Here is this week's chapter of my serialized comic novel  "Four Bidding For Love." (Those who find absurdist humor and adult situations offensive, please read no further.)  

     Though a bright sun had burned away the last of the morning overcast, a cool breeze negated the ray's warming effects; as Robin and Kylie paused in the shadow of the hulking old warehouse which housed the craft fair, Kylie shivered in her sleeveless blouse. Noticing her discomfort, Robin glanced about for a setting more protected from the breeze and sited in direct sun.
     The wooden pier met the Embarcadero's broad promenade in a narrow concrete plaza enlivened by skateboarders and gaily dressed tourists dodging the skateboarders and a free-ranging mélange of mendicants and musician-beggars who sought to extract some of the visitors' wealth before they hurried past.
     A sidewalk café’s sunny tables attracted Robin's eye, and he gestured to the cafe and said, "I missed lunch today. How about going there?"
     Kylie swung round and her glossy ponytail swished most deliciously behind her. "Actually, I missed lunch too, and I'm absolutely starving."
     "You should have said something," Robin admonished her, and she gave him a smile of satiric amusement. "I didn't want to distract you from these very serious negotiations."
     He chuckled and then assumed a mock sternness. "Don't tell me you're not a serious collector."
     "Perish the thought," she replied airily. "Though I am collecting unemployment checks."
     "Ah, so that's how you can conduct serious negotiations in mid-afternoon."
     "And what's your excuse?"
     Having reached the cafe's sunniest table, Robin pulled a chair out for Kylie and then sat down across from her. "I sell things to independent groceries that people