It was going to be a lot of work, but it always ended up being worth it. Alys would help me, and she was the only one who truly had the power to guilt-trip Lili into helping, too.

"So, are you going to finally tell us what you guys did do this past weekend?" asked Alys.

I ended up telling them pretty much everything, especially about the monster extra limb between Phil's legs that had the girth of my forearm.

"Who would have actually thought that all that practice with the sausages would one day pay off?" joked Alys.

"That's not all. I might have accidentally told him that I loved him," I confessed, stirring my margarita.

"What? What!" cried Lili.

Alys's jaw dropped.

"It wasn't like I said 'I love you.' It was more like..." I stopped to think back to that morning. "He was pissed he had to leave, and I said, 'Don't be. I love who you are, and this is a part-' or some such shit."

"What did he say?" Lili demanded.

"Nothing. He grabbed me all caveman-like and kissed me, and then...I think he almost cried. His eyes got all misty."

Alys sighed, and Lili snorted.

"I love you guys. You both capture everything I'm feeling."

I woke up on Thursday, buzzing with a sense of excitement. Phil would be back tomorrow, and I was ready to let him into my home and fully into my life. It made me really nervous. I hadn't really let a man in like this. Brian had known where I lived, but he never stayed over until Grandma had- I'd never had sex in this bedroom. I'd had sex with Jaime in my old bedroom way back in the day, but I hadn't again since he and I broke up. My poor new bedroom hadn't seen action since my parents used it. How sad. It was about fucking time.

What better way to break it in than with my very own personal rock god? Fuck. Yes.

The morning consisted of yoga, coffee with the girls, shower, and then work.

"Morning, Lucy," I called out as I walked through the door.

"Good morning, Dr. MacGregor," chimed her sweet voice.

Today, she had Andrei Krylov's acoustic guitars and violins playing over the sound system.

Very nice.

Bless the woman. I hadn't heard Enya in over a week.

My first text message beeped as I dropped my bag under my desk, and then I shrugged on my medical overcoat.

Your Phil: I can't wait to see you, Baby Girl. I can't stop thinking about you.

The morning was passing by at a decent pace.

I saw a few of my regular patients who were pretty awesome people, especially Mrs. Flowers. She was an eighty-three-year-old woman, and she had to be the most hilarious person on the face of the earth. She had a short mop of wispy curly hair that had a bit of a brassy blonde hue to it since she preferred not to be white-haired. I'd even bet that she was a knock-out in her day.

She hobbled in on her numbed feet-due to type 2 diabetes-and stripped down to her underwear. She had no qualms about getting naked. After freeing her wrinkly old tits, they swayed like pendulums as she made her way to the bench, and I assisted her into a supine position.

"Dr. MacGregor, you are positively glowing!" she remarked, her wrinkled face lifting with a brilliant smile.

I covered her floppy tits with a large towel. "I'm feeling pretty good, Mrs. Flowers. How about you?"

"Got more important things to do other than complain about what I can't change. So, you've met a man then?"

I laughed. "What makes you say that?"

"You don't get to be my age without noticing a few things along the way, dear. Tell me about him!"

Normally, I wouldn't get too personal with my patients, but Mrs. Flowers was special to me, and we'd exchanged stories before. Well, mostly, she would do so. She'd make me laugh so hard that I could barely get through a treatment with her. Sometimes, patients needed some reciprocation. It was good for them to see that their practitioners were humans, too.

For a few minutes, I told her about Phil as I massaged her numb cold feet. I also did some reflexology and acupuncture to help relieve her discomfort. Then, I turned her onto her stomach, wrapped her feet and legs in a warm wet wrap, and massaged her back until the wrap grew cool.

"You're still sticking to your diet, Mrs. Flowers?" I asked her as she got dressed.

She shrugged. "I had some dark chocolate yesterday but only a little piece, mind you."

"Well, as long as it was only a little piece, I'm sure you'll be fine. But otherwise?"

She nodded. "I like the recipes you gave me. And I do feel good after I eat them. You were right about the cayenne supplements. They do make me feel a bit warmer."

"That's great!" I said.

I walked her out to the reception desk for Lucy to take payment and book her in for another treatment in two weeks.

The rest of my day went pretty much the same. I was just going through the motions until I got to leave. That irritated me a little because I'd loved coming to work a week ago. I enjoyed helping people, and now, all I could do was wait for the time to pass, so I could be with Phil again.

I seriously hoped this wasn't the way the rest of my life was going to be.

My phone beeped.

Your Phil: I can't get this chub down. I got 2 brains, and they're both thinking about you.

That put a smile on my face, and time sped up once more.

When I got home, I started prepping Lili's demanding choice for tomorrow's dinner. Normally, I would only make around ten tortillas for the three of us. However, feeding Phil was not going to be an easy task, so I decided to double the portions.

Alys showed up with Sushi Point since I certainly was not making dinner tonight.

"Shit, Kenna. Are we feeding an army tomorrow?" she asked, stowing the sushi in the fridge.

"No, we're feeding a Phil, and he can eat an army."

"Well, he is a big boy."

"No lie. The man can eat three times as much as I can. I could smack Lili for making me do this. It wasn't so bad agreeing to it, but now that I have to do it..."

"I got your back, woman. What do you need me to do?"

"Get the marinade going, and then we can start on the chicken and beef."

