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laughed delightedly, which earned her a puzzled look.
    ‘I’m sorry, I’m not laughing at you, I promise. It’s just so perfect. Of course you smoke a pipe. I don’t know why I ever expected anything else,’ said Suzy when she regained use of her voice. ‘I bet you shine your shoes once a week as well, don’t you?’
    Daniel looked abashed and entertained, all at once. ‘It’s possible,’ he admitted, which set Suzy off on another peal of laughter. He stuffed the pipe with tobacco and lit it while she recovered.
    The smell was comforting and weirdly familiar, even though Suzy had no memory of ever smelling a pipe being smoked before. As if Daniel was already home to her, even before she knew what “home” entailed.
    ‘May I try it?’ she asked. He nodded, handing the pipe over. Suzy took a tentative drag on it, but the whole thing was so wonderful and silly and unexpected that she started laughing again and set herself off coughing.
    Daniel took the pipe back from her before she could spill the burning tobacco on the bed and cause a hot-ash disaster. He was smiling broadly. ‘And to think, it’s only tobacco in there,’ he teased. ‘If I’d known it was this easy to make you smile so much, I’d’ve showed off my wicked little habit earlier.’
    ‘You’re perfect, perfect,’ she told him, still grinning, kissing the smoky taste out of his mouth. He hummed happily, putting the pipe down on its ashtray on his bedside table and cupping her bare breast with his palm, teasing the nipple with the pad of his thumb. Suzy nipped lightly at his lower lip with her teeth and settled down against his chest.
    ‘If I wasn’t so exhausted, I’d suggest another round,’ she said. ‘But –’ her words were broken by a sudden yawn ‘– in the morning, maybe.’
    ‘Mm,’ Daniel agreed, stroking her shoulder. Then, after a beat, he added, ‘I’m so sorry I forgot about a condom, when we –’
    ‘Against the wall?’ Suzy supplied, when it became obvious that Daniel couldn’t think of a polite way to describe their spur-of-the-moment coupling earlier in the evening.
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘It’s all right. I have a contraceptive implant,’ she told him, pointing to the little raised matchstick shape in her upper arm. ‘I got it because my cycle’s always been a mess. It regulates it. Two years’ worth of birth control, right here.’
    ‘Nevertheless,’ Daniel said, shaking his head. ‘It was extremely inconsiderate of me. I promise it won’t happen again.’
    Suzy did her best not to let it show on her face, but his sweet consideration and insistence made her disappointed somehow. It had been exciting to do something so spontaneous, to be part of a pair so overwhelmed with desire for each other that nothing in the world mattered as much as touching as soon as possible, as much as possible. The thought of losing that in favour of safety, of always making the most responsible choice at any given moment, made something in her heart sink a little. It was too much like adulthood to be anything but disappointing.
    Daniel had fallen asleep against her, and Suzy settled down and tried to drift off herself. It took a long time.

Chapter Four
    In the morning, Suzy woke up before Daniel, and found herself nestled snugly with her back against his chest and one of his arms curled around her waist. She’d never been the little spoon before. In fact, she couldn’t actually remember an occasion when she’d been a spoon at all.
    It made her feel uneasy, for reasons she wasn’t sure made sense even to her. But she still felt strongly enough that this wasn’t somewhere she belonged that she extricated herself carefully from her spot in Daniel’s arms, sliding out of the bed without waking him.
    She slipped her clothes back on, except for the ruined stockings, and slipped out of the room in search of a bathroom and a mirror.
    When Suzy had successfully vanquished her bed hair, and gargled mouthwash to escape the