LOVER?

Un Chien Andalou was the name of an unlicensed joint out in Buñuel, a half-crumbling building squatting off a lost road to nowhere.

Asa entered the place, adjusted his senses from moonless desert night to dark, tequila-smelling indoors, and immediately noticed her.

She was sitting at the bar, absent-mindedly cradling a tall glass of something inky he knew wouldn't be Malbec if he tasted it.

Everyone in that smoke-filled room seemed to be ogling her one way or another. Men and women.

She looked completely oblivious to that.

Could this creature actually have enemies?

Hunters, perhaps, like himself, paid good scrip to bring her home every time she went AWOL.

And people wanting to throw themselves at her feet. Or howl their undying lust for her at the moon. Most likely both.

Asa almost felt like doing it himself even though he had just seen her for the first time in the flesh a minute ago, and there was no moonlight outside.

His handler had warned him that training with her picture would be nothing like facing the original. The old man was right. But Asa had pumped his system full of Holy Water. He wouldn't fail. He couldn't afford to.

Someone picked a tune from the jukebox – a tall, young guy. Too young for her, Asa thought. He could be wrong.

A jaded ballad began to fill the place.

The young man turned to face her, his expression begging for approval.

She remained lost in thought.

Asa recognized the music at once, even before the singer’s low, gravelly voice had declared, “If you want a lover, I'll do anything you ask me to.”

“Of course,” he told himself, half-grinning. Had he been the guy leaning against the jukebox, he would've chosen that song, too.

“I'm your man.”

In a way, that night, he actually was.

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©2026 CE

Leonard Cohen - I'm Your Man (Official Audio)