I wander into the Firehouse upstairs kitchen with a cup of my favourite Darjeeling tea, “Hi Janine, how’s life treating you?” I ask my red-haired friend.

The guys had been called out to an urgent bust in Pennsylvania and probably wouldn’t be back until the early hours.

“Not bad…you?” “Same here.” Sitting down we engage in some long overdue catching up time. I’d been away for a couple of weeks on a business assignment.

“I noticed Peter was extremely pleased to see you when you arrived this morning!” Janine began. “Yeah, he practically knocked me flat!!” I laughed. “Something I could’ve well done without on top of jet lag!”

“How are you finding life here, been meaning to ask for ages and kept forgetting!” Janine asked. “I think I’m getting used to it now.” “Found it hard to adjust to the alarm going off in the middle of the night, but I don’t hear it now, as I’m not the one who has to dash out of bed to answer it!!”

“It was a bit weird in the beginning.” “Having to deal with Peter being called away at all sorts of odd hours I mean.”

“It was good of the others to let me move in!” I added. “Just wasn’t working with him living at my place, it was too far away for him to get here in an emergency.” “Yeah, I thought it was causing problems” Janine sympathised.

“Changing the subject slightly, he was moping about the place like a lost puppy for the whole time you were gone!” Janine laughed. “Really? Poor lamb!” I chuckled back. “I missed him terribly.”

“I’m sure he’ll want to make up for lost time…” Janine started, but was interrupted by Slimer and a fit of the giggles.

“Yeuch!” “Slimer!!” Janine whined at the gooey ghoul, who had just swiped her last cookie!!

Wiping the mess from her fingertips Janine continued, “Oh yes, nearly forgot! Egon and I finally got it together!” “It’s taken so long to happen, that I haven’t quite got used to the idea yet!”

“Well good for you!” I praised. “You’re right, it sure took him long enough!” “So what was it like?” “I don’t mean to pry, but on first glance Egon doesn’t give you the impression that he’s, well…” I fumbled for the right word.

“Got sex on the brain?” Janine filled in. “Well, yeah.” “Not like Peter you mean?!” she added. We both howled over that one!! “Now that’s going to the opposite extreme!” “Not that I complain mind!!” I nudged Janine playfully.

“Dig this, for weeks now he’s been dropping hints at trying out some of the ‘instructions’ - if that’s what you call them - in the Karma Sutra!” “Only two days before I went away, he went out and bought a copy specially!!” Janine fell about laughing.

“Good god, I wouldn’t dare spring THAT on Egon!!” “Well not yet at least!!” This time it was me who roared with laughter.

“You should’ve seen what I caught Pete doing the next day when he’d had a chance to look at it more closely!” Janine’s lips curled, trying to hold back her giggles while I ‘spilled the beans’.

“I - quite innocently - wandered into our room and found him in a naked tryst with a pillow!” “It took me 3 minutes to untangle him from it!” “Mind you he kept fooling around, which didn’t help the situation!” Janine couldn’t hold back any longer and nearly fell off the chair from laughing so hard!

“Oh dear, you two certainly can’t be accused of leading a dull life!” she sputtered. I shook my head and joined in the giggles.

“True!” “So, tell me about you and Egon?” Janine calmed herself down with a sip of tea.

“Well, as you know we’ve been dating for months now, so I felt it was time to take the next step.” “We went out for a lovely meal and then headed back to my place.”

“And?” “Well, I’d bought a bottle of our favourite wine earlier in the day and it certainly helped the evening along!” She smiled cheekily.

“I found out that it doesn’t take much wine to make Egon merry!” she chuckled. “He wasn’t drunk, but I think it helped him to relax.”

I gestured for her to continue. “Come on, what happened?!” “Dynamite!” she smiled and turned bright red.

“Way to go Janine!” I laughed. “Clare!” she chided, playfully. “Oh come on you deserve it, you’ve tried harder than a lot of folk would!” “True” she admitted.

