cruisin' with Susan

Truth to tell, Maxulin required some fine tuning, for by the time I had sculpted my body to what I wanted I was exuding a serious density of pheremones. I discovered this quite by accident when a woman out of the blue walked over to me across quite some distance, her nostrils curiously sniffing away, and started hitting on me, and soon after her another. Ordinarily this would have been wonderful, but they were rather homely and they took some shaking off. I realized that I would actually have to neutralize much of the pheremonal effect just to get around in polite society, and I figured out a combination of viable men's fragrances which could keep that in check. For the day I saw Susan, however, I splashed on nothing at all.

Running the Maxulin black market had made me rich again, in fact several times richer. The breakthrough came with the only new woman in my life, a fairly pretty woman named Adelaide. I might not ever have noticed her, were it not for the fact that she was an excellent accountant. After one night with me there was nothing she would not do for me, and I found myself taking advantage of the same tricks as many of the giant corporations. My own company was technically just a mailbox stashed away on a tiny Caribbean island, but it was all technically legal, and so it was that I was able to pay through the nose for my very own prototype of a future Corvette, a wonderfully huge and mean-looking gullwing-doored thing suggesting Batman's "tumbler."

One day I drove out unannounced to the residence of Susan and her new husband, Tad. Tad greeted me warily but I promised him I just needed one quick word with Susan, so he showed me the way to the back and left. It was just my luck that Susan was in a bikini sunning herself. Yes, I had to admit, she was still one hell of a woman.

"Max?" Susan wondered.

"Hi, Susan."

She looked me over. "Max? Have you been ... working out?"

I suppressed a chuckle. Tad barely knew me from Adam, but Susan could full well appreciate how transformed I was.

"Oh, I swim a few laps, eat healthier -- that sort of thing. Susan, all I wanted to do was to stop by and just say: all is forgiven."

Susan could barely concentrate on my words, for I noticed her nose twitching. "All is forgiven?" she echoed.

"Yeah, that's all I wanted to say, and I'll never bother you again. That's all. Bye."

"No, wait!" Susan got up and approached me, and it was quite sweet watching her brain wrestle with her sudden new emotions. "You ... can stay ... a bit."

"Come with me right now in my car or you'll never see me again."

She struggled to remain logical. "Max ... be reasonable ... I can't just -- No, wait, Max! I ... I'll do it, I'll come with you, right now."

Susan marveled at the car as she got in. It was tempting to show off its speed and power, but simply allowing the air to grow thicker with pheremones would suffice for the moment.