Avery Alejandra walks the mile from her remote seaside house into town. The streets have already dried from last night's storm, but downed leaves and palm fronds litter the ground and people's roofs. Living on the Florida coast, you get used to sudden downpours, especially in the swollen, hot days of summer, but that storm was a doozy.  The air still seems electric with it.

She's dressed the same as any work day, with one notable change. Her black boots cover her calves until her skirt takes over at the knees. She still wears her leather jacket with the wide dramatic lapels and the brass buttons cinching it shut up to the bottom of her rib cage. But she has left the corset at home.  Avery hadn't been able to find a single one that fit. None of her braziers did either. And her shirts couldn't be buttoned up to encase her breasts at all. What had possessed her to by so many things the wrong size?

She has a lot more on display this way, but the jacket covers the most salacious bits, and it's nice not having the "girls" constricted. It gives her a thrill. Puts a spring in her step.

At the end of Main Street is The Burning-Sinner Church, the largest church in Boot Bay. It gleams white in the early morning sun. Unlike the other buildings in town, it gets a clean coat of paint every few months to keep it the exemplar of purity. Rev. Solomon Drake is on a ladder changing out the letters on the message board, so it reads : "Vile fornicators repent!" And under that: "Bingo Tonight." As Avery passes, he turns and scowls at her in his miserable way. He mutters, "Whore." 

Drake's the moral backbone of Boot Bay and a grade-A asshole. Sundays, Avery goes to the smaller United Church on the other side of town. It's a longer walk, but nicer company.

Farther down Main Street, she comes to the building Belle lives in. She feels like going up and seeing her, but knows she'll already be in the office by this time. The storefront's windows is covered with fresh newspapers and the sign looks brand new. "Fun Time," it says next to the image of a woman's face, whose pink tongue is licking the upper of her full, bright red lips. It looks like something new is opening, but Avery's sure the sign has been there forever.

Weird.

On a whim, she decides to get some doughnuts from the diner. The place is hopping with the breakfast crowd, but Kate at the counter serves her right away. She's the youngest waitress, slim with a thousand-watt smile. She has her brown hair up in a bun and is wearing the standard uniform, a tight pale-pink dress that exposes the bottom inch of her delightful ass cheeks and would probably flash the crotch of her panties if it wasn't for her apron.

She stares at Avery's chest, a slight line of drool escaping the corner of her mouth. She says something to herself that sounds like, "I wouldn't mind licking some frosting off of those." But Avery can't be sure.

Knowing everyone's preferences, she gets an assortment of chocolate glaze, strawberry cream, and custard.

Kate packages them up and says, "There you go. Four butt holes, four pussies, and four cum cakes."

"What's that?" she asks at the strange names.

"Oh, sorry. That's just what the staff calls them. Private joke, I guess."

"Those are fun. You should change your menu."

"I'll mention it to the boss."

The office for the Red Kites is on the third floor of a building next to the First National Bank. Jim calls it "Headquarters" instead of the office. But that seems silly since it's identical to the insurance agent across the hall. The top half of their door is frosted glass with the team's name in black letters and a red bird in flight. 

Avery also thinks "Red Kites" is a silly name for the team, especially as everyone thinks of the children's toy and not the bird of prey. But eagle, hawk, condor, buzzard, sparrowhawk, and even kestrel had already been taking up by other flying crews, so they got what was leftover.

Inside, Belle is at her desk in the reception area on her candlestick telephone.¹One of those tall tube phones from long ago. She presses the receiver to her ear and holds up the transmitter to her mouth. "Well, that won't be any problem at all. Yes, sir. No, sir. Absolutely, sir. We've got the best pilots—" Here she winks at Avery, "—in all of Southeast. Someone to pick you up? Yes, of course that can be arranged." She jots some notes down and hangs up the receiver. 

"We've got a new client."

"Hurrah. I brought doughnuts to celebrate."

"Nice try. But you brought doughnuts anyway," Belle says.

"Yes, but I had a feeling it was going to be a good day and there'd be reason to celebrate," Avery says putting the box down.

