Those days Orkut was popular. One fine day I received a friend request from Vanika. I immediately accepted the invitation. We then regularly started t...lking on the messenger. Vanika got a mobile and then we shared our mobile numbers. But she told that I should not tell her brother that we do talk on phone and messenger. So our talks increased and then one day I started flirting with her on messenger. She got offended and did not talk with me. She removed me from her friend list and the next day. She had never felt like this, on display, being purposely shown off. Chuck’s dares had her exposing herself, true, but only to Peter And her later ones had all been at home, other than the brief teases at the convenience store and the liquor store in the ‘Playground’. The only way she could handle the attention, the way the guys were all looking, was to play up her Niki persona and act like she really enjoyed this. Which she did, of course, but she was also trembling in nervous fear.“Good. Greg and Simone kept glancing at each other and there seemed to be an unspoken conversation between them. When the meal was over Steve amazed himself by offering to wash up and was busy helping Simone clear the plates off the table when Greg spoke.?Steve, excuse us a moment. Simone and I have something to discuss. We won’t be a moment.? He said and, leaving Steve to do the dishes he and Simone went into the other room. At first he could only hear mumbles but his curiosity got the better of him. My plan for meeting some friends and grabbing dinner, wasno longer going to work. I tried texting a few buddies, but had no luckon getting anyone to venture out. I decided to head out, and at least getsome dinner.There were a few new restaurants that had opened downtown, so I headedthat direction to give them a look. I lucked out a found a parking spot,near a few of the new food joints, in a lot next to downtown's semi-famous gay bar. I parked the car and wandered the area for a while,checking.