“Mmmm” Peter sighed. “What’s up Pete?” Ray asked as they scouted the large farmhouse they’d been called to with their PKE meters. “Oh I was just kinda looking forward to spending this afternoon with Clare that’s all.”

“She was at the Firehouse when we left, so I daresay she’ll still be there when we get back” Ray replied.

“Yeah, but I said not to wait up as we’re gonna be pretty late gettin’ back.” They continued surveying the area, but to no avail.

“Come on Pete, cheer up, there’ll be plenty of time for catching up, right now we gotta find this spook!” Ray trained his friend’s mind onto the task in hand.

The phone was quiet all afternoon. In fact work had been a little slow of late, not non-existent, but bad enough to allow boredom to creep into their lives. We drifted back down-stairs, but continued our conversation while Janine worked.

“Well that’s the last of the invoices typed up, would you mind giving me a hand to get them into the envelopes?” Janine asked. “Sure” I replied.

We sat down at Peter’s desk, since it was larger than Janine’s and didn’t have anything on it that wouldn’t suffer from being moved temporarily.

I glanced over at the shelving on the wall and noticed a photograph of Peter and me hugging each other.

“I remember that night” I said, nonchalantly. Janine placed a pile of envelopes and invoices in front of me and then picked up the photo frame.

“Yeah, so do I!” “Peter was singing and humming ‘Chain Reaction’ for days afterwards, my ears have never been so burned!!” Janine laughed.

I giggled a little myself; “Well you probably would’ve been the same if you knew what we did after that party!”

Janine’s ears pricked. “Come on, spill!” I blushed to my hairline, “I’d only been seeing him for a few weeks, but…”

I couldn’t stop myself from giggling, “That was the first time…we did it, you know.” “I’m surprised it took him that long!” Janine chuckled.

“Well he did sort of, suggest it, after the first couple of dates, but I wasn’t ready.” “It takes me a while to get to know people, feel relaxed, I’m sure you’ve been there.”

“Yeah, Egon wasn’t my first, but I think I was his.” “I took it real slow, didn’t want to scare him off!”

“Peter wasn’t my first either, but I’m just not very brave when it comes to affairs of the heart!!” “I have a tendency to loose my nerve and back out at the last minute.” Janine looked at me curiously.

“It struck me most strange as to why that didn’t happen this time around.” “Somehow I just knew, call it women’s intuition, that Peter was the right guy for me.” “I’ve never felt this close to anyone before, apart from family I mean.” “I love him dearly.”

Suddenly Janine shifted in her seat and propped her head on her hands, “So what’s he like as a lover?” “I’ve often been curious.” “Before he met you he used to make boasts about what a good one he is, but does he actually live up to them?”

“Oh yeah!” I blurted out without thinking. “I mean…” my face blushed more than the last time and Janine giggled.

“Just between us, just let me send Slimer off out to play, then we’ll exchange comparisons!” she whispered. Getting up she called for Slimer, who quite good-naturedly materialized.

“Slimer why don’t you go play with the kids in the park?” “You know how much they love it!” “Ooohhkkaaayyyy Jaaaninneee!” he burbled back and promptly vanished outside.

Rejoining me in Peter’s office she boiled the kettle for a fresh brew. “So, come on then, you first.”

I couldn’t stop myself from giggling, “Whaddya wanna know?” I winked at her. I wasn’t one for bragging about my boyfriends, not like some women do, or men for that matter.

“Well OK, since you’re obviously not one for that sort of thing much, I’ll kick things off” Janine spared me the icebreaker.

“Egon’s got a big mole on his butt!” I couldn’t stop myself from giggling, “So have I!” “Peter made a big fuss of it, at the time I couldn’t imagine why, but he went all soppy on me and started kissing it!” Janine smiled and laughed at the same time. “I’ll have to remember that little trick!”

We both giggled and I continued, “Just don’t do what Pete did and try to eat it, at least that’s what it felt like!” “Honestly, I’ve had some odd experiences in my time, but that took the biscuit!!” “I mean there I was laying on my side with my paws in his hair, making a good ‘ol mess of it, with him, how can I put it, almost sucking on my rear!!”