We heard Lili come in through the front door, just getting home from work. She plopped down at the breakfast bar.

"Wow. How many are we feeding?" she asked.

"Phil's a big eater," replied Alys.

"Huh. Makes sense. He's a freakin' giant."

Alys plopped a bowl of onions and peppers in front of Lili. "And you can julienne the peppers and onions-"

"Onions?" wailed Lili.

"You had to have homemade fajitas! You think it's fair to put Kenna through all this work because you're pissy about having to leave the house for one night? Like she doesn't have enough to do already? Get your ass chopping!"

Grumbling, Lili rose up and grabbed a cutting board and knife. Lili liked to bitch, if only to get Alys riled up. It took a lot to get Alys riled in any case, but when she was, Lili and I would be entertained.

Our tiny Colombian took a long time to julienne the vegetables. In the time it took Lili to slice up two onions and four peppers, Alys and I finished twenty tortillas, chopped up four pounds of beef and chicken, and had it all in the marinade.

Once everything was stowed away in the fridge, we cleaned up. We had ten minutes until Metal Madness Hour began. We grabbed the sushi and dropped down onto the couches in front of the TV.

"Are you excited about tomorrow then?" Lili asked.

"That's an understatement." I replied.

Lili picked up her chopsticks and mixed up some wasabi and soy sauce. "I'm really happy for you, Kenna. You know that, right?"

I did. More than anyone, Lili had held the torch for Phil and me getting together.

The opening song came on for Metal Madness Hour while and Lili and I started to hum along with it. The three of us had watched this show since we were teenagers. Every Thursday at eight, we could be found right here, watching the interviews and videos of our favorite bands.

The camera focused on the host, Lance Kross, and he smiled. "Hey, guys! Thanks for joining us this week for the Metal Madness Hour! We've got some killer videos coming your way, but even better than that, we've got a band fresh from their second world tour in the studio with us. They're a personal favorite of mine-NOLA's Junk!"

The three of us started clapping and wolf-whistling as the camera panned out and showed Phil, Jason, X, and Flipper sitting to the right of Lance the Tool.

He so is like a heavy metal Ryan Seacrest.

Phil sat closest to Lance, dwarfing the poor host to the point where it was comical. Phil looked so hot in a pair of dark brown Dickies and a black plain T-shirt beneath a blue-white-and-brown plaid flannel with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He had on his black shitkicker boots and a black skully covering his hair.

Lili's little hand whipped out and grabbed my thigh while she pointed the other at the television. "Dude, that's your boyfriend!"

It really hit me. "Holy shit! That's my fucking boyfriend!"

Like a bunch of preteens, the three of us busted out in hysterics, squealing and bouncing on the couch.

"That huge-ass metal god is my fucking boyfriend!" I cried. "Holy shit, I'm dating Phil fucking Deveraux!"

"Shh!" said Alys. "Let's watch!"

"...back from South America. You guys have a bit of a different vibe going on nowadays. What's inspired that?"

"Well, it's not so much of a new sound. We're just sort of returning to our roots," said Phil in his hot-chocolate voice. "We started out as a Southern rock band with a love for thrash, and the thrash sort of took over."

"Returning home has mellowed us." Jason laughed. "We've missed our home so much, and we just wanted to chill out for a while."

"We love the heavy stuff, but we all would like to branch out more, flex our talent, and see what we come up with," said Flipper.

"Fans seem to really be diggin' on 'Louisiana Baby.' It does have a mellower feel to it than what we've come to expect from NOLA's Junk. Some are saying it's too mellow though and that you guys are selling out of the thrash scene."

Phil just shrugged. "Let 'em bitch. People are gonna say what they want, and that's fine."

"Can't please everyone," said Jason. "We're making music that we love, and that's what's important. We'd like the fans to be open-minded, but we can't force 'em."

Lance the Tool was bobbing his head in agreement. "I love this new sound you guys are making. Phil, with 'Louisiana Baby,' you push the vocals to a new level, and you show the world that you can actually sing, that your voice is more than just for your signature screams and growls."

"Uh, thanks."

"Is that a reason for you to want to go for a different sound?"

Phil looked genuinely surprised. "No. I think as a band," he stressed "we just want to grow. Making the same sound, album after album, gets old. There's more to us than just thrash, and we want to show that."

"That sounds good, guys. All right! We've got some videos to show you all, and we'll be right back with more NOLA's Junk after these..."

Alys turned down the volume and looked over at me. "Okay, Kenna, it's official. You've got the hottest man on the planet."

"He does ooze sex, doesn't he?"

"The other guys aren't too bad either," said Lili.

"I'd totally nail X," sighed Alys.

Lili shot me a sardonic look and rolled her eyes. It was a bit obvious to us that X would totally nail Alys, too.

"Jason would be hot if we didn't know he was such a douche," Lili stated. "He's got the whole golden Adonis thing going on."

I had told them about Jason's shitty attitude toward me.

"Flipper's a little hottie, too. I guess I just prefer them dark," I said.

"And gigantic," retorted Lili. "You certainly don't have the hots for Flipper."

"Well, compared to your pygmy ass, I suppose Phil is a giant," I said dryly.

"And you're just as much of a gigantore as he is! It's no wonder you two are so in love. You've found another one of your own species."

Alys and I cracked up.

After a few videos and cut to commercial, the interview came back on, and Phil had his dimples out in all their glory, his beautiful white smile blazing.