– Dick.

The string of bells hanging from the door jangled.

– Interrupting something intimate?

Chev shoved me away and got out of the chair and tossed my magazine on the couch against the wall.

I adjusted the tail of my shirt.

– Just trying to keep the romance in the relationship, man.

Po Sin stood in the doorway, using every bit of his huge roundness to blot out the sunlight behind him.

– Couple thats been together as long as you two, guess you must have to resort to the rough stuff. Me and the missus, we can mostly get by with a little dirty talk and Kama Sutra Oil.

I fell onto the couch, put my feet up on the arm and opened my magazine.

– Yeah, but you guys are pretty much newlyweds compared to us. I mean, me and Chev, weve been together like over twenty years, like since we were five or so. You guys been married how long?

– Hardly thirteen years, man. Like yesterday.

Chev lit a fresh cigarette.

– Dont listen to that fag, Po Sin, hes always creeping in my room at night, but he never gets any.

I turned a page.

– True, he is a bit of a tease.

Po Sin nodded and moved from the door, came to the middle of the shop and occupied it.

– Well, thats enough fagging around for me. You got your canister?

Chev started cleaning up the paper towels and bloody swabs from the nipple piercing, and jerked his head at me.

– Go get the can.

– Fuck you. ‘M I your slave?

He stuffed the garbage into a red biohazard bag and pulled the sealed plastic magazine from the sharps disposal on the wall.

– Youre my burden. Youre my cross. My goddamned albatross and you havent paid rent in two months and I fed you this morning, again, and you abused another one of my clients today and you can get off your ass and go get the can or get the fuck out and go look for a job.