Now:

     Lamna had already finished her shift by the time Skip got back to the batter pit...

     which meant that she was probably at the shitter.

     Yep.

     He found her squatted over a trough.

     She'd washed herself off a little bit, but she still had plenty of batter caked on her skin.

     "Come squat next to me, Skip!" she chortled.  "We can kiss while we crap!"

     Actually, that didn't sound like such a horrible idea right then.

     Still, Skip stayed where he was.

     Lamna caught on quick that something was wrong.

     "Now you've really got to come sit next to me," she said. "You've got something to tell me, and it's something sad."

     "Well, I don't know if I'd call it sad," Skip said. "We both knew this was going to happen sooner or..."

     She stood. "You're leaving!" Lamna yelped.

     And then an expression crossed Lamna's features that he both expected but still came as a bit of a shock. 

     She looked like a person who'd just had her heart broken.

     "Why?" she wailed. "I thought you liked it here!"

     "I ​do, but..."

     "I'm having your baby, Skip!"

     "Uh....Uh..." Skip had no idea how to respond to that one. Everybody fucked everybody else on the donut farm. Even as they talked, on a sofa in one corner of the shitter, a woman peered out at nothing with her legs spread like a frog's as her "boyfriend", half her size, fucked her in a manner that reminded Skip of someone doing exercises. "So, what do you think we should do about that?"

     "I want you to stay!"

     "But it's not like we'd even raise..." No one set of parents raised any children on the donut farm. Children were raised and loved by everybody.

     And then Skip got it.

     "You love me, Lamna, don't you?"

     "Of course, I love you! I fuck you every single day almost! You think I'd let you do that if I didn't love you?"

     "Well, around here, I..."​

     "Don't you love me, too?"

     And, damn it, Skip felt ashamed because, after nearly two years, that was the first time he'd even thought about asking himself that question. His first few months on the farm, he loved the idea he could fuck just about every woman who crossed his path, but it never occurred to him to form any sort of emotional attachment. Lamna's people dwelled in The Cellars, under the Earth, away from the sun, and they had for generations. 

     They were so ​primitive.

     Now, though, after two years...

     He realized, even as Lamna asked her question, that he did love her. He loved to think about her and how she made him feel when they were together. After he left, he figured he would miss her as much as he once missed his own family, his mother and two sisters, his first few months in 10K...

     But he was going to leave.

     "I'm so sorry, Lamna. Of course, I..." 

     "Shut up! That took too long!"

     "But I..."

     "Get the fuck out of here, you asshole!"

     "Why is everybody calling me that today?"

     Sobs made Lamna's fat quiver. "Just leave me alone."

     "I have..."

     "I don't want you to see me like this. Please go."

CONTINUE