Joe woke the next morning, with Hitomi still cuddled into Joe's shoulder. He gazed at her in wonder. To this day, he had no idea how he'd been lucky enough to end up with such a wonderful girl -- brilliant, beautiful, sweet, and as into anime as he! -- when he was just Joe. He'd always thought he was a schlub, but Hitomi (who could do much better, as far as Joe was concerned) had never left his side.
Even better, he got along so well with her family -- her sister Zoe, her brother Mikey, her mom and dad. Adopted or not, she was their daughter, and they were protective at first; now, with not much time left to high school graduation and college, Mr. and Mrs. Madison were practically asking when the grandkids would be coming.
He briefly turned his attention from his sleeping girlfriend -- harder than it sounds -- and looked at the beach house his grandfather had left him. It wasn't big, but it was nice, well-appointed, and was probably worth a lot of money. At this exact moment, Joe wouldn't have traded it for all the world. He and Hitomi had made love as never before yesterday (and last night, and early in the morning), and the whole place almost seemed to glow.
He turned back to Hitomi, and just looked at her. She was so beautiful. And she felt so nice. He didn't try to fight his erection, but he knew she wouldn't be up to anything much this morning, so he actually exercised some restraint and didn't wake her up.
As he let his hand idly stroke her hair (Hitomi smiled and cuddled closer), his hand brushed up against something smooth and hard. "Smooth and hard" were words he had never associated with his girlfriend's hair, so he reached back and found a beautiful stone. Odd, he thought. I don't remember that there.
He was still looking at it, fascinated, when Hitomi woke up and said...
