"Denise glanced, involuntarily, at her own lap, and across at her daughter. Swallowed, slightly nervously. I thought, after what she'd made me do, sta...ding at the counter in the kitchen, there was some justice to this request of Lissa's. Almost as if Lissa knew, and was assisting. Hmm." ... as long as you're careful, of course," Lissa concluded, her expression turning serious again. And added -- unnecessarily reminding us all of how things had been progressing -- "Trust me, I did it just the. Nash, became aware of it. There were several instances at work when he intervened on my behalf when Ray was giving me a hard time about something.Ray had been pretty wild before he went away to college. He went through girlfriends like a hot knife through butter. I doubt if he ever went with a girl for longer than two weeks. I heard some disturbing stories about him later, about some of the things he tried to make the girls do. I don't know if they were true or not.He also started drinking. Most of the students treated me as one of them when they moved in. The floor preceptor straightened them out. I walked in on his lecture about not holding court for members of the elite class, namely me. It was my first experience with someone of that particular bent.He was good orator and completely aware of the fertile breeding ground he had before him. My presence in the building gave him an available target, and none of them could see he was speaking out of his own insecurities. Eventually. Rachel gave a faint half-smile back and then fell silent for a short while, as we both walked on into the depths of the park. The area we were in had a large open playing field on our right hand side, while trees lined our way to the left. The playing field had goal posts at either end, and I laughed at myself when I realised I was half-expecting to find some one training there. "I started walking more just to get out of the house, away from email, away from my computer." Rachel continued.