Episode Twelve — Part IV (Chapters five to seven): Rob explains how he escapes Gargantuan Enterprises with the incriminating data, and meets up with Ariadne. They have the talk. Meanwhile, Erma decides to rescue the now-apish Nick from the now-nymphish Helena. And in chapter seven, we learn what Gag knows about the security breach, and that the Ghost of Johnny can speak a little Latin.
An excerpt of Rob waiting at a Starbucks for his new love:
“I’ll wait for you at the Den of Ubiquity,” I whispered, “next door.”
I liked the chain’s coffee, though I’m not a connoisseur. I’m not sure you need four or five of them within a one-block radius, no matter how addicted to their brand of caffeine you might be. Perhaps it is the marvellous decor that people can’t get enough of – too bad you can only sit in one at a time, though I suppose if they put webcams in each store you could “enjoy” them all at once.
The barista was fetching, there was no doubt, even if I was already smitten with Ariadne. Now, you must remember, I had not been in a “relationship” for some time, and I was yet to get into that mindset. I noticed her making the coffee right away. Perhaps it was her overwhelming competence – she only had to hear a customer ask for a double-milk-latte-half-caf-mocha-frappa-dappa-doolay once, and she had the order – but I think it was her distracted, yet annoyed smile that did it for me. It could have been her voluptuous figure, of which I could only see the top half. Perhaps it was the man-juice flowing in my veins. So, I had no reservations about sitting there, sipping my Kenyan High-land Roast Orgasm, or whatever it was called, while Ariadne finished her shift.
She arrived in time to rescue our budding romance from my fickle male nature. When she walked in, looking as dignified as any upright hominid can in a polyester uniform adorned with the Consume-It! logo; I forgot all about the angry barista.
You can find all of the released episodes here archived on my site. Or you may want to subscribe via iTunes.
And you can also listen to the podcasts at the wonderful Podiobooks.com.
You can buy the book at the publisher’s website, because surely you don’t want to wait until November, when it will be in stores?
[podcast]http://markarayner.com/mp3s/PB-marvelloushairy-12.mp3[/podcast]