He greeted me and asked me to sit with him.I was confused, yet took a seat on the further side of the couch from him. He said he wanted to talk to me ...ver a cup of coffee. He asked me to wait and went inside the kitchen. I was still thinking about running to my house and hiding somewhere, yet sat there in silence.He came in a few minutes with a cup of coffee for each of us. I took the coffee, sat there in silence. He explained what happened the last night, briefly. He explained it in a way that. Last Friday (12/27/2019), I posted an ad on Craigslist. Well guess who replied to my ad. It was Jerry!!! Lol. He emailed me “you again?” Lol. So we have an email exchange and he says he’ll give me one more chance. And to come over at 10 am (one hour from then). So I agreed.So once again he led me to his apartment from the parking lot. This time I had panties AND stockings under my clothes. I was ready for him to see my body in those girly clothes. I was excited. Because this time, I was ready.. A rush of different emotions ranthrough me, and I felt my face reddening; then, surprised by a suddenboldness surging up from a hidden part of myself, I felt myself saying,"ok,if you'd like". Then suddenly the words "you could come to my room tonightafter we turn in, if you want" blurted from my mouth.As if to dissipate the embarrassment that was hanging in the air from oursudden intimacy, Cathy changed the subject, and we resumed the conversationthat we had been having before she had dropped. There was no armored car. No gunshots. My eyes scanned the 'crowd' that had gathered around me. Their faces showed nothing but concern and love. I wanted to start to cry again, but I forced it back this time.I got out the word for what had caused all of this."Smoke."Jessica's hands flew to her mouth and her eyes were wild. I could tell she knew what smoke I was talking about, and where; the closet in the burning house. She threw herself over me and wrapped her arms around me."It's ok, it's ok,.