“What time do you get off work?” he asked the woman.

“My partner’s picking me up at nine,” was her reply.

“Come on up for coffee?”

She declined. “I’m meeting Sharon at Starbucks.”

He tried again. “What’s your favorite kind of birth control?”

“Vasectomy!” she shouted, pulling out her switchblade.

Harry Demarest has retired after careers encompassing scientific
research, teaching at a university, software development, web
application development, and voter database compilation and
distribution. He is now spending his time with his grandchildren and
writing memoirs and short stories.