Page 23 of Delta

She reads my hesitation. "Ohmygod, just open up your phone. I'm not gonna swipe through all your dick picks."

I open it and hand it to her, watching her over her shoulder. "I've never once taken a picture of my knob, thanks very much. Doesn’t do it justice. Art is meant to be appreciated live and in person."

Her jaw drops open, but it's also part grin, part shock. "You…wow. You think pretty highly of yourself, don't you?"

"I think accurately of myself." Sirens howl not far away. "Whatever you're gonna do, best do it quick. If you want to vanish, we can't stay on the street."

She hands me my phone. "Press play."

She's downloaded an app and, I assume, signed in using her login. I press the play button, and a woman's voice emits from the speakers.

"…His finger penetrated her slowly, filling her tight channel until her eyes crossed and her wails of ecstasy ricocheted off the cavern walls. Growling hungrily, Kraden wrapped his long, prehensile tail around her thigh, teasing upward—"

I stab the pause button when an awkwardly realistic female moan of sexual pleasure overlaps the narration. "Wait, wait, wait. His fuckin' tail? What in the actual fuck are you listenin' to? Monkey porn or some shit like that?"

She glares at me. "No, you fuck-bag, it's not monkey porn. And just because it has sex in it that doesn’t mean it's porn. It's spicy romantasy, thank you very much. This is a series about a girl who gets magically transported to an alien realm where the males have prehensile tails and erogenous horns."

"Erogeh-what-now?”

"Erogenous. It means sensitive to sexual stimulation. Your upper thigh could be erogenous, but your nostrils, not so much."

I laugh. "Never had your nose twiddled? Missin' out on some fun, you are.” I pause. “So, lemme get this straight." I wiggle my phone in her direction as I guide her down to the U-Bahn. "You could be sitting on a train with your headphones on, and you're listenin' to some girl get railed by a bloke with a tail and horns?"

She grins. "Hell yes. I do it all the time. Lay out on the beach next to my brother and my mom, listening to that. It's hot."

"Wouldn't it be…I dunno. Weird? Like, I'd think you'd get all bothered."

"Oh, I do. But I'm a girl, Rush. No boner to give away the fact that I'm turned on."

"Right, right, I guess there's that." I look at the app. "Are there other books on there? Ones that haven't got spicy tail-boys in it?”

She cackles. "Yes, Rush, there are. There's millions. Not all of them have the sound effects. Most audiobooks are just someone…well, I was gonna say reading, but it’s more of a performance. They're actors. The good ones, at least."

"So, like…" I find the book on Roman history I’ve been slogging through on my Kindle app and show it to her. "I could find this, but someone reading it to me?"

She frowns thoughtfully, taking my phone again and tapping and swiping. "Yep. Here it is. It's got Whispersync, too, so it'll pick up where you left off, if you're reading and listening to the same book at different times."

"No fuckin' way. Are you for real?" I boggle at the price. "Thirty-four fucking pounds?"

"If you get a membership, it's a lot cheaper, assuming you actually use the subscription, though. But yeah, audiobooks can be expensive. Think about it, though: you have to pay the actors, and then you have to pay someone to do the actual recording, like the machines and such, and then a producer to cut and edit and mix…a lot goes into them."

"Fuck me, mate. Where was this all my life?" I buy the audiobook right then and there, pull my earbuds out of my jacket pocket, and thumb one in. And sure enough, the crisp, arch, high-brow British male reader picks up reading where I’d left off. "Fuck me," I mutter again. "That's my life changed."

She stares at me. “You really didn't know audiobooks were a thing?"

"No." It's all I'm willing to offer her.

We reach the ticketing kiosk and I buy us tickets with cash. A train arrives just then, and I guide her onto the train. So far, she seems willing to go along, almost not realizing what I'm doing. Best-case scenario here is she keeps on like this and there's no fuss about it. I'm starting to like this sexy brown goddess. Which could pose a problem. I don't want to have to do anything unpleasant.

Once we're seated, I put my earbuds away and settle back, hoping she'll leave the topic of my reading issue alone.

"So…you have a hard time reading?"

Fuck. The questions. Always women with the fucking questions.

"Yeah, you might say that."

She sits twisted in the seat, staring at me expectantly. Waiting for me to fill the silence.