He is.

The librarian smiled pleasantly and began to scan the stack of books in front of her. As the stack grew shorter, Ben's face came into view. He had a strange, manic look to him. She felt a desire to comfort him.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Shears," she said in a kind tone. "Are you well today?"

"Hmm?" he asked distractedly. "Oh. Yes, I'm very good actually. Thanks for asking."

"Of course," she replied sweetly. "Last night I read the third book of Paradise Lost. I enjoy Milton's use of Ecclesiastic imagery. He has a wonderful talent for weaving complex and novel phrases into the rhythm of his verse."

"Good, good," Ben replied. "I'm glad you're enjoying it. I'd like you to think about what you might want to read when you finish it."

She nodded obsequiously, a genuine smile on her lips, and Ben dropped the stack of books into a large backpack. Outside, he breathed in the fresh fall air and looked around. A few cars puttered by on the street, driven by stony-faced women, and a few young men were loitering outside the library.

"I'm gonna facefuck that librarian again today," one of them muttered with a grin. "I'm gonna smear her makeup all over my dick."

Ben cringed and turned to walk in the other direction, knowing that there was nothing he could do to protect that poor library worker. He hated when men treated women like that. It had gotten him mocked relentlessly in grade school and beyond. In college he had been bullied off of the track team when he refused to participate in a gangbang with one of the trainers. His refusal to treat women as objects had always set him apart from his peers; it led directly to his life as a middle-aged shut-in desperately searching for a way to give women willpower.

Needing a quick pick-me-up, he decided to call Alice at the office. He knew she'd answer immediately; no matter how many times he asked her to ignore his calls if she was busy, he couldn't deny that when he called it meant that he wanted to talk to her.

"Hi, Ben!" came the familiar voice after one ring. Did he detect extra chipperness in her response today?

"Hey, Alice. I just wanted to call and ask how your patient's doing." Now that he was actually talking to her he felt stupid, like a little kid calling his dad at work out of boredom.

"She's great! I just gave her an orgasm," Alice said happily. "She really liked it!"

"Hmm?" Ben asked, mildly surprised by her answer. "She- why did you do that? Does that have something to do with the research?"

"Kind of," Alice said. "I'm helping her explore her new capacity for desire, and it turned sexual pretty quickly. Also it turns out I integrate her motivations the same way I would for a man! Do you want to come meet her this afternoon?"

Ben sat on a bench quickly to hid the tent in his pants. He was already breathing heavily at the thought of what she described. "Yes," he told her. "I can come by immediately."

"Great!" Alice's tinny voice said over the phone. "I can't wait! Oh, I've got to go - Meg wants me to show her how to masturbate."

Ben hung up the phone and stared at it for a few seconds, then turned towards the metro station.