After a reunion at the school of LSCA, the regaling graduates of 2007 checked into the motel of Natty Gan for the night. A tall, slender red-haired woman who owned the establishment.
One of them knew Mrs. Gan from earlier days, and reconnected with her over night. By morning, when the sun filled the room, Natty saw her companion hand, full of rings. One white, two black, and one green.
From the local pub, she knew as lovers progressed through partners, acquired multiple friends and companions, they had a ring for each connection. Her close friend, Kelsi, had four partners, one of them casual, two of them serious, and another, a business acquaintance.
Natty looked at her green ring: she wore it like an engagement ring. Kelly left it for her the year they parted. For Kelly, it meant new things. For Natty, it meant the establishment of the Natty Gan Motel, and her dreams.
With a fond kiss, they parted at the door. Every year, every so often, her friends came through. Some of them new students at LSCA, and others grads for homecoming. Within the routine, the rhythm, Gan refound and reconnected with a special, significant companion.
As her friend this morning showed her, those friends are sometimes one, sometimes more. She remembered this from a fistful of rings, the symbols of new things, connections, and many special companions.
Sometimes, too much, too many was a tardy delay for one of her employees, Rosi. A young woman of partial Italian descent, she wore a black ring on each finger. Built slim but steady like a feline, she had all the prowess and appetite of a panther and added a new ring to her finger: for each conquest. Ten lovers in the night-time, ten lovers currently and actively hers. But then: she was Italian, famous for their obsession with love. And she was tardy.
Natty went into her office, and pulled out a colored ring from lost and found. She put it on, a white ring for a casual connection, to celebrate her night, with her friend with a fist full of rings.
***
(Disclaimer: all ressemblances in this story to real people, places, and things are purely coincidental. All stories from this page and account are compiled from local open, non-licensed, non-copyrighted free-to-distribute and use submissions for literature clubs, contests, and creative writing groups. They include Kelsi Brooks and various other LBQT writers. Feel free to copy, expand, derive future works. Include this disclaimer: this is the only condition for using or deriving works from this series.)