Janine howled with laughter. “Ooh, I wish Egon did things like that!” “He’ll get around to it!” I laughed back. “He’s just inexperienced I guess!”

“Go on, what else does Pete like?” “Well, he seems to have developed a fetish for tickling my feet!” “He knows it makes me cringe, which is probably why he does it!” I chuckled. “That doesn’t sound terribly sensuous!” Janine smiled. “Well I didn’t exactly say how he goes about it!”

“Oh he doesn’t?” Janine guffawed. “Yep!” “I nearly permanently disabled him the first time round!” “It was entirely accidental, but I wasn’t expecting it and flinched!” “Just forgot myself!!” “Made his eyes water I can tell you!” Janine howled with laughter and slapped the tabletop!!

“I apologised profusely, but I think he thought it was understandable, he caught me completely off guard!” “He knows to warn me first now!” Janine was still howling and had to wipe her eyes with her handkerchief.

“I had a similar experience with Egon!” she sputtered. “We’d got a little further than the preliminaries before anything went awry.” “I sat on him, a little too hard, unfortunately.” “Like you I was rather ‘carried away’ and just forgot myself.”

“Poor dear, I must’ve scared the life out of him, not that it affected his performance mind!” “Ooh it felt so good!” “Being so close to him like that” Janine’s eyes glazed over, totally lost in the memory.

“Talking of having the life scared out of you, we nearly fell out of bed once, when the alarm went off in the middle of proceedings!” I laughed. “Peter was most annoyed by the timing!”

“I’m not surprised!” “Hey, wait a minute, you mean you do it in the day time as well!” “We used to quite frequently, but we got fed up of being interrupted, so we gave it up!!” I laughed. “He couldn’t keep his paws off me at first, come to think of it, he still can’t!”

Janine looked at me taken aback, “Now I know where he used to disappear to whenever my pay cheque needed signing!!” We both howled with laughter!!

“Just one question, well maybe two, while we’re on that subject.” “How did you manage to keep Slimer at bay, you know how he and Pete squabble?!” Janine leaned closer. “Food, how else?” I replied. “Nothing else works!” “And the second question?”

“Oh yeah, is he a noisy so and so when he’s, you know?” “Not excessively, without provocation on my part.” “All I have to do is tease him mercilessly and he can’t keep himself from making noise!!” “Bless him!”

“Now I’m envious!” Janine replied. “Egon’s very quiet and I just wish he’d scream my name when he comes or something!” “Looks like I have the opposite problem, Peter would give the game away all too easily!” We both roared again!!

“Come to think of it I think he did once or twice!” “I can’t be certain, but I felt sure I overheard Winston telling Peter to keep the noise down one day when they were alone in the garage.” “I was sitting upstairs at the time and only really heard muffled voices.” Janine nearly choked on a sip of tea through laughing!!

“Ah, well Egon’s very conventional, won’t try anything adventurous.” “I shouldn’t, but I can’t help but feel envious of you and Pete!” Janine sighed. “Give it time!” “He’ll come around” I soothed.

“I hope so, I can just about get him to participate in one ‘session’, if you catch my drift.” “He’s so nervous, just inexperienced I guess, but I really want to let my hair down.” “I don’t feel like I can do that yet.” “Plus which he invariably drops off to sleep straight after!”

“A lot of men do from what I’ve heard, Janine, so I shouldn’t feel slighted!!” I laughed.

“And only once?” “Well, I don’t mean to brag…” “Oh come on Clare I know you too well for that!” Janine laughed. “It takes a lot to keep me happy!” I giggled. “Once wouldn’t be enough, I never let him off the hook until I’ve thoroughly exhausted him!” We both giggled this time!

“Having said that though, he won’t rest until he’s satisfied me!” “He’s the only guy I’ve known who knows exactly when that is as well!” “I’ve always had a healthy appetite for sex, not casually, I have to be with someone I regard as special for me to even want to do it, but in the past I’ve only had partners who’ve just huffed and puffed for half an hour and think they’ve done enough!!”

