Second completed entry for the Thursday prompts put out by
 poetigress

The original idea for the TV commercial in this snippet was part of the science fiction universe in my novel-in-progress, "Echoes" (listed in my gallery). I really wanted to frame this short story in the same universe but I decided against it because I was afraid it would seem tacked on or unnecessary. It would probably have consisted of a couple descriptions of technology and mentioning some patrons being from neighboring solar systems. Maybe rewrite to include it? I've heard when in doubt, just cut, but I don't know,

I've been searching for ways to make my athros more realistic, less "humans in fur suits", and I decided that a good way to do that would be to include a "mating cycle" type thing. However, the dilemma I face is that mating cycles seem to be seen in the fandom as overtly sexual and that's definitely not something I want in my writing. How to deal with the matter in line with my Christian principles? Well anyway, here's one attempt at tackling it. As you can deduce, heat here is more akin to a menstrual cycle rather than occurring during an actual mating season and its generally viewed by society as something indicative of beauty and new life rather than something titillating. Of course as in any society, young people will be young people as seen by one of of the concerns of the second Rodner's customer. I'm dissatisfied with my take here because I think it's still too suggestive, a concept too easily abused by a colorful imagination. Oh well, I'm workin' on it.