Author: Virtual Scott
Title: Lloyd's Angel
Part: 12 of 18
Summary: Lloyd discovers he has the ability to influence others with his mind;
can he think with his head instead of his cock as he struggles to control
his gift and come to terms with its ethical implications?
Keywords: mc nosex

Lloyd's Angel: Reconciliation

November 2010

I'm not sure I actually slept at all; I just knew that I felt like crap
when I finally slunk out of bed and started the coffee maker. I sat there
in the kitchen and stared at the thin stream of brew spilling into the
carafe.

"Happy 75, Lloyd," I told myself morosely.

Some of it was self-pity, but I felt like every decision I'd made since
Alexandra died had turned to shit. It was my 75th birthday, and I was
sitting alone with no living relatives reflecting on the fact that I was
probably accidentally killing myself with medications while trying to
recover from raping a man and effectively destroying the life of a woman
who didn't deserve it -- and that was just the last twenty-four hours.

My business partner saw me as just a tool to be used, and the only person
who'd tried to befriend me had been shattered beyond hope of repair into
pieces that either mirrored the darker side of my soul or existed as a
fragile facade of what had been.

On top of that, my balls ached with their load of unspent semen. Good
things never happened on my birthday.

I watched the morning news while drinking my coffee and a few more
aspirin. At least Glory's boyfriend had been locked up as planned. The
breathless on-site reporter was thin on details, but he said police
claimed to have a confession. With luck, he'd be butthole buddies with
some bruiser real soon now, and get put away for a long time.

I needed to have a talk with Danny about Glory, but that couldn't be done
over the phone. We'd have to see if we could set up some proper support
for her, or she'd disappear into the underside of society. It had seemed
the lesser of evils last night, but it was still evil.

Over fifty years of habit prodded me into action and I dragged into the
store right on time.

"Happy birthday, Lloyd," Angela told me when we met in the break room.
"You look like you did a little too much celebrating last night."

I grunted noncommittally and helped myself to another cup of coffee. It
was pretty pathetic when the break room brew was better than what came out
of my coffee maker at home; maybe it was time to splurge and get a new one.

"Would you maybe like to go out for a drink or maybe dinner and celebrate
again?" she asked.

I looked up, surprised. It was hard to say which of us was tenser.

"I'd like that," I answered and surprised myself with a brief grin.

Angela hadn't relaxed completely. "If you don't mind, there's a friend I'd
like you to meet. I thought we could all go out together."

It seemed out of character for me to sound too enthusiastic, so I tried to
keep my tone neutral when I replied. "Any friend of yours is a friend of
mine, Angela."

She was watching me closely, and I don't know if she bought it or not, but
Angela flashed a pleased smile.

The crooks could have robbed us blind that day and I wouldn't have
noticed. Maybe they did. I wandered around the store in a daze; when I was
by myself, I speculated on why Angela had chosen today to reach out again,
and why she'd apparently changed her mind about mentioning Rose. When we
were close enough to converse without using the comm system and letting
the rest of the staff listen, we discussed where we might go and how
dressy it should be.

"I'm definitely taking a break from this uniform," Angela told me during
one of those latter interludes. "And you must own something that doesn't
make you look like the doddering grandpa who got out of the old folks'
home by mistake. For God's sake, Lloyd, I know men half your age who would
kill to have your hair."

My salt and pepper days were long behind me, but I still had a full head
and it had a nice wave. I liked Angela's far better, but wasn't about to
say so. "I can probably find something. A suit?"

Angela laughed loud enough to attract attention. "Not if it makes you look
like one of those idiots from corporate!"

"Perhaps you'd like to come over and pick out something yourself?" I
inquired archly.

"Getting ahead of ourselves, aren't we?" she riposted. "Look where we
work, Lloyd," Angela gestured broadly around us. "Surely some of this
fashion sense must have rubbed off on you!"

I interpreted this to mean a sport coat, although I was on the fence about
the tie. "You will, I trust, exhibit some of this fashion sense yourself?"

Her eyes twinkled. "I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise."



I felt like some wet-behind-the-ears teenager going on his first date.
After some deliberation, I picked out my second-best sport coat, but
compensated by wearing a shirt I knew Angel liked; it seemed likely Angela
would have similar tastes. It had French cuffs, which I fastened with a
pair of heavy gold Home Run cufflinks. They wouldn't mean anything to
somebody who didn't already know what they were, and they were simple and
elegant; I wondered again how they'd gotten past Danny. I straightened the
silk tie Angel had given me for my birthday last year; if it was too much,
it could come off in an instant.

I really wanted to bring roses for Angela, but it seemed inappropriate for
coworkers, and doubly so if Rose was there to witness it. As a standby,
I'd stopped on the way home and bought a bottle of modestly expensive wine
to serve as a more politically correct hostess gift.

After arriving early and pacing for a few minutes, I decided to screw
propriety and rang Angela's apartment. I noticed in passing Rose was one
floor above her.

"Come on up," her velvet soprano welcomed me over the buzz of the door
lock.

My heart wanted to mount the stairs two at a time, but sanity prevailed
and I arrived outside her door with my wind intact. It was ajar, but I
knocked anyway before letting myself in.

"I'm just finishing up, Lloyd," she called from the bedroom. "Make
yourself at home."

I looked around; the place hadn't really changed in the two years since
I'd seen it last. The furnishings were sparse -- not unfinished, but
carefully chosen by somebody who was used to travelling light. Everything
was tidy, with the exception of an empty garment bag trailing over the
corner of the futon.

"Oh, nice," Angela commented, and I looked up.

She was a vision in black, superficially not that unlike her working
uniform -- if an Italian sports car could be called "not unlike" an
American minivan. The differences were in the details. The turtleneck and
slacks hugged her trim figure, displaying her eye-pleasing contours and
making her look taller. A heavy link belt rode low on her hips and
complemented a simple necklace and earrings. As usual, her hair was swept
up in some simple twist I'd never been able to figure out.

"Wow," I choked out. My throat felt dry.

Angela laughed. "Lloyd, you're so articulate! I've always liked that about
you." She approached me and tweaked my tie straight with a gesture that
was heartbreakingly familiar. "You remembered," she whispered, stroking
her hand gently down the tie.

Shocked, I looked her in the face. There was a spark in those dark eyes
I'd never seen during the day, and her earrings matched my cufflinks.
"Happy birthday," she told me with a wide smile.

"Angel?! I mean, Angela?"

"Angel is fine," she said. "Here, sit down before you drop that and break
a toe or something." She confiscated the bottle I'd forgotten I was
holding and steered me over to the futon.

"Angel! What are you doing here?" I still felt I must be dreaming.

"I live here," she replied, sitting next to me.

"But, Angela? Is she gone? God, have I finally killed her?" It was getting
hard to breathe.

"Lloyd, calm down! We, she, whatever; we're fine!" She shook her head with
an air of amusement, and turned her attention back to me. Wrapping her
arms about me, she pressed herself close, letting her physical presence
soothe me.

I fearfully asked her, "Do you remember?"

She didn't ask what. "Mostly. You hurt me, Lloyd -- badly. In ways I can't
even describe. I trusted you, and you violated that trust."

There was no need to say more. I remembered the night two years ago, when
we'd sat together on this futon on the 73rd anniversary of my birth and
the third anniversary of my wife's death. When the pent-up demands of
three years of grief and more than five years of celibacy fractured my
self-control and I raped a young woman. The night I abused my special gift
to shred her psyche and rebuild a warped plaything to pander to my base
desires and a veneer to hide my crime. The night I'd surely condemned
whatever remained of my tattered soul to Hell.