like your lifeguard job boss Anne Campion. Anne, by contrast, is done with all that rubbish, and gave you a heavy dose of eye-roll when she heard you'd shacked up with Mona after an evening of sex on the beach and a broken condom.

Mona laughs at your story, wiping tears from her eyes. "Karen's mom just kept scolding her?" she says.

Fortunately the other lady's earbuds seem to be doing a good job keeping her in her own world as she pages through one of the photographic magazines in the waiting room.

"Yep, every time her mom shouted over the video about being a dirty girl, Karen got another mini cum."

Mona shakes her head. "That's really something," she says.

"Yeah. I think it kinda shocked Karen as well."

Mona frowns, "Well, you know, maybe you shouldn't get too deep in her family fuck-ups."

You laugh. "Can't get much deeper than that."

Mona shakes her head. "With Karen. At least her mom was at a safe distance. You sure you want to keep being her pool boy with benefits?"

"Well, I'm game."

Mona raises her eyebrows. "I don't know if I am. Anyway, if it all settles down, sure. But don't try and be her therapist."

"Yeah, nah," you say. The Pickup Artist's guide has something to say about that, you forget what. You lost yours a while ago and it doesn't seem that important to have it around anymore.

Mona says, "I'm just saying, if she goes all crazy over something, I don't want you to take another kick to the chest. She coulda killed you."

"She almost did."

"No duh," Mona says.

A little bit harder landing, or a little more hesitation in Karen's rescue breathing, and you wouldn't have been at El Gringo Loco hitting on Mona, you'd have been at the hospital. Hopefully not in a refrigerated room in the hospital basement. But here you are, in the hospital after all.

The nurse calls Mona's name. Mona smiles and gives you a little wave before she heads back into the drop-your-panties part of the obstetrics clinic.

You can't help but size up the other lady now that Mona's gone. Waves of shiny dark brown hair, sunglasses on a sport band resting atop the cleavage exposed by a low-cut blouse, leafing through a travel magazine featuring Italy and Greece. She could totally be either one. More Italian looking, maybe?

When she looks back at you, you nod, smile, and turn to look out the window. You can see the parking structure where you left the car. The side away from the hospital looks to have a nice view of the ocean. You daydream about what it might be like to park in a corner on the ocean side, late on a warm night, windows open, the distant surf echoing off the concrete floor and ceiling, car windows open to let in the scents of salty spray and the hay-and-sage of dry seaside grasses.

"Hey Joe," Mona says, putting her hand on your shoulder.

You blink awake. "Oh, done already?"

"She really took it out of you, huh?" Mona says.

Your cock's still a little tender where Karen's spasming butthole was squeezing down hard. Just a little bit. Wouldn't stop you.

"Nah, I'm good. So how's Junior doing?" you ask. "What's the doctor say?"

"The nurse practitioner," Mona corrects. "Very funny, you think I should name her Josie?"

"I was thinking Monica would be more like Junior for you."

"Why do you think you have any say?" Mona says.

"Only as much as you want to give me," you say.

You and Mona pause, searching each other's faces. Finally she cracks a smile.

"Take me home, Romeo," she says.

"Romeo? How about Joe-me-o?"

Mona's cackles echo off the linoleum tile and picture windows of the skybridge to the parking structure.

"You're in a good mood. Is it a good good mood?"

Mona snorts. "Maybe. Swing us by the shaved ice stand on the way home and ask me again."

Roll +COOL(0) to STALK Mona: 7. On a 7-9, she's in a public place, or there's trouble in the way.

Describe what gets in the way of getting Mona back home while she's in the mood, and roll +COOL(0) using GET OUT OF TROUBLE to find out if Mona is up for some horizontal action.