By: Paul Beckman

1
The noise in the closet keeps me awake. It’s not a noise I recognize so I call the desk clerk. He comes up to my room in quick time.
He knocks; I open the door as wide as his eyes looking at me in my shorty night gown. “Do you hear the noise? Do you?” I ask.
He won’t be afraid of a little noise. He looks like the captain of a football team.
“I’m sure it’s nothing—maybe the old boards creaking.”
At my urging he moves the desk chair next to the bed and sits, arms folded, eyes closed as I try without result to fall asleep.
After a while I say, “Lay down in the bed with me so I’ll be able to fall asleep.”

II
.
The shorty nightgown rises up from my movements in her bed. She takes my hand and rests her head on my shoulder and throws her leg and arm over me. I lift the blanket and see her bare ass and put my hand on its smoothness. She moans and burrows into me.

III
My erection’s so big I expect a round of applause. (Oh, the mind of a man!). I open my eyes and see her sitting on the bed watching me as I wake, exposed and embarrassed.
“I feel safe now,” I tell him and watch him struggle zipping up.
After he leaves I hear the noise in the closet again and think, Oh no, I’m not falling for that again.