Greenies

He walked naked back to his locker and quickly used his laser shaver to take the eight days worth of bristly stubble off his face. He put on some deodorant and combed his hair and then put on a fresh pair of MPG shorts and a fresh MPG T-shirt. He slipped his moccasins on his feet and then headed for the exit and the hopefully fresh air that would be found there.

They were indeed serving steaks and artichokes in the mess hall, along with sautéed mushrooms, garlic baked potatoes, and two bottles of beer for each soldier. The smell alone when he walked into the room was nearly enough to trigger an orgasm. He waited in another line for another twenty minutes before getting his tray. He then went searching for an empty spot at a table. In this endeavor he scored rather well. Not only did he find a place to sit down but it was next to Xenia, who was working on cleaning the rest of the artichoke leaves so she could get to the heart.

'Food has never tasted so fucking good,' she told him, her face blissful, her long hair still a little damp from her shower. 'It's even better than the shower.'

'Where's Zen and Belinda?' he asked, cracking open one of his beers. He took a long, delicious drink of it, savoring the flavor, savoring the warm feeling it put in his empty stomach.

'Zen's grandmother came to town and set up a little apartment for him in the Brophy Towers.'

'His grandmother?'

'She's the one who raised him,' Xenia said. 'His parents were killed in the Jupiter War. A laser strike took out their building while he was visiting her for the day. He's very close to her.'

'I didn't know that.'

'He sent all the credits he made since he enlisted to her. It's the first time they've had income since she had her medical license taken away. She apparently remembers how to manage money. She used those credits to come here and find him a place to stay. He was very excited about it. It'll be the first place other than public housing he's ever lived in.'

'Well that's an ass fuck for him,' Jeff said, actually glad he was gone — it was a little less competition for Xenia's affections. 'And what about... you know... Belinda?'

The look she gave him was evil. 'She went with your friend Drogan.'

'Drogan?' he asked, pausing in the act of cutting his first piece of steak. 'Where did they go?'

'Back to Drogan's place. She's going to stay with her.'

'Stay with her? But... how... I mean, they don't even know each other, do they?'

'They do now,' she said. 'Drogan came over to the table to talk to me — it seems she has a little crush on me as well — and the next thing you know, they're chatting like they were old friends. Belinda mentioned that she'd been deployed here from NP and didn't have a place to stay...'

'Wait a minute,' Jeff interrupted. 'I thought she was gonna stay with you.'

'She was,' Xenia said. 'And then I told her about that little emotional blackmail scheme of yours.'

'Emotional blackmail scheme?'

'I call things what they are,' she said. 'That thing about you not fucking me until I say I love you?'

'I wouldn't exactly call it blackmail,' he said. 'It's just... you know, the way I feel.'

'A funny way to feel,' she said.

Jeff shrugged, refusing to discuss it any further. 'She decided not to move in with you because of that?' he asked. 'I would've thought she'd be happier than a marine at full retreat.'

She giggled a little. 'Good one,' she said.

'I just made it up.'

'Anyway, I would've thought the same, but Belinda seemed to take it as a challenge to her love for me or some shit like that. She said if you could do it, she could do it too. Now she won't give me no tongue — or anything else — until I tell her I love her.'

'No shit?' Jeff asked, unsure how he should feel about this, jealous or relieved.

'No shit,' she pouted. 'So here I am, all alone and horny while the people who are supposed to love me won't give up the trim.'

'Kind of ironic, isn't it?' he asked, utilizing a word he'd just learned a few days before.

'Oh shut the fuck up and eat,' she said, though not unkindly.

He shut the fuck up and ate, spending the next ten minutes in an orgy of chewing, chomping, drinking, and swallowing. The steak was easily the best he'd ever had. The artichoke was the first he'd ever had. And the sautéed mushrooms were almost better than sex. Xenia watched him silently as he made a pig of himself, occasionally taking a sip from the remains of her beer or picking at a stray mushroom on her plate.

'So where are you going now?' she asked when he drained the last swallow of his second beer.

'I'm gonna go see the other Belinda in my life,' he told her. 'And I'm going to tell her she ain't in my life no more.'

'Are you doing this just because of me?'

He wanted to lie and tell her he was but he couldn't bring himself to. 'No,' he said. 'Not at all. Belinda was a mistake from the beginning. We've never loved each other — hell, we've hated each other most of our relationship. She was the wife I was programmed to take. It's time to put an end to it.'

She nodded. 'At least there's no kid to worry about, huh?'

'At least there's that,' he said.

'And what are you gonna do after that? You coming to the Troop Club?'

'Wouldn't miss it,' he said. 'Are you going?'

'Fuckin' aye.' Her eyes took on a little shine. 'And where are you going after that? I don't imagine your wife will be too keen on you staying with her after you tell her what you have to say.'

'Wouldn't want to stay with her anyway,' he said. 'To tell you the truth, I haven't thought that far ahead. I'll probably go back to the base and crash out there. They have some bachelor quarters available.'

'Those are just tents in the exercise yard,' she said. 'You don't want to sleep there.'

'I've been sleeping in a biosuit in a fuckin' trench for the past eight days,' he said. 'I don't think it will bother me.'

'What if you get lucky?' she asked. 'I presume you're going to be looking for a little female companionship, right?'

He cast his eyes downward, unsure what to say.

'Oh come on now,' she told him. 'If you're not gonna fuck me there's no reason why you shouldn't fuck someone else. I certainly have no plans to remain celibate while you and Belinda are having your little hunger strike. I'm gonna find me a guy with a big, hard dick and a girl with a tight, wet pussy and take both of them back to my place and behave like the full-blooded Martian I am.'

Jeff felt a minor stab of jealousy at this revelation, but only a mild one. In Martian culture it was not all that unusual to have sex with others for the sheer enjoyment of it, even when in a committed relationship — which he and Xenia certainly were not in. 'Yeah,' he said. 'I guess I wouldn't turn down a little action.'

'That's my boy,' she said, reaching across the table and caressing his cheek. 'So where you gonna take her?'

'Her place?' he asked.

'Or you can take her to my place,' she suggested. 'I got a spare bedroom you can stay in. No strings attached.'

'And you won't try to fuck me?' he asked.

She gave him a saucy smile. 'I didn't say that.'

'I won't do it,' he told her. 'I told you how I feel about you. I told you what you have to do to get a piece of me.'

'Fine,' she pouted. 'But the offer is still open.'

'I'll think about it,' he said.

'You do that. I'll see you at the Troop Club. I'll be the one rubbing my wet pussy over everything in sight.'

'Except me,' he said.

She stood up and leaned over him, lifting his chin up. She kissed him gently on the mouth, a soft, sensuous kiss that sent chills down his spine. 'I didn't promise that either,' she said.

She walked away without another word, leaving him with a raging erection.