Janine looked at me. “Same here, I know exactly what you mean!” “Think I’m gonna have to ‘work’ on Egon’s habit in that area!” We both chuckled.

“I’m just lucky on that one I guess!” “Even if he’s tired after work he always tries his hardest to do something, even if we don’t go all the way.” “Well, I don’t think it would be humanly possible to do it three times a night, every night!” “And not suffer for it anyway!”

Janine roared again, “Three, good god!” “Yeah, we do that most nights, usually with a night off in between for recuperation!” Janine was howling and slapping the table again!!

Wiping the tears from her eyes, “Oh dear, how do you cope?” “Cope?” “Yeah, I mean you must get, well, achy after a while!” “In the beginning it was like that, but I’m used to it now!” “Wouldn’t want it any other way!!” “Just hope he’s still like it when he’s 65!”

“That’s a scary thought!” Janine laughed. “Yeah, a bit!” “But I hope we’re still together by then!” “Do you want to marry him?” Janine asked. “We haven’t talked about it, but it’s early days I suppose.” “Early days, you’ve been together for nearly three years!” Janine laughed. “Well, these things take time, but I’m so happy that I’ve got no intention of walking!!” “Think it’d be nice if he just sprang it on me!” “I’d say yes in a trice if he did!”

“Well Valentine’s Day isn’t far away, you never know!” Janine smiled. “After last year I wouldn’t be surprised!” “I’ve never had five bouquets from anyone!” I chuckled. “There were flowers all over this place!!” “I know, didn’t know what to do with them all!”

“Oh yes!” “The ‘pièce de resistance’ of that day was when I went up to bed, only to find him laying naked on our bed with a red rose in his mouth!” Janine burst out laughing again. “I’m sorry, I’m just picturing the scene!” “You’re telling me!” “Gave me quite a shock I can tell you!” “When we came back from the restaurant we’d been to he scooted upstairs and I wondered if he was OK at first, soon found out the truth didn’t I!!”

“You know I said three times a night earlier, well that’s only an average!” Janine looked at me, trying to stifle her giggles again. “Let me put it this way, it was a good thing they didn’t have any calls the next day!” “We must’ve done it all night!” “Certainly felt that way afterwards, but I didn’t regret it and Peter certainly didn’t!!” Janine couldn’t restrain her giggles any more and I joined her!!

“Right, well, it’s 5pm already, so I’d better think about closing up” Janine regained her composure and got up to tidy her desk. I replaced the items on Peter’s desk and washed up the tea cups.

“I really enjoyed this afternoon!” I laughed as Janine fetched her coat. “Me too, we should do it again sometime!” she winked at me wryly. “You’re not planning on going anywhere are you?” she asked. “No, not tonight, gonna sleep off the jet lag!” “OK, I’ll lock the door behind me then.”

“See you tomorrow!” Janine called as she shut the door behind her. Slimer came in a short while later, it was dark outside now and the kids he’d been playing with had gone home too.

“Hi Slimer, want some dinner?” “Yeah! Yeah!” he burbled. I set to making an extra large Spaghetti Bolognese for him and a smaller one for myself. It always tickled me to see him arguing with the spaghetti!!

Time was getting on and the guys still weren’t back, so I headed upstairs to bed. I always shut the bedroom door when the guys were out when I turned in, so Peter would know I was asleep.

They finally arrived back at about 2am; the clunking of heavy boots disturbed me. Peter crept into the room, but I was already awake. “Hiya, how’d it go?” “Oh, you’re awake!” he whispered. “Not too bad, long trip though.” He went and showered and plopped wearily into bed.

“Missed you” I whispered into his ear. “Missed you too” he smiled back. We kissed passionately and fell asleep in each other’s arms.

The next morning Peter was snoring his head off so I got up and left him to it. ‘Poor lamb’ I thought to myself, as I got dressed.

A little later during Janine’s tea break we were sitting in the kitchen when my sleepy-headed companion slunk in, “So what were you two doing while we were bustin’ our hearts out yesterday afternoon?!” he asked. “Oh, we were just talkin’…” I answered.