6
Jerome was there in body but not in spirit. He and Kat had arranged to couple that night, after the pub, but Jerome’s heart wasn’t really in it. He lay there, feeling the coupling suit stimulate the various parts of his body, but his mind was filled with a more simple experience – the touch of two hands physically meeting. After a somewhat clinical coupling, he asked Kat an unexpected question.
“Kat, do you ever wonder what it would be like to touch each other?”
“That’s a strange question.”
“I know. But do you?”
“What would be the point? We can’t go outside because of the cockroaches and the acid rain, so it’ll never happen. And if it’ll never happen, then there’s no sense in thinking about it. Why, do you?”
Jerome had never thought about it until that day, but now he’d actually fe