Belle gets up and comes around to the other side of the desk. She sits on the corner letting her leather miniskirt ride up, exposing more skin between the hem and her thigh-high stiletto boots. "You know, I had the same feeling. In fact there's something I'm dying to ask you." Her face goes deep pink with nervousness.

"Shoot."

But before she can speak, the office door opens and Jim comes strolling in. "Doughnuts," he shouts and makes a beeline for the box.

"I got you the cum cakes you like." At his quizzical look, she explains the names Kate told her.

Belle reaches in. "I usually like the chocolate, but this morning I feel like eating a pussy."

"Just so long as you don't have any of the cum cakes. They're all for me," Jim says, as he lifts one to his mouth gripped in the tips of his glossy manicured nails. 

"Did you do something different this morning?" Avery asks. "New lipstick?"

Jim licks a dab of oozing custard from his perfectly applied ruby read lipstick. "No. Same as always." Then, walking toward his office, he says, "Don't worry, Toots. One of these days you'll be as good at putting on make-up as me."

"Oh, Captain. Hang on," Belle says. "We've got a job. A couple of scientists out of Boston need us to fly them around for the next few days."

Jim huffs. "Tourists?" He hates these boring, regular jobs where nothing dangerous ever happens.

"No. I don't think so. They mentioned needing to get readings for something. Heck, I don't know much about that science stuff, but it sounds important. Also, I said we'd pick them up at the Miami airfield this afternoon."

"Sounds like tourists to me," Jim says. "And I'm busy this afternoon." Of course, he's not really busy, he just wants to head over to Matty's and listen to the ball game and get drunk.

"I'll go," Avery says. "Unless you don't want me borrowing the Auburn."

Jim waves her remark away. He usually doesn't like her driving the company car, but so long as he doesn't have to play cab driver, what the hell. He grabs a second doughnut before closing himself in his office. He has the big room with the view. Avery has the other smaller one, which may actually have been intended to be a broom closet. 

"So, did they say where they were wanting to fly to?" Avery asks.

"They said they'd let us know when they got here. Something about tracking activity or signals or both. I don't know. He was talking really fast. They were on a refueling stop and had to get back on their Zep before it took off."

"So, who's this guy?"

Belle checks her notes, "Dr. Nathaniel Pembroke and his assistant Judy." Avery nods at this information. "They were stopped at Atlanta, so they should be getting in about five hours from now."

"So, one o'clock. I'll have to get on the road by eleven then." She checks her pocket watch as she talks. "Guess I better get started on my day. I need to write up our logs from yesterday and fill out the flight charts." She takes a step toward her office.

"Hey," Belle starts. Unconsciously she's standing on her tiptoes. Perhaps out of anxiety. Perhaps some instinctual impulse to look taller, more powerful. "I was wondering..."

When she stalls into silence, Avery says, "Oh sorry, what were you wanting to ask? I forgot with all the commotion."

"Well, I was thinking that maybe we could, you know, get together sometime and get some food or maybe a drink?"

"You mean like Matty's after work?"

"No." Her voice chokes in her throat. She hadn't anticipated it would be so hard. But she presses her nails into her palms and lets the pain jolt some courage into her. "Something more intimate...maybe Al Fresco's."

"Isn't that the fancy place were couples go for special occasions?"

"Yeah. That's it. I thought it would be a nice place for a date."

Date? Avery frowns. Something about this strikes her as very strange. She's never dated a woman before. Why hasn't she? Probably because she hasn't been asked before now. Yeah, that's it. Right? It's not like she has a problem dating a woman, it just never came up before. And she could do a lot worse than starting with this little firecracker in front of her. Hasn't she always wondered what it would be like to run her fingers through her silky blonde hair and kiss those soft pink lips. She's pretty sure she has. At least, it seems like this isn't the first time having the thought.

"Sure. I'd like that. How about tonight?"

"Tonight then." Belle smiles, but inside she's jumping up and screaming. She's done it! And Avery has said yes! 

Avery is about to turn again, when Belle holds out the box of doughnuts, "Don't forget to have some pussy?"